Just When I Thought. AsYa/ Asad/OC FF Part1-Pg2(Complete)16/10 NotePg3 - Page 2

"Do you think that air hostess was flirting with you?"

Asad seriously wanted to hurt something. Badly. Preferably the woman sitting next to him, asking stupid questions.

"For the umpteenth time - No" he replied exasperatedly.

"Look at her! She even has a ring on her finger. Shameless!" she spoke next, ignoring his words.

He took a deep breath and thanked the Lord that only one Amyra had been sent on earth. Really? Just one? He refused to rethink the past thought and continued to hit his head on the pillow behind him. Why did someone up there, or rather someone next to him, hate his eardrums and his peace of mind so much?

"Amy, it's almost a fifteen hour flight and only two hours have passed! You've already judged every single person in the vicinity. Can't you at least let me sleep for an hour? You can pass your comments for the next twelve hours all you want!"

She seemed to think over his reply and nodded, letting Asad go back to his beloved sleep and send a silent prayer to whichever power in the universe had achieved the impossible task of getting her to shut up.

"But, I'll still say that she was flirting royally. I'm pretty sure that the "I'll get you anything" held a double meaning." she contemplated, a peaceful few seconds later, and Asad really just wanted to jump through the emergency exit and into the sky.

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"Asad. I am really sorry. Look very very sorry. More sorry than you've ever seen me" she cried over his shoulder as he made his way to the conveyor belt to get their luggage.

He ignored her pleas and stood there, waiting for it, while she kept on with her whining. Nope, today he wasn't going to fall into her trap so easily. Spotting their bags, he went ahead and pulled them down, and started walking towards the exit area.

"Okay. If you aren't going to talk to me, I will keep on standing here" Amyra shouted at him which he made a point to simply ignore. When he did not stop, even after reaching the gate, Amyra made her way, or rather ran and joined him before huffing, "I will come with you, but I will not talk to you" she said, rather haughtily. In response, Asad simply stopped carrying her suitcase, threw it beside her and went ahead, leaving behind a slightly shocked Amyra. The nerve!

As she struggled to get her luggage upright, she failed to notice the slight smile on Asad's face.

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"How are you? You look so thin!" his mom said, and though he knew that most mothers felt that way when they saw their kids, it wasn't him she was pampering right now. Rather it was Amyra.

"Right? I am on this special diet which includes..." Asad tuned out the rest of the conversation. What was it with women and diets?

"Beta, why do you need to diet? Did Asad tell you were gaining weight?"his mom asked

And that sentence, the most simple, useless, unimportant sentence, sent him back to his past. "You can never call me fat." He remembered that moment like it was yesterday, no matter how hard he suppressed his thoughts.

His mother and Amyra were busy in their discussion, but Amyra did not fail to notice the clouding over of his eyes. Noticing her distraction, Dilshad turned back to see him too, and knew that it was all back. His eyes held the sort of pain no mother would want to see on her child's face, but there was nothing she could do to take it all away. She wished she could, but there simply was nothing. She didn't know if God just hated her fortune, or if it was the fruit of some misdeed she was unaware of, but somehow her child had ended up a big mess. And somewhere along the way, he had lost every inch of himself.

Before things could get worse, Amyra decided to diffuse the tension by shouting, "Aunty, look, Asad proposed to me" and showed Dilshad the beautiful solitaire on her finger. As Dilshad went on to hug and squeal and bless both of them, none of them could help but think if the future would be any happier than it was today.

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"Amyra seems really happy" Dilshad said, as she and Asad sat on the porch with a cup of coffee late that night.

He smiled at that. "Isn't she always?"

Dilshaad had to laugh at that too. It was true. Nothing really got that girl down. So happy. So cheerful. So much like Zo..she refused to complete that sentence.

She knew that he was thinking about the same thing. "Beta, are you happy?" she asked.

"I am content" he corrected his mother.

She could remember a similar conversation from several months ago. So much had changed between now and then.

"Why are you doing this, Asad? We both know that you don't love her. Why are you marrying her?"

"Weren't you the one who wanted me to get married?" he retorted, unhappy with the conversation.

"But th.."she started, but was cut off by him.

"Mom, we have both fallen in love and the only thing it has given us is pain. So much pain, that very time Rashid Ahmed Khan is mentioned, even after so many years, you get punched in the gut. You wanted me to experience love, and I did. And I never want to experience it again. I loved her, and it was the biggest mistake I ever made. I am done with love for life. So, no, I don't love Amy, mom, but I will get married to her."

Dilshaad had no reply to that and decided to simply end the conversation with a nod. As she got up to go to her room, her son said from the porch steps, "I do love you though, Mom."

She smiled as she heard that and kissed his forehead, before slapping him lightly on the cheek. "Unfortunately, I do too" she said and made her way to her room.

And left behind Asad to mull on his decision to marry Amyra and his past.

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This wasn't funny. Why was she laughing then? Asad couldn't help but roll his eyes at her.

