Androphobia

xvi. callous

Matilda - Harry Styles

THEA'S POV:

"Mama, can I ask you a question?"

"Jee, beti."

[Yes, daughter.]

"How did you and Papa meet?"

The television blared with the sound of ARY News, reporters disclosing videos of the latest scandals combing through the Pakistani government. Vegetable peelings fell from our fingers as we disrobed potatoes, carrots and turnips on the sofa. I didn't know where the question had come from. Ever since I'd invited Synn into our home, ever since our hands had touched, my heart had been on my lips for everyone to see, whether for good or for worse.

Mama looked up from the tray of potatoes we'd been peeling on the sofa, a fond look passing through her eyes. That was when my father walked in with an empty fruit bowl in hand. He raised his brows in question and gave us a slight smile, unaware of the topic I'd breached.

"Chai?"

[Tea?]

"Two cups please," called Mama while I fiddled with the potato in hand, wary about accidentally peeling some skin. I'd done that before. When her gaze returned to me, I looked up at her with wide eyes and my tongue poking out the corner of my mouth. "Thea, ask Papa what you just asked me."

"But why?"

"Just ask him," she said with a wave of her hand.

Papa made his way to the stove and began assembling his ingredients for the chai, setting out tea cups and spoons. "What is it?"

I lowered the half-peeled potato into the bowl. "How did you and Mama meet?"

He paused. Then, an embarrassed sort of hum escaped his chest and he cleverly shielded himself against the counter so that I couldn't see his face. Mama laughed at his bashful reaction. My heart warmed at the exchange, a wide smile pulling at my lips. Instead of letting the question linger longer, Mama turned back to me with twinkling eyes and her cheeks blooming.

"He saw me at a wedding," she grinned. "I didn't even know him! I just saw him staring at me from one of the tables and thought there was something wrong with him."

"That's not right. You told me you thought I was very handsome."

"That's true... but you could have had the courage to come up and talk to me instead of telling your mum."

"Well, whatever I did certainly worked. Look where we are now. I don't think we'd be here if I'd come up to talk to you, meri jaan."

[My life.]

As I sat cross legged on the couch, eyes flickering between the two, it felt as if I were witnessing the innocent flirting of teenagers in school corridors, not my parents who'd been married for several years. But perhaps that was what love did to people: the nervous fluttering of hands like butterflies; the prolonged glances between one another; the thud-thudding of hearts as they sang songs to each other. The love my parents which had never disappeared, despite how many arguments they had.

That was what I wanted.

"How long did you guys know each other before you got married?" I asked curiously.

"A week."

I stared in shock at my mother.

"A week?"

"He came to our house, I liked him, I thought he was sweet. So I said yes. What's the issue?" she shrugged. Milk bubbled in the background while I gaped, lips parting and closing. "That's how things are done in our culture, Thea. If they come from a good family, they have a good job, good manners, then that's how it is. It's up to the parents to find someone good for their children, otherwise who knows what the kids would do."