He Said What!

I had just ended the hour-long call I had with Belgin when I noticed a message notification pop on the screen. I opened the text message that said "Hello"

 "Who is it?" I typed back and received a response a second later. The message said, "Hi Baila, how are you? Is the phone working out for you?"

It was Okan. I started texting back, when I realized a figure coming out of the darkness. My expectation of a hairy six eyed monster was crushes when light shone on the person and I saw Milo. She said, "Who are you talking to? It's been an hour since you've been sitting here." Panicked, I opened the chat I had with Belgin, and said, "Just talking to Belgin."

She said, "You're weird" and left.

 That was a huge mistake. It was the first lie that I had said for  him. That lie turned into a pile of lies that I kept covering over. When I opened his texts again I noticed that he had sent another chat saying, "I hope I'm not disturbing you."

I typed back saying, "Hi! I'm great, how are you? The phone is working better than ever. You are not bothering me at all. What's going on? What have you been doing?"

He typed back, "Should I be honest?"

I replied saying, "Sure!"

"I've had better days. The truth is that I've been having a few family issues."

I felt sorry for him and messaged him saying, "Oh my God! Tell me all about it. Maybe, it would make you feel better."

He replied saying, "You are too young to worry about such petty issues, plus you would think of me as an insecure and troubled person."

I read it and smiled. He just made me smile. He was the cutest uncle that I had ever met. "Oh no, not at all! Shoot away. I'm here to listen and I promise not to judge you"

After a few minutes, a reply was received. 

It said, "So basically, I came back from office the other day, and I was starving. I asked my wife for some food, and she refused to give me any. I requested for the servant to make me lunch. She fought with me for asking the servant. I don't understand what she wants from me. I earn the money. I pay the servants, and yet I don't get food. She fights all day. I have to take care of the children. My children cry to sleep every night because of the troubles they face every single day. My wife has high demands, and she wants a lot of money so that she can spend it on extravagant and expensive things. She buys her designer bags and gold jewelry. Despite me fulfilling all her wishes, she still treats me and my family like peasants. I've been ordering food for the past month because she refuses to make anything at all. She has ordered the servants not to make food for us all aswell. I don't know what to do! This woman drives me crazy."

It took me a moment to read the message, and then a few minutes to process the information. My first thoughts were why is he telling me all that until I remembered that I had pushed him to tell me. I text back saying, "I cannot believe she does that to you. I wish that I could help you. but, It's alright! You will be just fine. Do not worry about it."

"Baila, thank you so much for your support."

 "You can call me Belle."

His next message said,"Why does everyone call you Belle?"

"Well, Because she is my favorite Disney Princess, and Belle means beauty, therefore everyone calls me Belle. 

The texts turned into calls, and I kept it a secret from my family. I'd attend his calls on our balcony or the roof so that no one would disturb us. Everyone assumed I was talking to Belgin, but in reality, I was talking to Okan.

We got pretty close, though I still thought of him as a friendly Uncle. I had a lot of sympathy for him. He told me how his wife treated him. 

The more I learned about uncle Okan; the more I disgusted his wife. She was pure evil for me at the time. He, on the other hand, was a chill person who had no grudges with anyone. He had been telling me everything about himself. He even told me that he was leaving for England after a month or so for business purposes. So as you might have guessed; We seriously grew close.

"Girls, get dressed, and set up the table downstairs." My mother said. 

We did what we were told to. All the effort was in the honor of uncle Nijaz coming. He told us that uncle Okan wasn't coming with him because he was caught up in a lot of work. Even though we were helping around, we were still told not to stay downstairs except for dinner. Uncle Nijaz arrived late; just like he did every time. He was welcomed in, and everything went splendid. We were sitting in our bedroom, unknown of what the elders wanted to talk about. I was painting. Milo was reading, and Deniz was solving the Rubik's Cube. (We were boring children, and so we did boring stuff.)

Anyway, once dinner was ready, we were called down for dinner. We all ate quietly and went back upstairs after dumping the dishes and washing our plates.

Meanwhile, the tense situation was created because Uncle Nijaz wanted to have an 'important talk.'

After dinner, while he was served dessert, he sat on the velvet couch in the living room with my parents sitting right in front of him; with their eyes fixed on him. He said, "There's not much of an explanation to give, so I will be as straight forward and quick as I possibly can be." 

He further stated, " There is no other way of saying this. I humbly ask you for your daughter baila's hand in marriage for my cousin Okan."