by Emma Easter
“You look absolutely beautiful,” he said to her.
She smiled and thanked him.
He studied her face. As usual, it was free from makeup. He smiled as he noticed that her lips looked shiny and full. She had put on some lip gloss today and her lips looked even more inviting than they usually did. He couldn’t resist kissing her. He pulled her close and gently kissed her. Her lips were soft and full and tasted like strawberries, and he slowly savored them, kissing her much longer than he’d intended to.
He pulled back after a while and then laughed and apologized. “I’m sorry, Zainah. I have wiped off the gloss on your lips, but I just couldn’t resist.”
“That’s okay,” she said, smiling widely. “Who cares about the gloss anyway? I wore some because Trisha insisted I did.”
“It looks good on you,” he said to her. “But you look just as beautiful without it.”
“I’ll wear it again if you like it,” she said, and opened her purse. She brought out a small, shiny tube, and swiped the gloss on her lips. “How do my lips look?” she asked him.
“Kissable,” he said, tempted to kiss her again. He resisted so he would not wipe off her gloss again, took her hand, and they both walked to his car together.
As he drove to the venue they had chosen for their wedding, he said, “We haven’t talked about how many children we want to have.” He turned to wink at her and she smiled, an embarrassed look on her face.
“I remember a friend asking me about that,” Zainah said. “I told her I wanted a lot of children since I grew up in a big family. What about you, Faizan? How many children… or as you Americans would say, kids, do you want?”
He turned briefly, just to look at her. She looked so beautiful and she was his. He smiled and then focused on the road again. He answered, “I want as many as you do.”
She giggled and then said, “Well, that means we are going to have a house full of children because that is how many I want.”
He laughed and then took her hand and kissed it. His heart raced with excitement as he imagined living with her every day and waking up beside her every morning. Lord, please let our wedding day come quickly.
Her hand remained in his as he drove the rest of the way to the venue. When they got there, he parked in front of the white building that looked like a cross between a mansion and a boutique hotel. Before they went in, he said, “One day, we will tell our children about how we met.”
Zainah chuckled. “That would be so much fun, telling them about how you actually fell from the sky and landed in my lap.”
He laughed. “That I did.”
This time, she was the one who leaned in and kissed him. Just as they separated, his phone rang. He plucked it out of his pocket and looked at it. It was Lauren calling. He held back a groan. What does she want now? he asked himself.
He ignored the call and put the phone back in his pocket.
Zainah looked at him with a curious expression on her face. “Who was that?” she asked.
For a second, he considered not telling her who it was. Why give her any cause for concern? However, with her, he wanted to be an open book. He wanted her to know everything about him. After all, she already knew now of his double life as a covert CIA agent.
He said, trying to make his voice as even as possible, “It was just Lauren.”
Zainah nodded slowly and asked, “Why didn’t you answer it?”
He blinked. Should he tell her that Lauren still had feelings for him, and that, just this afternoon, she had made it clear? He decided not to. He would tell her everything, but telling her another woman still had feelings for him even when said women knew he was engaged would trouble her unnecessarily. “I’m sure she just wants to find out something about the welfare department. I’ll call her later.”
You are not being truthful. You should tell her, a voice in his head said.
He brushed the voice aside. There was no need to tell her. Why worry her needlessly? He smiled at her, took her hand again, and they walked into the venue. What he didn’t need right now was to start worrying about Zainah finding out that Lauren still liked him. Hopefully, Lauren would find someone else soon and forget about him. Right now, he would concentrate on making his bride-to-be happy and giving her the best wedding she could possibly have.
Chapter Ten
Zainah shed her simple house dress. She put on the long-fitted dress she had bought at the clothing store near Trisha’s bookstore yesterday especially for her outing with Faizan today. She looked at herself in the mirror and then smiled in self-mockery. She looked like Leila did when they’d stayed at Fatima’s house. Whenever Leila went out, she had put on these kinds of tight dresses that Zainah had never seen her in before. Zainah had been shocked at the time about how tight the dresses were and at their low necklines. They had quarreled a few times about Leila’s appearance.
But now, here I am, dressed in something very similar, about to go out into the world. She shook her head. That just went to show that it wasn’t right to judge anyone about their appearance, she thought with amusement.
And then she felt suddenly sad and slightly guilty as her mind focused on Leila. She didn’t even know where her best friend was. Since the day she had called Leila and told her about Audrey and Sienna’s offer to act as sponsors so she could come to the United States for the wedding and Leila had refused, Zainah hadn’t called her.
