From last episode...
"Mabrook habeebti! Allah yetamim 3ala 7'air! Did you ask your parents?" she asked worriedly.
She closed her eyes. She knew she was going to have to soon enough.
"Hala, I want to..but I'm too scared."
Why couldn't she have married someone that she knew her parents would be ecstatic about? Why did she have to fall in love with someone that wasn't perfect? Because, she thought to herself, life was never perfect! Maybe she should've married Tarek and be done with it but she cringed at the thought. It was just too much to ask of her to marry Tarek.
She remembered how her Mother had tried convincing her. Her Mom had no idea what kind of a person Tarek was. Just because he was from the in-laws, didn't mean that he was perfect. It was hard to explain to her mother. She just didn't have the heart to tell her that Tarek was a very bad boy. The kind that good girls should stay away from.
She'd first met Tarek years ago when her cousin had gotten engaged. As in customs, this was not a marriage of just two people, it was a marriage of two families. Never an easy situation. It was a hard time for her cousin. Her fiance's mother was an old fashioned woman and she considered her eldest son to be God's gift to this earth.
Although in some way, she was a very kind woman and fun too. Something about her always made her smile. She reminded her of a character from an old Kuwaiti episode, 7ababa where young girls would sit on the floor and listen to her stories all night.
Then again, this was different. No one was going to be good enough for her son. Other relatives from his side of the family especially the single female ones (who had hoped that they would've landed him) had eyed her cousin up and down with vicious stares looking very unimpressed even though her cousin was beautiful.
Her cousin had transformed before her very eyes from the independent, strong willed woman to a "Khaltee, ayiblich shay?" one. It was a transformation that sometimes drove her crazy. His mother, no doubt, rubbed it in. He was her eldest son and the apple of her eye and his new wife was taking her favorite son away from her! "ee, yibeelee chaay!" she would say. Her cousin would get up and get it and her husband would gloat with happiness that his wife was taking care of his mother. True, tradition asked it to be that way but it never went down well with her when it was obvious that the mother-in-law took full advantage of that.
"Wow, nice bag!" she told her cousin one day as she starred at the fancy bulberry bag.
"Yes," she replied with an embarrassed look on her face, "You know I don't normally care for brands but Ghada (her new sister-in-law) said that I should buy it."
"Oh..?" she replied as she raised an eyebrow.
"Well, I don't have a habit of changing my bags daily but Ghada thought it was such a terrible thing that I wanted her off my back so now I'm starting to do just that!" she answered. This was not the cousin that she knew. She was a very modest girl and although dressed beautifully normally, she was not one that ever cared for brand names. To her cousin, she was blending into the middle class society that paid more money for brand names than royalty. In fact, sometimes paying more than they could afford to the point of debt. It was obvious though that her cousin cared about his family's opinion and she figured as the saying goes "if you can't beat them, join them" even though she wasn't sure she liked the fact that her cousin had changed in that way but as long as it didn't hurt her cousin changing herself, she thought, then no harm done.
During the preparations of the wedding, both families had to meet on a regular basis and check back on their assignments. The men in the family took care of arranging for the men's wedding that included reserving the hall, delivering invitations and making sure that the best bu7'oor (incense) was ordered. While the women took care of the woman's wedding which was an endless list of a million and one tasks!
It was then that Tarek would go out of his way to give her a look of admiration. She had to admit, he had a good sense of humor. He would crack jokes and make the little girls of the family giggle and the older woman laugh, especially her mother. He was that type. He knew how to make the older generation happy by either teasing them of their beauty or kissing their foreheads as a form of respect. In other words, he was good at making the important people like him; A
kalakjee. At first she had been scared of him even though he was quite good looking. His soft black hair was swept to the side, his features were distinguished and there was something charming about him. When she'd first met him the day both families had first gotten together, he had been wearing his military uniform and that's was had scared her. She had heard enough stories about Kuwaiti men in uniform whether it was military, police or even the CID. In her opinion, they'd seen too much in their lives not to mention that their background was completely alien to her. It wasn't that she had anything against them but they just weren't her type!
She'd heard rumors about how they went about raiding houses of possible prostitution. She imagined that no doubt such men would have close contact with the women they'd arrest. She even heard that these women were sometimes recruited for future use for whatever mission they would be useful for. It was an ugly world that was far from her environment.
By the time her cousin's wedding was going to take place, Tarek had utilized all his charms and she'd begun to wonder if she had judged him harshly. She began to enjoy his company more and more and they would spend hours on the phone. He was a good talker and he made her laugh and in the end she began to fall in love.
When he began speaking of marriage, she played with the idea in her head. Something about their relationship just didn't seem right. Sometimes he wouldn't answer her calls and would say that he was working. His continuous admiration to every female that walked by was unnerving but still she would give him the benefit of the doubt. Until things moved even more serious and she decided it was time to put her suspicions to rest.
She decided to play Tarek at his own game and be her own CID. She was going to do the unthinkable and spy on him. She knew that he made disappearing acts and she wanted to know where it is that he would disappear to.
On a quite night, driving down the fourth ring road heading to Salmiya, she had spotted him turning into some spooky building. He'd told her that he wasn't feeling well and that he was going to visit the hospital. She'd waited outside his home and then followed him from a distance.
The darkness of the neighborhood made it easy for her to park from a distance. She watched as he parked his big Mercedes in the open parking lot of the building. She also watched another car park at the same time in which came out a woman with very long black hair. She squeezed her eyes harder to try to see more of her but all she could see was her long black hair.
They both entered the building and her heart began to race.
"She could be going anywhere," she thought to herself but she knew it was now or never. She drove closer to the building and ran towards the elevator to see what floor they'd stopped on. It was the second floor, she decided to race up the stairs to get a chance to hear them as they stepped out of the elevator. Her legs were weak but she continued to race up the stairs and came to a sudden halt as she heard voices.
It was sickening to hear. The same crap of charm was being used on this woman. She decided then and there to confront him.
She had no idea what she was going to say but suddenly found herself barging into the hall and saying "hello" sarcastically.
It took him a while to absorb what was happening as he pushed the other girl into the apartment and closed the door.
It was then she decided that there wasn't much to say so she turned around and headed back down the stairs as he came running after her.
"Where are you going? Wait" he yelled as she continued to ignore him and rush down the stairs.
"Listen to me, I told you that I want to marry you," he shouted.
Suddenly she stopped and turned to look at him. "So that makes it ok then? The fact that you want to marry me means that I forgive you for this!? Am I supposed to be happy?"
"These girls don't mean anything to me. You are different, you are going to be my wife," he said defiantly.
With that, she laughed and replied calmly but sternly "How typical of a mentality that I could never live with! You make me sick so don't come near me again!"
She'd finally reached the ground floor and as she walked back to her car, she realized that he hadn't followed her and she was glad of that.
She knew then and there that it was her fault that she hadn't listened to her first instinct but years later she now knows that she was glad it had happened that way. She smiled as she remembered dropping exactly two tears after having gone through that whole ordeal. It was then she realized that she hadn't even really been in love with him or else she would've cried a river! The two tears were simply her disappointment of yet another experience that she was supposed to learn from and grow as all the books would say!
Still, she was happy for the experience, after all, she could've actually married the jerk and then really been miserable. Yes, small miracles do happen even though she knew that one doesn't necessarily recognize them that way at the time.
She was jolted back to reality when she heard Hala say "Don't worry, everything is going to be fine. Once they see that your happiness is at stake, they'll agree."
"I hope so, Hala. Wish me luck, I think I'll talk to my mother tonight."
To be continued...
