Chapter 21

Atifa's pov :

What was she doing here? That was the first thought which crossed my mind after watching Amira standing beside me. I was surprised, no doubt there. How did ammi even let her come here alone? As far as I remembered-

"Api, can I get your ring please?" She interrupted my thoughts with her hopeful voice.

Wait, why would she even want my ring? Wasn't it too big for her? Maybe ammi asked her to bring it from me. Shaking my thoughts away, I took out the only ring which I was wearing and gave it to her. "Careful princess, don't lose it. It's very precious for me." I warned her and she nodded her head happily before running out. That... Was odd.

Turning back to look at whatever caught my attention, I asked the salesman to show it to me. Calling Emaan over, I showed it to her, asking for her opinion. "What do you think about this?"

"It's amazing. I never knew you could select things so easily." She teased. Trying to ignore her words, I asked the salesman to pack it for me.

"So did you like anything?" I inquired, turning my attention back at her.

"Not yet but I'm looking for something, come on, help me now!" She dragged me to the other counter which had bracelets in display. We started examining some, trying to find a good one for her.

Suddenly, my eyes caught a sparkling yet elegant looking bracelet. There were a few similar bracelets there but none of them had the same design. Before I could point it out to Emaan, she beat me to it and asked the salesman to show us those pieces.

They were plain silver and golden bracelets with a few stones hanging from one end. The one which I liked was silver which had white stones but Emaan liked the golden one more. It was a bit different since it had more stones hanging from them.

"So you like it, right?" I asked her while examining the stones of that golden bracelet.

"Yes, but which one did you like?" She asked me while scanning the shop once again.

"I like it too." I answered, passing her a smile.

"No I mean, which one did you like for yourself?" She looked at me expectantly.

"I wasn't looking for a bracelet for myself here." I replied while rolling my eyes.

She glared at me, waiting for me to get affected by it but when I still didn't reply, she got frustrated. "Are you serious? Like we looked through hundreds of them but you didn't like anything?"

Hundreds of them? Overdramatic girl! I shrugged. "Yeah. Now I'm going to ask him to pack this up for you." I said while turning away from her and going to the other counter.

"This girl!" I heard her mutter and smiled.

I was keeping both the packs in my bag when she returned. She actually looked normal which was odd, since as far as I knew, she would have been mad at me and scolding me by now. Ignoring her odd behaviour, we walked out of that shop and to the gold shop.

Here goes nothing. Taking a deep breath, I entered.

._._._.

Alhamdulillah. Thank you Allah! I was so glad. I sighed in contentment as we walked out of the shop in merely fifteen minutes. Yes, only fifteen minutes since apparently we spent almost thirty minutes in the watch shop and ammi was almost done with the shopping here.

"Alright, so after buying their dresses, we will have dinner in one of the restaurants here and then go back home. Okay?" Ammi suggested while turning around, her wavy black hair blowing by the wind. Yes, she wasn't wearing a hijab.

We nodded our heads and the kids chorused a big okay in agreement. After that, we continued to walk in silence. It seemed like ammi already knew which shop to visit, because after a short five - seven minutes walk, we stopped in front of a boutique. It wasn't too big, it looked simple and elegant. Hopefully the dresses available there would be the same, I had hoped.

Entering there, we were greeted by the staff workers available. "Hello ma'am, how can we help you?" A girl, maybe in her twenties, asked ammi with a smile.

"Hello, we are looking for a bridal dress for my daughter. And a groom's attire for my soon to be son-in-law." She told her with a smile.

"Oh alright. Which one would you like to see first? The bride or the groom's attire?" She asked us, smiling brightly. I looked around the shop, examining it. Various dresses were hanging from different racks. Some of them adorned the mannequins. The bright lights of the shop reflected through the beads of some dresses. It looked nice.

Glancing at us, ammi turned to reply to her. But before she could say anything, he interrupted hesitantly. "You can go with her, I will just check out my attire myself. If it's alright with you."

Ammi smiled. "Yeah sure, you can check them out yourself. But I will do the final selection, just choose a few which you like." Replying, she turned back to the worker.

"But-" He caught my gaze and stopped before continuing any further while remembering the previous incident regarding who pays the bill. I didn't even realise that I was staring at him until now. Lowering my gaze, I followed ammi, realising she already talked to the workers. Someone ushered him in the opposite direction.

._._._.

"Ya Allah ammi, I don't like any of these dresses!" I told her, frustrated. She was showing me heavy dresses and some of them were even revealing. And I seriously didn't like any of them.

"What is the problem with them?" She asked me, raising a brow.

"They look too uncomfortable." Definitely not my type. I replied while scanning the dresses once again and sighing in dejection. I looked at Emaan and the kids, they were staring at us with a disbelieving look.

"You seriously didn't like any of them?" Finally Emaan asked me incredulously. Her gaze flitted between me and the ten or so dresses laid beside ammi. One of the dresses was in her hand. I shook my head and she just stared at me with wide eyes and muttered something. Both the girls giggled and I frowned. What was she saying?

"Alright Atifa, just try to find a dress for yourself while I go and check up on that boy. Hopefully he has selected something, unlike you." Sighing, ammi walked off. We were here from the past thirty minutes, looking through the dresses, trying to find the perfect one which I approve of. And the quest still remained.

