Father of the Bride

Chapter 15: Mounting Pressure Part I

There were only three short months left until the wedding, and pressure was mounting. Sitting in her office, Mahnoor worked through the figures on her spreadsheet feeling the strangle hold on her finances. Mahnoor tried to free extra money, but that was the problem; there was no extra money. She began by making major cutbacks on the wedding, by excluding a traditional mehndi day, and nikah day. Instead she amalgamated the two days into one single wedding day sharing the costs with Nadiya and Khizar. However, Nadiya had grand expectations for her daughter's wedding she was instrumental in ensuring her daughter had the best day of her life. And that mean vast expenses.

Sheetal made her way into the office and saw the harried look upon Mahnoor's face as she tied her hair up into a messy bun. A couple of strands leaked from the bun contouring her cheeks.

"Oh, that doesn't look good." Sheetal grimaced.

"The wedding hall- which is country manor- costs 12 thousand pounds. That's NOT including the catering. So I have to fork out 6 thousand pounds for the hall." Mahnoor explained. "Tomorrow I'm going to Stratford Road with Amirah and her mum to choose her gold jewellery which will set me back another 2 to 3 thousand pounds. And look at this-" Mahnoor pointed to the screen bringing Sheetal over. "Look at that box, it reads -10k." Mahnoor groaned burying her face in her hands. "I only have 9 thousand pounds for the entire wedding. Ayaaz is working all the God sent hours."

Sheetal rubbed Mahnoor's shoulders trying to loosen the tension. "You know my offer still stands. The money is just sitting in our account."

With her head on the desk, Mahnoor couldn't look up and accept Sheetal's generous loan. The only way she could pay her back was through a kametee (community based savings scheme.) Even then she wasn't sure if she could keep up the weekly 200 pounds payment. It was a better alternative that applying for a personal loan from the bank as there was no interest. However, it was too late to get into a kametee. There had to be another way.

"Mr Rice Man rang-again!" Mariam entered the office and stuck the message on Mahnoor's computer screen to gauge her attention. "Mr Rice Man is adamant for a meeting to discuss your latest campaign."

Meeting Rajah Naveed was on top of her to do list followed closely by contacting Kara. Kara discharged herself from hospital the following morning of her incident. Since then, Ayaaz or Amirah couldn't get hold of her. She seemed to have vanished and only appeared in vivid Instagram posts talking about a spiritual awakening.

"Listen-" Sheetal sat beside Mahnoor. "Why don't you forget everything and come to Salsa tonight?"

Thursday Salsa class was a stress release that Mahnoor looked forward to all week.

"No. I can't." Mahnoor replied her tone strained. "I've got to meet Nadiya tonight and discuss the colour combination on the wedding day."

Mariam waved the note at Mahnoor like she was invisible. "-and you have to call Mr Rice Man. Or else he'll come in person."

"When does he want the meeting?" Mahnoor closed the computer screen which was giving her a blinding headache.

"Tonight."

Mahnoor smoothed her blush pink satin shirt requesting Mariam to organise the meeting for next week.

"He's been calling since last week Mahnoor. I've ran out of excuses."

Mahnoor massaged her temples in frustration. "Tell him to the office at 6 in the evening. I'll go to Nadiya's later."

"Do you want me to attend the meeting?" Sheetal added.

"You've got Raghav's play tonight; I can't let you miss that."

Mahnoor prepared the documents for her meeting with Rajah Naveed. Being a trustee of the charity he took priority of her schedule.