ZAYNThere was only silence.
I would"ve asked on my knee with an overly expensive ring but Abdar Rahman was in my arms. And this was quite sudden.
"I . . ." She fiddled with the material of her scarf, looking at me from beneath her thick, dark eyelashes. "I—Are you sure?"
"Me?" Honestly, I was offended. "There"s n.o.body I could ever want other than you, my sweet Leia. You"ve ruined me."
The tension was so thick in the room, it could"ve been cut with a sharp knife. Leia"s breaths were laboured, coming in short rasps and I could see her getting agitated.
"It"s okay," I said, though my chest tightened with worry. "You don"t have to give an answer right now."
There were many reasons she could deny me but there was one I was most anxious about: I wasn"t religious. Only a few months ago I had started performing my daily obligatory prayers and that was all. I was no way near her level.
"No," she said suddenly.
My heart broke. It was so shattered that I thought, this is it, this is the last time it ever beat. I would die after this. I would drown and I would—
"No, I can give an answer now,"
My head swiveled up. "What?"
"Look, Zayn," She gulped in a deep breath. "Even when we were children, I saw the real you beneath all the glares and the darkness you surround yourself with. So, I have never cared what other people said of you. Because they had never even known you. I see now, just as I saw then. There"s so much more to you than you let on. Even more than you think." She closed her eyes to take in a breath. I wasn"t breathing at all. "I guess what I"m trying to say is: yes. A hundred times, yes, yes, yes. It would be an honour to become your wife, Zayn."
"What?" I said, almost in a daze.
Leia grinned, though her eyes glinted with moisture. "You want me to repeat the whole speech?"
Her smile was infectious, immediately causing my own lips to curl up. I shook my head. Then nodded. So, she repeated. Yes, yes, yes. In every word, I found joy. They hit my heart like splinters of fire; like shards of ice. The latter just as meaningful as the former.
Those three words were at the tip of my tongue but I swallowed them in. Soon, I would tell her how much I loved her.
Very soon.