It was Arranged

The combination of clear blue water, pure sunshine, and lunch should make me happy. An obnoxious bird literally honked and a few wasps dive bombed us, but these events were laughable. So, are you married? Three pairs of hard brown eyes stared at me as I said, "No, divorced. " "How many divorces?"Just one," this question made me kinda smile actually. "So, are you looking?" "Huh?" That came from nowhere. So many questions. I carefully and politely said, "I'm happy."
"Well then", he said..we have a saying here in Pakistan. "What's that?" I asked. He then began to explain something about Pakistani men, but I clearly didn't understand it. This whole conversation was really perplexing. "I don't get it," I said. He sighed.

He explained lots of things to me. The concept of having more than one wife for instance. I'm not sure why, but it took me by surprise. He told me that it was quite common. Actually, I had no occasion to think about it one way or another. He said that there should be an age difference between a wife and a husband of 10-12 years. The husband should be older.

He then began to talk on arranged marriages. I have an arranged marriage, he announced.
You do?
Yes, I do.
I had been working and I remember my mom asked me if I liked this beautiful girl she had introduced me to. Just recalled that she was beautiful and that was it. So, I told my mom, yea sure.
Next thing I know we were engaged and then married.
All I did was work and she was also working, but then she got sick..an appendicitis. I had to sit with her at the hospital. That's when I fell in love with her.
One of the men is shaking his head. Its the unmarried one. He is always telling me, he does not want to get married. We move on to discussing other things and finishing up our lunch.

I'm not reminded of this conversation until I'm checking out at the grocery store three days later. There is a family, which consists of a young woman with an older man and their daughter. He is not happy with their purchases. He puts half of them back on the counter. She looks as though she does not care whatsoever. He has thick rimmed glasses and grey chest hair popping out of his polo shirt. He's wearing blue jeans and a fancy watch. His wife is fashionable and their child is wearing cut off jeans and a t-shirt. It didn't seem to me that there was anything out of the ordinary, but my mind immediately jumps back to our little conversation at the pool.

I immediately look around the store with a pair of new eyes and a whole new set of questions builds for our next lunch meeting.