Chapter 27
Zafar
Zafar watched as Reshma came through the doors, her head bowed and her shoulders hunched and, as she made her way to the other side of the building, he saw Haniya follow after her.
Neither of them had spotted him and as he stood there staring after them, he saw Haniya put her arm around Reshma’s shoulders as his wife seemed to break down into tears.
What on earth had happened?
Zafar hurried in their direction, walking past the entrance to the hotel and the line of guests making their way inside for the reception. The turnout looked just as big as it had been for the wedding.
He was almost directly behind Reshma when he heard her sobbing into her hands as Haniya rubbed her hand over her back, soothing her.
‘He left me, Niya.’ She sucked in an audible breath and he heard the depth of emotion in it.
‘After all that, he just left me. He said nothing. He didn’t bother telling me he was going.
He didn’t suggest I go back with him. He didn’t even bother to say bye or see me before he left.
’ Her voice broke as she covered her face with her hands.
‘Aww, Reshma, honey, please stop crying. I don’t know what’s happened or why you think Zaf would leave—’
‘Because that’s what happens to me. People don’t stay. They leave. They don’t want to be with me. I always say or do something that makes them want to leave and for Zafar nothing comes above his dedication to his work. Certainly not me. He didn’t want to be here, remember?’
This was about him?
Zafar didn’t know what to make of what he was seeing and hearing. What on earth had happened since this morning to make Reshma think he’d left her without a word?
‘Reshma?’
She jerked her head towards him at the sound of his voice, her tear-filled eyes wide and her lips parted in an O. Haniya turned to look at him too, surprise clearly etched on her face.
The three of them stood there staring at each other for a long moment until Haniya recovered her ability to speak. ‘You’re here?’
Zafar looked at her and raised his eyebrow in question. ‘Where else would I be?’
‘I thought … we thought that you might have …’ She looked at Reshma and then back at him. ‘Umm, I think there may have been a bit of a misunderstanding.’
‘You think?!’ Zafar asked incredulously, the sight of Reshma’s tear-stained face making his heart sink, but as her words and their implication slowly registered in his brain, he felt a flicker of annoyance at her lack of faith in him.
‘Can you give us a minute please, Niya?’ he asked with more calm than he felt. He’d had a day from hell and now this.
‘Sure.’ She smiled at him and gave Reshma a final pat on the back before quietly walking away.
Zafar didn’t move from where he was standing and Reshma didn’t either.
Thankfully, her tears seemed to have stopped, but they’d left her eyelashes spiky and tracks down her cheeks.
She had dark smudges under her eyes where some of her make-up seemed to have smeared.
But she still looked bloody gorgeous to him.
‘I don’t even know where to start, Reshma. What the hell is happening here?’
‘I thought you had left. What are you doing here?’
‘Uhhh … correct me if I’m wrong, but we have a reception to attend right now. I don’t make a habit of putting on a tux every day. And where exactly am I supposed to have gone?’
She sniffled and rubbed the back of her hand under her nose. When she spoke, her voice was little more than a whisper. ‘London.’
‘London? Because …?’
‘You said you had to go back as soon as possible because your hotel deal had some issues. You said that last night. On the phone. And then …’ She swallowed, her voice a bit clearer but with a hint of confusion in it.
‘I saw you getting into a car and you had your suitcase with you. I thought you were leaving to go back to London because of your work.’
‘Without telling you?’
She looked at him for a moment without responding and just as he was about to repeat the question, she jerked her head once in a nod.
Zafar closed his eyes as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
‘Jesus. Reshma.’ He could hear the growl in his voice.
How could she doubt him like that? Granted, he’d been pretty focused on the hotel situation since they’d left the restaurant yesterday – though it felt like it had been days ago – but he couldn’t believe that she thought he’d have just left her without so much as a ‘ I’m leaving, see ya.
’ Especially after the way they’d connected in recent days.
‘You didn’t go to the airport.’ She said it like she was testing the words out.
He lowered his hand from his face and saw her looking at him, her expression still one of disbelief but with a hint of confusion and now sheepishness there.
‘I didn’t go to the airport.’
He was tempted to hold her. Take her in his arms and comfort her, reassure her that he hadn’t left and was still there. With her. But he had to clear this up first. He had to try to understand how she had got it so wrong to the point of breaking down like that. He put his hands into his pockets.
‘I did say yesterday I need to go to London and I also said I needed to do it as soon as possible. But it was my immediate reaction to the problem. It’s what I would have done if I gave no thought to anything – or anyone – else.’
She swallowed and he saw the misery gradually disappear from her face and posture as her shoulders relaxed a bit. ‘But I saw you get into the car with your suitcase.’
He nodded. ‘That’s because I did get into a car with my suitcase. I didn’t have a laptop bag or rucksack, so I emptied my suitcase and loaded the laptop and bits I needed into it and made my way to a nearby hotel because I had no internet after the power cut.’
Her eyebrows furrowed. ‘What power cut? There was no power cut.’
He raised his eyebrows at her outright denial.
‘There was a power cut. Just before you saw me leaving the villa, there had been a power cut. I called you, but when you didn’t answer, I messaged you and then called Uncle Jawad.
He said all the villas had lost power. Weren’t you at Auntie Ruqayyah’s villa? ’
Her forehead didn’t clear as her lower lip slowly curled in to sit between her teeth. God, that habit of hers … Zafar cleared his throat and tried to bring his attention back to the moment.
‘I wasn’t at the villa. I had gone for a short walk. It must have happened then.’
