Loving a Princess

29. Allah knew how I felt.

It was none other than Talal, and walking next to him, hand-in-hand, was a girl. When our parents followed our line of vision to see what we were staring at, I could swear that I noticed both of their jaws drop.

Once when I saw Umniyah hugging Farshad, I didn't know they were siblings and I misunderstood the situation. But this time, I knew that the girl whose hand Talal was holding was not his sister, because Talal did not have a sister. He was the only child of his parents.

Luckily, Talal and the girl did not see us, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

My family was so deep in shock that no one uttered a single word.

I knew exactly why. Here was a boy who was engaged to someone, about to get married in ten days' time, and he was roaming around with a strange girl, holding hands! Leave alone that, didn't he realise that was haraam?!

Talal took the booth adjacent to ours, much to my horror, because although you couldn't see inside the booths, you could hear everything that was being said in neighbouring booths.  But still, much to my relief, he hadn't seen us.

My parents exhanged a look of extreme disgust and distress, and my brothers exchanged a knowing look, as if they knew that exactly this was going to happen.

Our food arrived, and none of us even said anything, because we didn't want to be heard. Talal and his girl didn't know we were here, and we didn't want them to know.

So much for a family lunch. So much for an Eid outing, I thought. My parents seemed to have lost their appetite, as they were picking at their food. My brothers were doing their best to control their anger, because I noticed how Arif's left fist was clenched and the vein on Asif's temple was throbbing.

As for myself, I had no words to describe how I was feeling. Shock, disgust, anger, dismay, confusion couldn't even begin to cover how I felt. How was I going to marry someone like that? Right now, I'm engaged to him, and he already has a girl, once we're married, he'll have extramarital affairs, then what?

Suddenly, we heard voices coming from the neighbouring booth where Talal was sitting. We weren't eavesdropping, they were just talking really loudly, unaware of the fact that we were right next to them.

"Baby, why did you even agree to get married to her?" We heard the girl break the silence between them.

"Babe, what was I to do? My dad and her dad are friends, and my mum thought that since they are like the richest here, it would be good for our own reputation if I was married to her. Besides, am I not with you right now even though I'm engaged to her?" We heard Talal reply.

"But then ten days later you'll be married to her! Then what about me?" The girl asked.

"Oh, come on! I don't even like her as such! Yeah, she's hot and all, but still!" My hands clenched into fists when he said that. No one, and I mean no one, had ever described me in such a shameless way! I was a Muslim girl who carried myself with respect and decency, how dare he say that about me? What a jerk!

"Talal! How could you call another girl hot in my presence?" The girl said, sounding angry.

"Oh come on, baby! She's not like you though! She wears hijaab, that's not my type! Unfortunately, my mum likes such girls! You know, babe, I tried texting her but she didn't even reply. So then, I tried calling her. She gave her phone to her brother, one of those twins, God knows what his name is. He threatened me, if I called her again she would block me. Like, seriously?" Talal replied.

"Baby, can't you do anything? I don't want you to get married to her!" The girl whined.

"Maahirah, babe, my parents won't agree! I'm tied up! But I promise, even after I'm married to her, I'll be all yours, okay?" We heard Talal say. My jaw dropped. He was promising to cheat on me?