Beautifully Disturbed | ✓

Bonus Chapter: Part II

Maryam's POV

I'm seated beside Alex, who's extremely excited to see his wife walk that stage.

"Hey... uh... is James on his way?" I ask him.

He picks up his phone to check the screen. "He just texted saying he's reached the venue. He should be here in a minute or so."

I nod, then, I go back to nervously picking at my nails.

The whole ceremony goes by but James never showed up.

Was it me? Did I make him feel uneasy?

That's when Alex says, "Oh, I forgot to mention, James said he couldn't get up here because of the crowd. He ended up on one of the seats in the back."

"Oh, that's unfortunate—"

"There you guys are!" A familiar voice makes me whip my head back.

James. And around his arm is a beautiful woman with dark hair and pale blue eyes.

I couldn't do this. I can't. I already feel my insides crushing yet again.

"Guys, this is—"

"I have to go." The words blurt out before I can think. "I'm sorry but I don't feel very good. I need to go home."

And I run.

I push through the crowd towards where Laila was standing. I wave her down and she quickly jogs towards me.

"You did it! Mash'Allah!" I squeal, trying to be as cheerful as possible.

"I did! Alhumdulillah!" She jumps from feet to feet from excitement.

After we take a few pictures her smile falls slightly. "You look... stressed." She states.

There's no way of hiding my emotions from my best friend.

"I screwed up. James was about to introduce his insanely gorgeous girlfriend and I totally freaked. I cut him off mid-sentence and ran away." I confess.

She brings me into a hug. "It's okay. I'll tell him you weren't feeling well. But... I think you either need hide or go home because I see Alex and James heading towards our way. They haven't seen us yet so—"

I don't let Laila finish. "Got it! Thank you so much!  Congratulations again and God bless you!" I give her one last hug and I head straight for the exit.

I can't run and hide from him forever but my stubborn self will try to hide for as long as I can.

• • •

I decided to come to our office an hour and a half before it opens because I need to sort through some paperwork. And... because I need to prepare myself to be scolded by James for how rude I was towards his girlfriend. Poor girl has nothing to do with this, in fact, she looked really sweet and I acted very unmannerly towards her.

"Maryam?"

"What the—James, what are you doing here?" I say almost too defensively.

"I work here. Do I need to explain everything to you?" There is slight irritation in his tone.

"No, I'm sorry."

There's a silence between us for about ten minutes, with only the shuffling of paper filling the void.

"Why did you do it?" James breaks the silence.

I knew exactly what he was talking about. My heart begins beating too quickly against my chest. I have answer but I didn't have an answer for him.