Hide And Seek In The Hall

“This is an unholy union of greed and corruption,” a bald man with a long beard screamed into the reporter’s mic, “President Qaiser is essentially selling the nation to Saad Raees by marrying their children. Don’t be surprised if the richest man in Aslanistan becomes even richer. At the same time, Qaiser will have access to Raees’s money power-”

“Turn it off!” Saad Raees ordered Ruqsana, his bronze skin turning as red as his hair, having had enough of hearing the news first thing in the morning while driving towards Qaiser Residence.

Ruqsana paused the video on her phone and asked, “Shouldn’t we keep track of what people think of the wedding?”

“These politicians are two-faced liars, this Maqsood is criticizing us today because he is the leader of the opposition, but tomorrow if he needs something, he’ll pretend as if he was always on our side.”

“And you are marrying me into the family of one?”

“Suhail has been in power for ten years and is expected to win a third term. Even if he doesn’t win by some miracle, being the daughter-in-law of the Qaiser family would still give us many political connections.”

“You mean give you and bhaijaan political connections, I’ll just be a pretty trophy wife too important to do household chores and too useless to do any business work.”

“Only you would complain about being handed everything on a silver platter,” Sania scoffed, “Girls your age would kill to be in your position.”

“I’m certainly dying of boredom with Ahmer Qaiser as my husband.”

“Ahmer is just shy, he’ll warm up to you when he gets to know you better,” Sania assured Ruqsana.

“And watch your tone when we meet the Qaisers,” Saad warned, “we may tolerate your sarcasm, but they may take offense.”

“I’ll be on my best behaviour,” Ruqsana grumbled, “Not that it will help me if something goes wrong.” She put on her earbuds and went back to watching the video. At least someone was against her marriage, even if their reasons were borderline conspiracy theory level.

“Ali, if you see a sweet shop, stop by and buy a package of Rasgulla,” Saad ordered the driver.

After some time, they reached the Qaiser Residence, where the Qaisers welcomed them.

“Asalamualaykum! Welcome to our home, please enter!” Suhail greeted the Raees family.

“Walaikumassalam! Please accept this,” Saad greeted back, his driver handing over gifts to Suhail’s servants.

The families took their seats in the living hall, with Ahmer and Ruqsana made to sit together in the middle. The servants served fritters as appetizers for everyone.

“Suhail, I must say every time I visit your home it feels like I am entering a palace,” Saad complimented.

“It’s all thanks to Rahila, without her, this mansion would look like 150-year-old ruins instead,” Suhail joked.

“Uff! You’re just too much,” Rahila clapped back and everyone except the bride and groom to be laughed.

“So Ahmer, have you completed your graduation?” Sania asked.

“No aunty, I still have one year left,” Ahmer replied.

“You can call me Mamma, we’re going to be family after all.”

“Sure au…” Ahmer noticed a pointed look from Suhail, “Mamma.”

“Which course are you doing?”

“Economics,” His father coughed and gave him another pointed look, “I am currently studying economics with honors,” Ahmer sighed, ‘Yeah, I know, no one word answers.’

Ruqsana was enjoying watching Ahmer struggle as much as the onion fritters, ‘That’s right, suffer!’

“What do you plan on doing when you graduate?”

“Probably politics, it runs in the family after all,” Ahmer said wryly.

“Will you be okay? Being so quiet.” Ruqsana froze. She hadn’t meant to say that aloud, but she was having too much fun seeing Ahmer being pushed out of his comfort zone. Ammar laughed aloud, while others wore unreadable expressions on their faces.

“Ha! Being the quiet type doesn’t mean you’re not good in politics,” Suhail brushed the comment off, “my father rarely used to speak, but when he did, everyone listened. He even became the Education Minister before retiring.”

“That’s good to know,” Ahmer smiled awkwardly.

“Bhaijaan is going to contest for student council elections this year,” Ammar chimed in.

“Oh, how many times has he contested?” Saad asked.

“Every year that makes this the third time,” Ammar replied.

“And how many times has he won?” Sania asked.

“He’ll win this time,” Suhail declared.

‘That doesn’t sound good for his political career,’ Ruqsana thought to herself.

“College elections don’t matter anyway,” Saad said, “remember in our time Afzal used to be elected president every time, but after college he just became a normal banker.”

Suhail guffawed, “Don’t sell him short, he is a director at Aslani Bank now.”

“What are you studying?” Rahila asked Ruqsana.

“I am doing a graduation course in software engineering,” she replied, “I’m in my final year too.”

“Software engineering? Do you plan on making a career in it?” Rahila asked, her eyes brightening in excitement.

Ruqsana didn’t know how to answer that, “Well-”

“It’s only a hobby, she is just fond of coding,” Sania answered for her while holding her arm subtly.

“Yes, it’s merely to keep herself busy,” Saad added.

“But these days girls are making a name for themselves,” Rahila insisted.

“Rahila, it sounds nice on paper, but unless a woman is from a poor family or has no one to look after her, she has no need to work,” Suhail said.

“That’s right, not needing to work is the real privilege that girls these days don’t get,” Sania added.

“Everyone wants to be a feminist these days without understanding what it really means,“ Saad added while Suhail and Sania nodded along.

While their parents were dragging feminism back by decades, Ahmer took the chance to pull out his phone. Ruqsana felt hopeful when Rahila spoke and seeing her getting talked down to made her feel guilty for not taking her side. But she had been on the other end too many times to know this was a losing battle. Hearing them dismiss her dreams, she just wanted to sc-

Ruqsana’s phone beeped, she unlocked it to see a message from Prince.

Prince: Hi, are you available tonight?

Ruqsana took a look around before tapping a reply.

Roxy: Yeah, what’s up?

Prince: Wanna hang out at Fateh Beach tonight?

Roxy: A beach at night?

Prince: It’s a popular stargazing spot, quite far from the city.

Roxy: Should I be in my swimsuit?

Ahmer nearly blew the fritters out of his nose on reading that.

Prince: I don’t think you’ll need it, it will be quite cold.

Ruqsana smirked.

Roxy: Are you sure you don’t want to see me in a swimsuit?

Ahmer shook his head in disbelief.

Prince: People aren’t allowed to swim in the waters anyway, so you won’t need it.

Despite being seated next to each other, they didn’t notice they were texting each other, but Ammar did.

‘Are they texting each other?’ Ammar wondered, ‘Did bhai actually manage to ask a girl her number?’

Prince: Be sure to bring warm clothes.

Roxy: Okay.

Prince: Do you want me to pick you up?

Roxy: No, I’ll take a taxi to the beach.

Prince: Let’s meet at 9 PM then.

“Ruqsana! Ahmer!” Rahila called out. The two looked up from their phones, looking like deers in front of headlights. “Lunch is ready.”

They put their phones away, looking ahead to tonight more than lunch. As Ruqsana made her way to the dining room, Ammar came beside her and whispered, “I just wanted to apologize for yesterday, it seems I made the wrong impression on you.”

“It’s alright, I was just messing with you,” Ruqsana brushed him off.

“Though I must say, I didn’t expect you to actually get along with my brother.”

“Right…” Ruqsana replied, unsure of whether Ammar was being genuine or sarcastic, ‘Is Ahmer into being insulted?’ The mental image made her shiver.