Journal of a Single Gal in Q8 - Episode Seven

From last episode

"Finally, she reached home and noticed a number of cars parked outside her house. "Strange," she thought, her mother hadn't told her that they were expecting any guests. What was going on and why did she feel nervous? "God, please don't ask me for something that I don't have the capacity to handle" she said to herself as
she entered the house."

She could smell the bakhour all the way to the doorway as she took deep breaths to stop her heart from pounding so fast. She took a quick glance at the ladies sitting in the living room. She knew them all. Her Mom came to greet her with a big smile and a hug. "Look who's here!" she said out loud and everyone turned to look at her. Thanks Mom! She thought to herself. Sneaking up to her bedroom was now but impossible.

The ladies all smiled and gave her their approving looks. "Mashallah" said the Mom "She gets prettier and prettier everyday." She was on display. Lovely! Down with all the meetings and presentations she'd done that morning at the office. Her physical appearance is all that mattered to these ladies. They basically couldn't give a hoot what her intelligent accomplishments were. It was all about "can she bare children". She suddenly felt very exhausted.

Her family had known them for years and it was both their dreams to have some form of union between the two. With all her sisters married, she was the only guinea pig left and she hated that. In a picture perfect world, it was the right union to take place. Both families had the same background, same standards, values, well to do, etc. Except when it came to the bachelor in question, to her, he was far from perfect.

She'd seen him at the club several times. He usually parked his fancy Porche right at the entrance of the club and she'd witnessed him being surrounded with blondes. When he'd somehow gotten a hold of her mobile number, he'd ended up sending her dirty jokes that made her want to puke. He was the kind of guy that when she stood next to him, she would cringe. It was the kinda negative chemistry that would make her wish that he'd stand at least ten feet away from her.

Some friends had told her "just imagine the houses you'd have all over the world, the jewerly, the traveling. What more could a girl want." She'd just smile and think to herself "would they think me stupid if I said that I'd rather have love than all of that."

After the continuous conversation and chit chat about the TV program "Al-Wadi" and all its characters and about the singer Haifa, she began to lose her patience and turned in desperation to her mother and told her "I've had a long day and I really would like to go to my room." Her Mom looked at her with sympathy and reluctantly gave her the ok. She mentally made herself invisible as she slowly slipped away and then found herself racing to her room. It was as though they would be running behind her to stop her.

Just before she reached her room, she found her Dad standing at her door with a smile on his face. She greeted him and could tell that his smile was more like a smirk. "Running away?" he asked. "Yes, actually I am." she said. "Don't worry habeebti, even though I want to see you happily married, I won't let it happen unless you want it to." She could feel the lump in her throat and chose not to say anything lest her voice may give her away.

Her Mom would soon be in her room to give her the lecture of the year. "Ya Binti, they are a good family and they will love you like one of their own. Don't you want to get married?" Sometimes she wondered if her Mom really believed that she didn't want to get married. "He's not my type. He's so sleazy". She could tell her words were not being taken so well as her Mom began to yell. "What does this word sleazy mean? First you'd say he was a nerd which I don't even know what that means. Then you say he's a pervert which it took me forever to figure out what that means. Now, it's sleazy! Can you explain to me what this word sleazy means? I don't understand this generation of yours! Where do you come up with these words; nerd, pervert, sleazy!"

She knew she'd lost the battle with getting her Mom upset but most likely won the war. With her Dad on her side and her Mom losing patience, it meant that nothing would be done for now. At least she'd gained some time. Her Mom finally gave up and stormed out of her room.

She slowly began removing her make up while looking at herself in the mirror. Had she not known more than she should know about this bachelor maybe she would've given him a chance. It was sheer coincidence that she'd bumped into the Filipino manicurists that used to visit their homes and told her "Oh my God, all he wants to do is Puck, Puck, Puck!" If that wasn't a sign for her, she didn't know what was!

Having his family look for "the perfect wife" while he was out partying with the in-crowd made her feel sick. He didn't look the type that would ever settle down and being the wife that stays at home while his family keeps her happy and he's out "Pucking" was not her type of marriage, regardless what the old generation thought.

If she ever was to marry, she wanted the marriage of the new generation. The ones that she'd occasionally see in the streets holding hands. The ones that actually went to parties together. Bottom line, the ones that socialized together, period. It was that or stay at home single and let bygones be bygones. So be it.

Knowing that it was finally Ramadan, she knew that all such subjects would die down and she would, at least for now, have some peace and quite. She'd decided that this year with all the traffic being crazy that she would hibernate like the bears and stay in her cave for winter or Ramadan in this case.

She could never forget last year's experience in Ramadan. She had hardly gone out for the same reasons except once and that's all it had taken. Her friends and her decided to explore one of the popular places at the time. Funny, typical of Kuwait, the place had since closed down.

The place had the perfect setting for Ramadan. It had an outdoor sheesha place and naturally was always packed. She'd worn her jeans with a fancy top and was feeling the happy buzz of being surrounded by people after a long period of hibernation. Half way through the giggling and the gossiping about the weird people that were passing by she suddenly felt someone staring at her.

He was in his mid thirties with olive skin, black straight hair and wearing a black shirt with grey pants. He was sitting with another guy wearing a dishdasha and like her friends had been deep in conversation except now his attention had turned to her. Strangely enough, he'd smiled. She wasn't used to men smiling at her. They normally stared with lust or just plain old stared at her and she had to figure out what their stare meant. Where they judging her? Where they hating her existence? Where they just looking but not seeing her?

Finding herself in an awkward position, she did what any other girl in her situation would do. She turned to her best friend and asked her "Hey, could you slowly turn and see if this guy is staring at me or am I just being paranoid". When her friend finally took the risk and did so, she blurted out loudly "Oh my God, you have an admirer!" She'd said it so loud that the entire group heard and all turned around to look at him. "Great!" she said, "now he thinks I'm in love with him. Thanks!"

She found the whole episode embarrassing and told her friend that it was time to leave so she said her goodbyes as she and her friend went inside the nearby mall. She didn't need to turn around to figure out that he was following them as they entered Liz Claiborne.

She had just grabbed one of the shirts on display when she sensed his presence right next to her.

To be continued...