It was late evening when Katrina, along with a few of her colleagues, ended up at the Chinese place next street.

Their supervisor had brought up the word takeout. What started as a desire to order in food, soon transformed into a plan with a group of people travelling to the restaurant.

They got a large table for themselves at the end of the room. The place was nearly empty, the pace of service was slowing down as their time for closure was drawing to an end. The tired, yet content, voices from around her were humming.

"Wait, you're friends with a Fayyad?" Katrina heard Arafat ask over the table, his eyes widening in surprise.

"Not just friends, he's my best bud," Salman replied.

"Of course," Arafat spat out. "How did I not see this before? You went to one of those fancy private schools, right?" Arafat peaked over his shoulder and narrowed his eyes at Zakariya. "You went to the same school as well. Are you secretly wealthy too?"

"If I were, my parents must have forgotten to inform me," Zakariya replied dryly.

The chatter continued as they ordered their food. Katrina Whatsapp-ed her parents about their whereabouts as they waited. A group of boys entered the place, their loud and drawling voices filling up the room. Tamara started shooting them annoyed glances as their boisterous laughter reached their table.

Salman looked over his shoulder, and the moment he glanced at them, his face went pale.

"Salman!" one of them cried.

That drew attention across the table. One of the boys whipped his head up immediately. A grin slowly spread his across his face. "Big boy, is that truly you?" he asked in a drawling voice.

Fardin got out of his seat and started striding towards them. Salman stood on his feet as well. The hesitance on his posture was as clear as a sky after rain. The two guys embraced.

Fardin patted his back once and then held him at shoulder's length.

"Where have you been, man?" he queried. "It's like you disappeared off the face of the Earth."

Salman did not respond.

Fardin unglued his eyes from him and then slowly swept it across each face around the table, the inhabitants of which were staring at the duo of boys quizzically. Anxiety wrung Katrina's stomach when the guy's gaze landed on her briefly. He landed his eyes back on Salman's face.

Both parties waited for Salman to make the introduction, but it never came. Anticipation rose. The air was turning thicker with discomfort with each passing second.

"Well, then," Fardin said at last, letting go of him. "Don't drop dead again, Salman. At least respond to my texts."

Salman briskly nodded and then they stepped apart. He seemed to let out the breath he was holding as he took his seat again. The rest of the table went back to what they were doing, but Katrina's eyes kept flitting to him for the rest of the evening.

His smile was off. The ever-so-present twinkle in his eyes had muted. As he continued to talk and chat with his friends, Salman seemed like a shell of the person she had come to know in all these months. It did not sit well with her.

She studied the guys across the room once more. They were still conversing in those loud voices. The guy who had approached Salman previously was still shooting him curious glances. Katrina couldn't help but wonder who they were and why they got this reaction from him.

The man at the reception called out to inform them their food was ready. Since it was self service, most of her colleagues around the table got to their feet. Arafat picked up the tray with their drinks from the counter, and as he made his way to their table again, one of Fardin's friends extended his leg.

Arafat stumbled on it, and the next moment, he was sprawled across the floor, his glasses splattering along with the ice-cold fizzy drinks.

Tamara let out a shocked gasp.

"Dude!" Zakariya cried as both he and Katrina stepped forward to help.

The guy tucked in his leg again and all the rest around the table were attempting to suppress their sniggers. The action, carried so subtly, escaped the eyes of most of his colleagues. However, Salman clenched his jaw as he got up in one swift movement. He stood behind Fardin's chair and clasped his shoulder with a tight grip.

"Outside, now."

Katrina shot them a nervous glance over her shoulder. Fardin followed him out without resistance, but there was a smug smile on his face.

Once they were out in the air and the city noise came back to life, Salman turned his attention to him. Fardin burst out laughing.

"Oh, c'mon," he said, reaching out to pinch Salman's cheek. "It was just a joke."

Salman stared back at him with a hardened look, swatting his hand away.

Fardin tried to stifle his laughter as he wiped tears of mirth from his eyes. "A couple months away from me, and I see you've lost your sense of humor."

Resentment was beginning to bloom on Salman's face. When Fardin realized his friend wasn't amused, he attempted to sober up.

Fardin raised his eyes again. "What? Kaveh and the Sasquatch brainwash you to the point you no longer want to be my friend? Is this why you've been avoiding me?"

"No."

"So is it those people in there?" he snorted, beckoning his head towards the door, the amused expression on his face turning slightly nasty. "Do you consider the likes of them your friends now? C'mon Big Boy, I thought I taught you better."

"Do not speak about them like that."

Fardin raised a derisive brow at his quiet tone. "Since when have we become like this?"

Salman let out a sigh, he glanced at his shoes once and the lifted his gaze again. As he met his old friend's eyes once more, he seemed genuinely upset. "I don't know," he said. "But I do know that we can't be friends anymore."

Fardin let out a scoff. "Don't be dramatic."

But Salman was getting ready to leave. "I really hope you clean up your act someday." There was sincerity in his voice. "But until then, I can't let you back in my life."