‘It didn’t last long, but it threw the internet out for long enough that I didn’t bother hanging around. I packed what I needed and went to a hotel to use the internet and finish off what I was doing so that I could make it in time for Saleema’s reception.’
She stared back at him, and he saw the moment the penny dropped with her that he hadn’t actually walked out on her without a word. The only thing she said, though, was a softly voiced, ‘Oh.’
‘Yes. Oh .’ Zafar shook his head. ‘I don’t even know what to say, Reshma. I didn’t realise you had so little faith in me. What is it you need from me to reassure you that I’m here? With you. I’m not going anywhere.’
She watched him intently and he watched her back.
Her lower lip trembled and her eyes filled with fresh tears and in the next moment she took the few steps between them and wrapped her arms around him, resting her cheek against him.
She held him so tight, she had both his tux and his shirt in her grip.
‘I thought …’ She turned her face into him and he gave up holding back and wrapped his arms around her, holding onto her just as tightly as she held onto him.
Zafar could see the depth of Reshma’s insecurities and her doubts stemmed from the way she’d been treated in the past. It would take time for her to shake them off, so he could understand why she had reacted the way she had.
‘I think I can take a guess what you might have thought, love. But I’m here.
With you, Reshma. And when we go back to London, we’ll go back together .
We just need to remember to take my menace of a grandmother back with us.
We need to have some sympathy for the Kenyan citizens. Can’t leave her behind.’
She giggled softly, just as he’d hoped she would, but her hold on him was as firm as before and he continued to hold her. He’d do it for as long as she needed and he was quite happy to do so, inhaling her scent as they stood there.
‘I do need to apologise to you, though.’
She lifted her head and looked up at him questioningly, her face clear of the despair that had clouded it a little while ago.
‘I’m sorry. I said some things that I shouldn’t have said.
I let my frustration do the talking instead of being rational and patient.
I can see why you might have thought I’d want to get home immediately because that’s how I behaved.
But once I’d calmed down and looked at the problem logically and like I should have without getting worked up, I saw what needed doing and the fact that I could manage it well enough remotely. ’
‘So the problem’s fixed?’
Zafar pursed his lips. ‘It should be. We’ll find out in the morning for sure when the guys have a chat with the seller, but we’ve done everything we could.
If it’s meant to be, it’ll be.’ He watched her as she took a deep breath, feeling her relax in the circle of his arms. ‘Is my apology accepted?’
She looked up and smiled, her first full smile since the waterfall of tears he’d witnessed.
Her nose wrinkled ever so slightly as her nose stud twinkled.
‘It is. I’m sorry too. I … I completely misunderstood everything and let my fears take over.
Everything seemed to point in that direction and with Ibrahim calling you when he did and then everything today… ’
‘Yeah, his timing does leave a lot to be desired, doesn’t it?
He cut me off from saying one of the most important things I’ve ever said to someone.
’ He paused, taking in every dear feature of her face as she looked at him questioningly.
‘I love you, Reshma. Actually, I was going to say I love you too yesterday, but since there’s been a severe lag on my part, I believe adding the “too” is unnecessary.
I think just “I love you” is the important part, right? ’
She didn’t say anything, just looked at him with an inscrutable expression. ‘You’re not just saying it because I said it, are you? Because you don’t have to do that. Maybe you should wait till we’re back in London and you’re sure. It could be the time and place that’s—’
Zafar didn’t let her finish her sentence, cutting her off in a way he found thoroughly pleasurable, even if there was a risk of them getting caught by a relative.
He moved his hands from around her to cup her cheeks and angle her face to his.
He kissed her languorously, as though he had all the time in the world, and she didn’t take long to respond, opening up to him and taking entry into his mouth and allowing him entry into hers, her hands tightening their grip on him.
They kissed until he felt pressure building within him to take in air. Reluctantly, Zafar eased away from her, dropping soft kisses around her mouth and on her face in between taking breaths and interspersing them with a softly voiced ‘I love you’ after each kiss.
He looked down into her bright eyes. ‘I do love you, Reshma. Your bright and beautiful light has filled my life in a way it’s taken me too long to realise and appreciate.
You mean more to me than you know and while I’ll accept that our match was arranged by our families, don’t for a minute think that I don’t choose you.
I do. And I will, each and every time. Ah, please don’t cry again.
As it is, I’m not sure you’ll want to go into the reception with your make-up looking slightly…
um…’ He circled his finger around her face, refusing to elaborate verbally.
She sniffled and cuddled up to him again, as though snuggling into a duvet. ‘I love you too, Zafar. So much.’ Her words reached deep inside him, warming his heart in a way he’d never thought possible and he knew he’d never tire of hearing them.
He kissed the top of her head as he heard someone clearing their throat behind him.
He turned and found Safiya standing there, a broad smile on her face.
‘Hey, Saf.’
‘Sorry to interrupt, but Daadi’s worried that she’s misplaced the pair of you.
Would you like to come and reassure her?
She sent your cousins to look for you, Reshma.
One of them said he saw you here with Zafar and what he saw had him turning back and needing to wash his eyes out, so I came to get you instead, being a mature adult and all. ’
Zafar barked out a laugh as he saw Reshma’s cheeks go pink. At least there was colour in them now.
Safiya caught sight of Reshma properly and her gasp had him wincing and Reshma’s eyes widening. ‘What? What is it?’
‘Wait here. I’ll bring my bag. I’ve got some powder and lipstick. Hopefully they’ll do the trick.’