Chapter 2 The Mall

Rameen

He mumbled something in his mouth and backed off, good for him I thought. I would have loved to beat the shit out of him, don't think I am boasting or something. I am perfectly capable of defending myself, I have a black belt in karate. My uncle had made me learn karate so I could defend myself if any situation arises. But I loved to flaunt my karate skills now and then on some asshole who tries to fuck with me.

"Mia, could you at least behave for once?" Sheema said through gritted teeth.

"Sheema, I don't understand why the hell you have to be such a good girl all the time. Don't you get tired and bored of it?" I snapped at Sheema.

She looked at me with resentment, she knew I was the complete opposite of her. People who knew us always wondered how we were best friends in the first place. We didn't have a single habit that was common in us. She was a girl next door kind of person and me, well, I was just me.

"I don't understand how Imaad tolerates you?" Sheema asked annoyed.

"Because if he doesn't, I will beat the shit out of him too", I said shrugging my shoulders.

Imaad was my fiance, yeah he was the only boy, mad enough to fall in love with someone like me. I knew I was pretty and kinda hot also, and the opposite sex was attracted to me. But once they got to know me they would just back off. Which sane mind would want a wife or a girlfriend who would keep kicking their ass?

Still, Imaad fell in love with me, his parents were our family friends and we knew each other since childhood.I did have a crush on him though, he was hot and handsome, foreign qualified and from a well off family. But it was just a crush and nothing more.

Imaad had proposed to me a year ago and I was taken by surprise, well it rarely happens that your crush proposes you out of the blue. I said a yes, and he was overjoyed. He then told me that he was in love with me since we were kids, and I just couldn't believe how anyone could fall in love with a girl like me. Imaad confessed it was my quality of not giving him any attention like the other girls that attracted him towards me. Well, I didn't think before that a guy could get attracted to a girl, who didn't give a damn about him. It just happened in movies or love stories but this had happened with me.

Our families were overjoyed when we told them we wanted to get married. We got engaged in a grand ceremony, with all the A-listers of the town attending our engagement.

Damn, he was looking so hot in that black "Pathani Suit"(a traditional dress for men in Southeast Asia). I awanted to eat him up, sorry I should have kept that thought to myself. So, where was I? Yeah, we got engaged and now our parents had fixed our wedding date three months from now. Both our families were busy with the preparation for our wedding.

The ladies were buying all those weird clothes which I hated, the lehengas, the gharara, salwar kameez (traditional ladies clothes from south East Asia) and I don't know what other shiny glittery clothes. Why was it necessary to make the bride look like a clown?

I hated those traditional clothes, my favorites were joggers and loose big t-shirts or hoodies, which I used to wear every time at home.I liked dressing up but not in that shiny glittery stuff that my mom and aunt called clothes.

Right now I was wearing a peach blouse and a cream-colored knee-length skirt and cream-colored stockings paired with peach stilettos. I knew my outfit complimented my figure by the stares I was getting from the men around.

I ignored those stares and started chatting with Sheema. She was telling me about her fiance, they had got engaged only a month ago. It was arranged by their parents, and Sheema was so insanely happy about it. I never understood how people could get into an arranged marriage?

These days at least the couple would meet and talk after the engagement but a few decades before most of them would meet on their wedding night. And how the hell can you fuck someone in your first meeting? This was the question that had always nagged my mind, but I didn't find the courage to ask this to my parents.

Yeah, you guessed alright, it was an arranged marriage for my parents and they had met each other on the wedding day. Mom had once told me they didn't even have a telephonic conversation before marriage.And I wondered how did they get away with it right on the wedding night(blush) cause I was born exactly nine months after their wedding.

Back to Sheema and her fiance, what's the guy's name? Yeah, I remember Saad. So Saad was throwing a birthday party for Sheema which was after two weeks and Sheema was insisting me to attend the party. It's not like I didn't want to, it's just that I was not sure my mom would let me. She was on a shopping spree and making me accomplish a spree these days. But maybe I could ask dad to convince her.

We stood in the queue for nearly 4 hrs before we got the chance to enter the bookstore and make our way to the dais where the author Subrato Roy was seated. We had bought our copy of the special edition and approached Roy.

He smiled at us and asked our names and then signed off on the first page of the novel. I wanted to ask him some questions regarding his novel but a staff member of the book store requested us to move ahead because there was still a very long queue.

We came out of the store nearly exhausted and with sore feet. Wearing stilettos was a bad idea, but who would have thought it might take so long, I had thought a couple of hours must be more than enough. " Mia I think I will faint, let's grab something to eat", Sheema said, holding her head with her hands.

I quickly supported her with my arm and we walked to a nearby fast food joint. We ordered a burger with cola each and sat on a corner seat. The joint was crowded because of the weekend.

We looked at the burger greedily, the burgers from this joint were just yumm. A moan escaped from my mouth as I took a bite, the juices of the patty and the melted cheese oooh.

I loved this burger, I looked at Sheema and her expressions were the same as mine as she bit into her burger. Then we both looked at each other and laughed.

We had just finished the burger when I got a call from Imaad, I had asked him to pick us from the mall.

Imaad told me he was in the parking lot and asked me to bring a cup of coffee for him.

We walked out of the joint and got into a coffee shop. I ordered Imaad's cappuccino with double cream and waited while the girl started working on it. While she was making the coffee, I pulled out the novel from my handbag and skimmed through the pages.

After a few minutes, the girl handed me the coffee. We walked towards the exit of the coffee shop and just as I set foot outside the coffee shop I collided with something.

Whoever it was who collided with me was in a hurry that he couldn't see my 5'8" self.

I watched in horror as the coffee cup slipped from my hand and landed on the floor, to top it up the novel which was in my other hand fell into the pool of coffee on the floor.

I stood frozen on the spot with my eyes petrified, after a few seconds I glared at the person who collided with me.