Now he is totally speechless with shock as Shani looks at him hopefully. Shani wonders how he will respond to this. It is the first time she has ever attempted to guilt trip someone and she isn’t sure if it will work. Finally, the boy says “We love each other, so why not?” The girl smiles when she sees that it’s working and he’s acquiescing to her demand. “I will marry you, baby.” Henry gives her a smile and kisses her gently, unaware that he’s just been manipulated into agreeing to a teenage marriage by his extremely cunning girlfriend.
Shani hides her mischievous grin well and pretends to be nothing but relieved as she leans into the kiss and folds her arms around him. She kisses him back hard, sucking on his lower lip, rubbing her hands through his hair. “You are so wonderful, baby,” she tells him. “There is just one thing left. You have to talk to my father and plan the wedding with him. He already wants you to marry me and all that’s left to discuss is the finer details. There is nothing to worry about now, baby.” This statement is accurate since her father is actually probably at home laughing right now, thinking about how they plotted this together.
Henry steels his nerves over the next several hours. Shani tells him to relax as he waits until it is time to leave the house. He gets over to her place with her and the two of them hold hands as they go inside. He has no idea that his girlfriend and her dad set this up, and is still under the impression that they are getting married to save her family’s reputation. The idea that he’s tricked never crossed his mind, not even once. That is how well Shani pulled this off, with her superb acting talent that made her excel at drama classes throughout all her school years.
Henry sees Abdullah waiting inside the living room and immediately walks to the man, his face set in determination. He feels nervous as hell but knows that this is what he must do and does not ball away from what lies ahead, tapping into all his inner courage. “Mr Hassan, I had no intention of bringing disgrace to you or your family,” he begins in the most polite tone possible. “I want you to know that I love your daughter. She is smart, kind and makes me feel warm whenever I am with her. I will take the responsibility for my actions and marry her, if you will give me permission to do so.”
Abdullah makes eye contact with his daughter, who is standing right behind Henry right now. Shani nods, a smile in her eyes as she waits for her dad to say what they agreed on. “Well, I must say that I think you would make the perfect son in law, so yes, you can marry Shani. Just promise me you will never hurt her,” he says to Henry. Henry is happy that this is going so well. Even though Shani already told him before the two came here that marriage is what her dad wants for them, it is still so surreal to him.
He has envisioned a lot for his future but never thought that he would end up getting married at the age of 18, or at least engaged, since they have not set a date for the wedding yet. This is all way more than he ever expected from his previously mundane high school life. “I promise to be the best husband I can be to her, and that I will never hurt Shani. I won’t let you down, sir,” Henry vows, his eyes glinting with determination as he makes a promise to himself to be the best husband possible to the love of his life.
Abdullah nods approvingly and gets up to embrace his future son in law. The man does so both to show that he is now part of the family and to hide the smile that is growing across his happy face. “Very good, my boy,” he tells the teenager. “Now, if you will excuse us, I have something important to discuss with my daughter now.” Henry nods and leaves, understanding that they are just going to have a father daughter conversation, but not that it will be about him. How could he possibly know when they concealed it so well?
As soon as he is out the door, the two remaining people immediately giggle like idiots. Well, Shani more so than her father, who is holding most of it in. “I can’t believe it worked so well,” she tells him, clutching her stomach as she tries not to laugh. The girl is happy that her plan worked and she is going to get to marry the boy she loves. But she is extremely amused too at how easy he made it to secure his hand in marriage, when they hadn’t even been dating for a year yet. “Oh, thank you so much for your help, dad.”
Her father waves it aside. “It’s no big deal honey. No need to worry about it,” he tells her. “Besides, I do want that boy as my son in law too. He is going to be a good husband to you and a great father to my grandchild.” The two of them laugh and high five, cackling in a devious way as they discuss the future. Everything is going wonderfully and they are sure soon things would just get even better. Shani is delighted thinking of what her and Henry’s wedding will be like. She is already picturing all the different types of flowers to use.
Then the girl is reminded of something that is very important. Shani could not believe that she forgot about this. How could she? “I still need to go talk to his parents,” she tells Abdullah. “Henry’s mom and I met once but I still have to meet his father, and then ask both of them to accept me as their daughter in law.” She suddenly feels nervous, just like she is pretty sure her now fiancé felt mere moments ago. “I am sure his mom would be fine since she basically told me I could do whatever I want with her son, but his father might not want him to go into a teenage marriage. I’ll have to talk to him tomorrow.”