Light Upon Light

#62 Give the Heart a Break!

السلام عليكم ورحمه الله وبركاته
Hello fam!

As promised, a long chapter. Nearly 5k words just for you guys. Of course I enjoyed writing it.

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#62 Give the Heart a Break!

The next day the house was abustle with preparations. Turns out not only was Juveriya Aunty and her family invited for lunch, but that of Najwa’s, the Hashim family and the Khans as well. Obviously that meant Mr. Samir Javed Ali was more excited than the rest of the family put together. My workaholic brother was at home on a Monday and he didn’t have his phone, laptop, Bluetooth headset or files anywhere about him as was usual. Instead he was busy taking orders from Di and Bhabhi and changing curtains and cushion covers and reorganizing furniture in the courtyard. Not only had he abandoned work, he had also forced Samar to do so as well. And Kashaf was going about helping him like a faithful little minion.

“It’s Monday though. Najwa would have gone back to Hyderabad right?” I asked Di while sipping my coffee, still clad in my pajamas with a huge shawl wrapped around me because I was too lazy to change.

“Actually, she is only going back today,” Samir said with a triumphant smile.

I scrunched my brows up in confusion, “Why do you know more about my best friend than I do?”

“Because my dearest little sister, if you haven’t got the memo yet, she’s my fiancé,” Samir said throwing a cushion at me which I barely managed to dodge.

“Hey! Watch it! I don’t know why the men of Salimabad always go for my coffee!” I whined and held my mug with both hands protectively. My precious dose of caffeine. “And that still doesn’t answer the question brother. Have you been talking to her? Not that she would do it... But you’ve shown so much development in the last few days, I wouldn’t be surprised if you went and threw stones at her window in the middle of the night!”

Bhabhi and Di laughed as Samir’s eyebrows vanished into his hair. That’s right, even his hair wasn’t in its usual prim and proper setting. He wasn’t immaculately dressed in shirt and trousers as was his wont.

“Astagfirullah! Juni ki bachhi, Mom told me that Najwa is home!”

“Right!”

He walked away from me knowing that he will only give me more chances to pull his legs. Kashaf followed him dutifully with cushion covers stacked in her hands.

“But Juni, who are these men after your coffee?” Iqra Bhabhi asked with a pointed look. Di's attention was obviously drawn to us and I glared at Bhabhi knowing she did it on purpose.

“No one. I was just saying it generally,” I brushed her off and went to the kitchen before more questions could follow. On the way I heard Samar mumble about missing Zaid to my brother.

“I know right, he’s here most of the time just like any other brother of mine. I did call him the other day to tell him about my engagement,” Samir responded as he stepped down the ladder after hanging up the heavy maroon drapes.

“He must have been surprised!” Samar laughed.

Grinning Samir said, “Yeah, and he was very happy. He did mention something about coming home sooner than he had anticipated in sha Allah.”

“In sha Allah,” Samar said.

The kitchen was just the place to take my mind off of what I had just heard. No, obviously I didn’t slow down deliberately to listen to them talk about him. It’s not like I even missed him in the week he has been gone. In fact I’ve been too busy to spare him a thought until the coffee reminded me of him.