As he twirled on his feet to head towards the door again, Fardin started shouting at the top of his lungs, his voice carrying over the incessant horns of the passing cars. "You're nothing without me. Nothing! I took you in. I befriended you when no one wanted to be your friend. I made you popular. Heck, I introduced you to the Fayyad."

"Goodbye, Fardin," he said over his shoulder.

"Hey, wait!" he cried, outraged. His voice turned to ashes as he saw Salman disappearing through the door without a second glance.

...

Ramadan came and went by in the blink of an eye.

Kaveh and Dahlia had their nikaah a couple weeks after Eid, in a local masjid.

It was a beautiful Summer day, with light breeze and birds chirping in the distance. The mosque was the epitome of peace and elegance, surrounded by fresh flowers and greenery - a rare sight in the over-populated city.

On the morning of the ceremony, all the Ahmad ladies gathered and lathered the bride with turmeric head to toe, led by a bath in rose water.

Dahlia opted for pastel colors and kept it minimal with her makeup and attire for the nikaah, and it reflected on the entire ceremony.

After the ceremony, the families gathered at the Ahmad's for lunch. Dahlia's sisters attempted to create some privacy for the newly-wed couple, since this was the first time Kaveh was seeing her without her hijab. He merely smiled at her when their eyes met, but not much was said. Partially because of nerves, and mostly because in a house as crowded as that, privacy was a myth.

After lunch, Dahlia and Kaveh went to meet her grandmother for blessing. Nargis pulled the girl close and hissed in her ear, "He tried to rob your family's wealth, and now you married into his and claimed his. You have ten times the brain than the men in the family."

The religious wedding was followed by a Mehendi night and Walima. The norm was to have at least four to five ceremonies, but both families opted for only two since both the bride and the groom was reluctant to host anymore.

In the midst of it all, Dahlia barely found the opportunity to interact with Kaveh, or see him at all. She was sharing her room with at least five of her female cousins, and each time Dahlia attempted to have a conversation with him, the tyrant teenagers made cooing and kissing noises in the background.

Kaveh asked her out on a date a couple days after their nikaah, but neither could ultimately manage the time for it. With last minute decisions and shopping for the forgotten essentials, the week leading up to their reception hectic to say the least.

Her sisters and friends treated her with a game of laser tag at the local arcade the day before her Mehendi ceremony, followed by a relaxing evening at the spa, and then finished the night off by going early to bed since beauty sleep was an absolute essential for the bride-to-be.

Whereas the Nikaah was graceful and serene, and other two programs were filled with glitz and glam. Both the Ahmad household and the Fayyad Mansion were filled to the brim as relatives from all over the country, and abroad, pooled in for the union; and the ladies had brought their most gorgeous heels and sarees.

The Mehendi was an all ladies ceremony, and it took place in the backyard of the Ahmad household. The house stood erect as it was decorated with flowers and fairy lights. The best henna artists of the city were hired, and there wasn't a single bare hand by the end of the ceremony.

For years, Salman had been raving about the Bachelor party he was going to throw Kaveh someday; and when the hour for that finally arrived, his excitement knew no bounds. Kaveh secretly reached out to Ibrahim and pleaded him to ensure things remained sane.

The guys spent the evening of Dahlia's Mehendi ceremony in the Fayyad's mansion with a few of Kaveh's close friends and cousins, playing cards as Ibrahim cooked steaks; all the while finding ways to ignore Salman's cries about their excruciating betrayal. 

The Walima took place in their country club, on a lakeside banquet hall. The groom's wedding procession was led by Salman, of course, whose sherwani threatened to upstage Dahlia's lehenga and jewelry.

Ibrahim was at the gate with his band of sisters and cousins, blocking their entrance until Kaveh agreed to pay up an amount that would do his family's name justice (with bonus commissions to make up for the free counselling services). Ibrahim was ready for war (if the situation called for it); and there was war. Salman and Ibrahim's bickering was never ending, and it continued even after Kaveh got tired and ended up paying the sum they were asking for, and the sisters accepted it graciously.

When Salman finally made it inside he declared to Dahlia, "From today onwards, I'm the second most important man in your life."

Then Ibrahim ended up stealing his shoes along with the groom's ("if you are the second most important person, you should be paying too, right?") So as a revenge Salman instructed the photographers to ensure Ibrahim looked ugly in all the photos.

Lily and Poppy Ahmad were the only two unmarried Ahmad sisters remaining. Worse, they were both older in age than Dahlia - something none of their relatives forgot to remind them. However, both sisters bore their singlehood with pride by wearing the most stunning outfits, taking lots of selfies and eating tons on biriyanis.

Then it was time to bid farewell. Dahlia's father entrusted her hand to Kaveh's, which he promised to hold in this life and the next. Ibrahim swore up and down he didn't cry during the Bidaai, but weeks later when they received the pictures from the photographer, there were at least ten snapshots of him shedding tears sneakily, and they were all ugly - as per Salman's promise.

All in all, it was a Desi wedding done in style.

...