"And what do you see in my future?" the stunningly beautiful girl in the sparkling yellow dress asked, her hand stretched out across to me. Conversation at the table died as I wondered what to do. I did not know this person, and here she was giving me her hand, ostensibly to read her stars. In our native country, Pakistan, this was a serious breach of inter-sex etiquette and even though many of us had experienced life overseas, this sort of behavior was not expected in public, and here we were seated in a major hotel.
Looking around, I saw the two dozen or so persons in the group waiting for my next move. "What the hell," I figured, "she is just interested in her horoscope." Someone had let it out at the earlier party that I had some talent in palmistry and horoscopes, and conversation at this gathering had somehow come around to the same topic.
I grasped her hand and pulled it closer, forcing her to move her chair forward, so I could get a good read. My heart missed a beat as I first held the softest, prettiest and certainly most fragrant hand ever in my life. Although a good three feet separated us across the table, her foot had come to rest next to me, and in fact I could feel the warmth from her leg going up mine. There were intricate henna patterns on her palm, which made sense given that I was attending my friend Mustafa's, wedding. Most of the other ladies also had the same sort of adornment, in addition to copious amounts of jewelry.
"What would you like to know?" I asked, since my brain had gone blank. I had been staring unashamedly at her for the past half hour since coming over from the pre-wedding henna festivities at the bride's house.
She gave a cute giggle and softly mouthed, "Surprise me!" This certainly perked up interest further around the table.
I gave the palm a good look, turning it left and right and squeezing to observe the various lines, trying to look real professional. I had been dabbling in palmistry for some time, but was hardly in a position to be counseling someone on their future. Still, I had gotten myself into the situation and needed to act fast.
I tried the standard Chinese fortune cookie approach, "you are going to have great happiness soon."
"Do you mean I am not happy at the present time?" she quickly retorted, messing up my chain of thought and drawing laughter from the others.
"Tell me about my romances and admirers," she added. Everyone began looking hither and thither, and a hush descended on the group.
"I see you have a strong person in your immediate future," I had noted a series of prominent lines, "but I also see that there will be many admirers in your longer life."
"My God, Mustafa, who did you bring along?" she nudged the groom to be, who was seated next to her, "he's telling me I am going to be a naughty girl."
"Let me introduce Shahid," Mustafa ventured, "he works with the company we do the research work for in Saudi."
"Nice meeting you Shahid, I see that you are quite talented," she spoke, while giving my foot a tap with hers under the table, "it's refreshing that you are honest with your words."
"And by the way, this is Vania, my bride to be," Mustafa's words made me feel like the village idiot. I hoped for the ground to open up and swallow me whole, but Karachi was not noted for seismic activity.
It was extremely unusual for brides to join grooms between the henna ceremony and the actual wedding, and it was not surprising that I had not seen her earlier since the bride had not been on public view during the event at her house. I had been staring at my friend's wife to be and had no answers, and I was still holding on to her.
"Excuse me Shahid," Vania sweetly spoke, "would you mind greatly if I get my hand back!"
II
At the official wedding ceremony, a couple of days later, I could not keep my eyes off the stunning beauty who would soon be sharing my friend's bed and life thereafter. Tall, fair skinned and well educated, Vania was the answer to any man's dreams, just that the best I could do was to include her in my mental fantasies and nothing else. And true to local custom, she would be deflowered by my lucky bastard buddy after the party. I could sense that he was looking forward to the night also.
She was just so different from many of the Pakistani girls that were being introduced to me by prospective moms-in-law. For one, she was not dressed in the standard red bridal attire, opting instead for a striking azure and silver outfit that enhanced her skin tones intensely. Secondly, unlike typical Pakistani brides, she was enjoying conversations with everyone throughout the event, not being demure and silent at all. Thirdly, she was openly flirting with a number of the guys around, with one exception. To me she was proper and very aloof, only a soft "hello" having escaped her mouth when I had gone over to wish the couple.
Person after person, usually moms with prospective bride to be daughters, kept finding and introducing me to all and sundry. Well, after all, with a string of degrees from abroad and a real good, high paying, tax free job with a major multinational in Saudi Arabia, I would make a swell husband for any of the girls who would be lucky enough to hook up with me. But try as I did, my mind and eyes kept wandering back to the goddess sitting next to my dear friend. It took an extreme amount of willpower to finally tear away from the main stand and involve myself in getting to know the possibilities at the event.
Luckily, I had the good fortune of running into Farah, a friend of the bride, who had flown in from the US and was also staying in the same hotel as the groom's party. Thankfully the ceremony came to a close well past midnight, the bride and groom retiring to their room just upstairs. As most of the guests excused themselves and left for their homes, I discovered that Farah and I were almost alone. The few younger folk still around decided that it was worth visiting the coffee shop and charging the bills to the bridal suite. Farah and I tagged along for wont of anything better to do at the time.
III
The coffee shop had been a bad idea and given the patchy service at almost 2 a.m., the other folks bailed one after another. Farah suggested that she turn in and I offered to see that she got to her room in good shape. Surprisingly she was on the same floor as the bridal suite and my room, perhaps I should have figured that the bookings were made concurrently. In fact her room was directly opposite where I was staying.
"Would you like to come in for a nightcap?" she asked.
I was ready to join her in a wink, but clarified just in case, "what sort of nightcap?"
"Oh, I managed to bring a couple of bottles of vodka and scotch from the duty free," she let me know, "and no one checked at customs." She had been foolish to bring alcohol into the country, but lucky that no one at the airport or at the hotel security had found the stuff. Guess it was karma for us.
"I'll tell you what, why do we not take the booze over to my room, the view from my window is spectacular?"