I looked around, trying to see if something catches my attention but to no avail. Glancing at Emaan, I saw her standing up after saying something to the kids. They just nodded their heads and relaxed on the couch.

"So Miss Atifa, what type of dress would you like to see?" She inquired in a sarcastic tone while fluttering her eyelashes.

Rolling my eyes, I dragged her to the corner aisle, where it seemed like almost no one ever went there because the dresses looked simple and modest. "I think I will finally choose something from here." I told her absent-mindedly while looking through them.

Sighing, she started looking with me. After sometime, I finally saw a dress which looked elegant and beautiful at the same time. I took it off the rack and ran my hand through its smooth texture. It was so soft, meaning comfortable. I admired its beauty, it was not too heavy or extravagant. It was simple, modest, yet managed to stand out. It had full sleeves and the bodice was covered with stone work. From below the waist, the silky cloth flowed perfectly, stopping below the ankles. I turned it around to look if it was backless, but thankfully, it wasn't. And the neckline wasn't deep either.

I think I finally found my dress. Smiling in triumph, I turned to Emaan with the dress in my hand. "What do you think about this one?" I asked her happily.

She turned to look at the dress, examined it. "Are you sure you like this one?" She asked me instead of answering me.

I frowned, "Yes, that's why I'm showing it to you. You don't like it?"

"No, I like it. But I was just asking you to be sure. Because I don't want you to change your mind again." Frowning, she replied.

"Then, I will show this to ammi and ask her about it." I replied with a smile, looking at the dress.

"Coming to think about it, it will actually look good on you. Don't you think so too?" Emaan asked me excitedly.

"Yeah I guess." I replied uncertainly.

"Well go and change, check whether it looks good on you or not." She said while pulling me where all the other dresses were kept.

Before I could reply, ammi returned with a smile. "Okay he has selected his suit and I hope even you have selected yours by now." She looked at me pointedly.

"Oh yes aunty, she has finally selected something for herself." Emaan replied while taking my dress from my hands and showing it to her happily. Shaking my head, I looked at ammi expectantly while biting my lips.

She took the dress from Emaan and looked at it with a frown. My stomach dropped as I thought that she was going to reject it and I would have to find something all over again but then she grinned. I released my breath which I didn't even know I was holding. "Not too bad, I like it."

"Finally!" I muttered under my breath. Alhamdulillah. "But I'm not trying it on now, it's already late. And the kids are sleepy." I told them in a final tone.

Ammi wanted to argue but sensing my mood, she didn't say anything. "Alright but at least let me check if it is the correct size." Ammi said while coming behind me and measuring the dress by keeping it on my back.

It was a bit long but it would do. After all, gowns are supposed to be long. "Ammi I think it's perfect." I replied, getting impatient.

"Okay okay, let's get going." She replied while asking a worker to pack my dress.

._._._.

We were sitting in a restaurant and waiting for the food to arrive. I was sitting with Emaan and ammi by my side while he was sitting between Amira and Alayna. I don't even know how we always ended up in front of each other. It was so frustrating and I felt like it was ammi and Emaan's plan. And I couldn't even argue with Emaan in front of him.

Looking at her after a while, I realised she actually had a smug look on her face as she scrolled through her instagram feed. I so wished to kill her! Or better yet, let's wait for her time to arrive. I smirked, she didn't even know what was coming her way.

Anyways, I was starving and I didn't know how the kids managed this long without whining for food. Looking at them, I saw they were happily chatting away with him. That was good, at least they were occupied.

Taking out my mobile, I started replying to my messages. "You are going to use your mobile in front of your future husband?" Emaan whispered slowly while glancing at him.

"Yeah so what? If he is going to marry me then might as well marry me as I'm. I'm not going to change myself for anyone." Knitting my brows, I muttered while glancing at ammi.

"Oh I see. You have a point here. I'm proud of you." She replied before smiling wickedly. I narrowed my eyes at her, warning her not to do anything embarrassing again. "Let us see if he agrees." She added, as if letting me know that she wasn't going to listen to me and I couldn't stop her either.

"Emaan-" Before I could continue, she interrupted me, catching everyone's attention.

"Saad! Atifa is saying that she won't change herself for anyone. You don't have any problem with that, right?" She questioned him with big and hopeful eyes. I wanted to facepalm and avoid everyone's gaze because I was certain they were looking at me.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I bit my lips. It was a good thing that my face was covered and I had turned to look at Emaan. They could only see my eyes but for now, only my side profile was visible.

Opening my eyes, I glared at her and slowly turned to look at others. Avoiding his gaze, I glanced at the kids, and thankfully, they were busy with themselves. I glanced at ammi to see her looking confused, her gaze flitting between me and him.

Without my permission, my gaze flickered to him to see an amused expression on his face. But thankfully, he wasn't looking at me. I sighed in relief but before I knew it, he looked up, catching me red handed. But as soon as he looked up, he looked away. Embarrassed, I looked down, repeating astagfirullah in my mind. What was wrong with me?

I was actually anticipating his answer, I didn't know why! It shouldn't matter to me whatever he thought because I wouldn't change my mind. Right? Yeah, right.

._._._.