Sophia nodded, understanding a bit where he was coming from.

She tried hard to see it from his perspective, even though she felt that she was too young to be thinking about marriage.

Dating, being in a relationship and having a serious relationship were all different things.

One dated to find someone compatible then would enter a relationship. Finally, it becomes a 'serious relationship' when you want to get married. Some actually live together first before getting married, just to 'test' the waters or perhaps, not truly wanting to take that final step that they deem 'unnecessary'.

People normally do it in that order, more so when one is young. There is always time, right? And how sure are you that the person is the one? You don't want to tie yourself down so soon, right?

Thus, the older you get, the less time is spent on dating, or rather - you date with a view of going into a serious relationship.

That is how Sophia always viewed it and that is how it is for her.

For Ali, however, it was completely different. His culture, or way of life, is such that the person you date is the person you marry. He had told her that before, and she hadn't quite truly understood that.

Now, however, she could see the slight difference.

When she was just viewing him as a 'boyfriend', she didn't think about getting along with his family, or stuff like that. Those were supposed to be for 'later'. But if she was to view him as a potential husband, then all of those 'later' stuff ... was actually very important, wasn't it?

When you decide to commit yourself, into the relationship, your thoughts and views are different.

That is probably what Ali meant.

"Sophia," Ali began again, "I'd like to bring you home to meet my parents."

Sophia's eyes flew wide open.

Her first instinct was to scream, 'It's too soon!'

But when she saw the earnest desire in his eyes to bring her into his life, she swallowed it down.

This is definitely what he meant by treating her seriously, and she should reciprocate as well. She had been curious before but had never asked. So, this would be a good first step.

Thinking about the existence of God was too profound. Sophia figured that it would be better to see what Ali's family is like first. What would living with him be like? As his wife? What would her mother-in-law be like?

Just thinking about it made her go into a cold sweat.

Ali, still awaiting and answer, saw how much she was starting to look very scared.

He gripped her hand tightly and said, "I will be there with you. I will protect you. But if you don't think you're ready yet, it's okay. We don't have to do this now."

Sophia looked at him again and saw the sincerity in his eyes.

"Okay," she answered.

Ali nodded, "Just tell me when you're ready, and I'll bring you home."

"No, I mean, okay to meeting with your parents," Sophia explained. She realised that her answer was a bit ambiguous, and he had thought she meant 'okay' to him saying that she need not meet them now.

Ali's eyes shone and he broke into a huge smile, "That's great! I'll let my parents know. Is next weekend okay?"

Next weekend? Great. At least she had a week to mentally prepare herself.

"Okay," she said again.

"But before then, I should meet with your parents first," Ali said, dropping another bombshell.

"Okay?" she squeaked.

✿ The Weekend ✿

Sophia felt nervous.

She was at home, all ready and waiting for Ali to come. He would be picking her up from home, but before taking her to his house, he had wanted to meet up with her parents.

To formally ask them permission to date their daughter.

She found that so-old-school, but then again, most of the things he did was rather 'old school'. At least he wasn't going to go and tell them that he was dating her with a view of marriage. They'd probably flip at that.

Sophia wasn't worried about her parents not accepting Ali, even though he's a Muslim and of a different race. They're very laid back in that sense.

She wasn't nervous because of that.

Oh no, she was nervous over the fact that they'd be having dinner at Ali's house later.

Sophia was already downstairs, waiting for Ali to come. Her brother was beside her, grinning away at her obvious discomfort.

"You? Got a boyfriend?" scoffed her brother, "Which dork actually had such bad taste?"

Just then, the sound of a car driving up their driveway was heard. Sophia's brother's head whipped to the window, not believing the sound that he was hearing.