"How is it that you are the Indian here, but fail to bargain?" she asked, still laughing at his facial expression. They were on their way back from a street market, and upon noticing their clothing and the obvious high handedness in Asad's behavior, the vendors had demanded sky high prices from the couple for the littlest trinket in the world. And Asad, being the guy he was, was going to pay them the entire sum! She couldn't help but laugh at his naivety. In the end, she was the one who made the vendors come towards a reasonable price, while he stood there, blushing, and acting as though he had no idea who the girl, bargaining and fighting was.

Seeing that he wasn't enjoying the joke as much as she was, she decided to change the subject. Not that, that subject was going to uplift his mood at all.

"Asad?"she began.

"Yes? Want to make fun of my hatred for street food now?"he replied, rather irritated.

"No. That's not the matter." For now. "But I think we should invite him."she said, tentatively.

"No." The reply was quick and firm. No room for discussion.

"Asad, please! He is your father."

"Exactly! So if I don't want him to come to my wedding, it should be fine with you."

"How would you feel fifteen years from now, when you look back and realise that you did not invite your own father to your wedding?"she asked him. She knew about his tumultuous relationship with his father and knew that his hurt and anger were justified. But there was a limit to every ignorance. What his father had done to them had been wrong, but why didn't he understand that this blatant ignorance was hurting him much more than it was hurting anyone else!"

"Fifteen years from today, I'd feel exactly how I feel right now. Content and happy, and probably irritated and fighting with you about something or the other."

Amyra glared at him at that. When she had talked to Dilshaad about inviting Rashid to the wedding, she had simply told her that it depended on her pig-headed son. She had warned her though, that this argument was going to be tougher to win than the others. Asad didn't just have daddy issues; he mistrusted everyone in that house so much, that even saying their names was enough to send him into a fit of rage. At that moment Amyra had thought that she was exaggerating, but she realized that she wasn't really off the track so much!

"But Asad, you have t..." She was cut off by a pleading tone. "Please Amy. Just don't. Please." The pain in his voice and the hurt in his eyes couldn't be masked, even by his anger and the mask of indifference he usually wore. Amyra took a deep breath and nodded, deciding to approach the matter another way, another time.

"Okay then. Fine."

Asad took a huge sigh of relief as she uttered those words. He knew that the battle was far from over - Amyra didn't take no very well - but then again, she couldn't estimate the bitterness and betrayal of Rashid Ahmed Khan and his family. This wasn't something he was going to bend down on; neither her puppy dog face, nor her anger was going to work this time.

"Sooo...wanna have some mineral water gol gappe?" she asked, and burst out laughing.

Even Asad couldn't help but laugh at that!

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"Hello. Is this Rashid Ahmed Khan's house?" Amyra asked, as a curly haired woman opened the door of the house she had just rung the bell of. The address seemed right, but the look the woman was giving her told her that she was at the whole place.

Finally she opened the door fully and said, "Yes. Who are you?"

Okay, well this woman seemed out of sorts. And if this was actually Asad's father's house, this ought to be his step mother, judging from the description that Najma had very colourfully given her. Of course, Asad didn't know that she was here. She had taken the address from the internet and trusted her luck to lead her to the right house. She knew that Asad would probably give her hell for coming to place he had forbidden her from ever even talking about, but she refused to let him regret any of his decisions later. And just a really small part of her, the devilish, human part, wanted his father to notice how much his son had prospered, no thanks to him, and regret HIS decision.

Coming back to the woman, she couldn't see what Rashid had seen in her that prompted him to leave his beautiful, intelligent and the most loving person she had ever met, first wife, and marry this - pardon her thought- lunatic.

Before Shireen could dub her to be the nutcase, Amyra regained her bearing and said " Erm.. I.."

"Who is it, Shireen?" a male voice asked and Amyra saw a man in his fifties make his way towards him. Judging from the way he looked, she deduced that this would be her fiancee's father.

Before anyone else would butt in again, she quickly replied, "Hello. You must be Rashid Ahmed Khan. I actually came to meet you. My name's Amyra Hussain.."

"Amyra Hussain? As in Mustafa Hussain's daughter? From Canada?" Rashid asked, surprised to find this girl at his doorstep.

"Yes. The very same. If you don't mind, could I come in?" Amyra asked, glad to have such a ridiculously rich father, known in the business world. His name seemed like a universal pass everywhere she went, especially with this household - her father did business with them, now and then.

As she was ushered into the house and served all kinds of eatables, she took her time to explore her surroundings with her eyes. The house was grand, in a more shiny way, than her own house, or even Asad's. She wasn't sure if it was as warm as the decorations made it seem.

"So beta, why did you want to meet me?"Rashid finally asked. He was curious to say the least; he couldn't think of any possible reasons for Mr. Hussain's only daughter to be here.

"Oh. I came to invite you to my wedding."Amyra replied cheerfully, careful to not display too much emotion.

Now, Rashid was completely perplexed. Why would Amyra want to invite him to her wedding? He didn't even know the kid. Something was going on. Before he could politely ask her the reason behind her invitation, Amyra helpfully obliged, "I am getting married to your son, Asad, in two months."

As soon as these words were uttered, the entire mansion became dead silent and somewhere, standing on the first floor of the mansion, Zoya's world and her heart shattered into pieces.