Fear suddenly gripped her as she remembered what Leila had told her about going to Nira to look for Malik. What if something bad had happened to her? What if she’d been discovered and forced this time to marry that old man, Dauda? That would not be good, Zainah thought. She had been so absorbed with her wedding plans and with Faizan that she had not bothered to try to contact her best friend since the last time they’d spoken.
She made a mental note to call Miriam this evening. Hopefully, she would get through to her and then she could speak with Leila. That is, if Leila was still at the camp.
Lord, please let her not have gone to Nira, Zainah silently prayed.
She combed hair and braided it, and then slipped on a pair of kitten heels. She picked up a tube of pink lip gloss from the dresser and swiped some on her lips. She looked in the mirror and smiled, remembering the funny expression on Faizan’s face when, after he’d kissed her yesterday, he’d told her he had wiped off all her lip gloss.
She grabbed her purse from the bed and went to the living room to wait for Faizan. Turning on the TV, she sighed and began to mindlessly flip through the different channels. She had a love-hate relationship with the TV set. Since she hadn’t watched TV for years, it had all been very unfamiliar to her when she’d arrived in America and started to watch it again. Some of the things she watched were shocking and many times she knew she shouldn’t be watching it. Still, she went on watching.
She shook her head as she went from one channel to the other and asked herself what she was doing. She turned the television off and then glanced at the clock on the wall to see what time it was. It was already noon. Faizan would be here anytime now.
She had told him the day before that she had a surprise for him that she wanted to show him today. He had tried to make her tell him immediately, but she had refused.
The doorbell rang, and she stood up and walked to the door. She opened it and smiled widely.
“Hi,” he said. He took her hands and kissed her, and then he gazed at her as he had done yesterday; with admiration in his eyes. Grinning, he said, “You look beautiful, Zainah. You always do, but today, you look especially stunning.”
She beamed. “Thank you.” She couldn’t resist kissing him again, and then she said, “Are you ready for your surprise today?”
He squeezed her hands and told her he was.
She locked the front door and followed him to his car. Trisha had left with Ruby for her bookstore early this morning, while Frank had left for his restaurant about two hours ago. Zainah liked living with Trisha and Frank, and she liked taking care
of Ruby when her parents went out together. Ruby was a handful, but she was a cute and beautiful child. However, Zainah couldn’t wait to get married to Faizan and finally move into their own house with him.
Faizan turned and grinned at her as she put on her seatbelt. “So, are you going to tell me now what surprise you have for me today?”
“Okay, I will. Do you remember where we were the day you got the phone call to go on the CIA mission?”
He nodded but said nothing.
She said, “We were looking for the perfect house to start our lives together. Well, I chose the house for us.”
He turned to her and for a brief moment, he frowned deeply. And then he broke out laughing.
She smiled and asked him, “What’s so funny, Faizan?”
He said in a voice full of mirth, “I completely forgot that we had to get a house before we got married. It’s one of the most important things to do, and I totally forgot about it. Maybe I would have moved into Trisha and Frank’s house with you after our wedding.”
She laughed. “Well, I did not forget. I went to look at the houses again when I found myself worrying way too much about you. Sometimes I went with Audrey when she was in town. It helped keep my mind off my worries and also helped assure me in some way that you would come back and we would finally get married and start a new life together in the house I ended up choosing.”
He smiled at her and nodded. “So, which one did you end up choosing?”
“You will see once we get there,” she answered. “Let’s go. I’ll give you the directions to the specific house that I chose.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He gave her a mock salute and then began to drive.
She giggled and turned to look out the window. She began to give him directions to the modern three-bedroom house he had told her was his favorite out of all the houses they had viewed, and he chuckled when he realized where they were going. When he parked in front of the house and they both got out of the car, he looked up at the building and turned to hug her.
“It was my favorite house out of all the houses we both looked at,” he said. “I am glad you picked this one. Thank you.”
“I loved all the houses,” she said to him. “But I wanted to live in the house that made you smile.” She took his hand and when they went to the front door, she opened her purse, brought out the keys to the house, and unlocked the door. They walked into the foyer and he said to her, “How come you already have the keys?”
She turned to take both his hands and then looked into his eyes. “This is the real surprise, Faizan.”
He stared quizzically at her. “What is the real surprise?” he asked.
She smiled and said, “This house is fully ours now. Audrey, Sienna, and Trisha bought this house for us. They said it was an early wedding gift.”
Faizan’s mouth dropped open and he blinked rapidly.
She felt slightly worried by the look on his face. She didn’t know if he was just too surprised to speak, or not happy about the fact that his sisters had bought them a house. She said to him, “What’s wrong? Aren’t you happy, Faizan?”
His face broke into a smile and he hugged her tightly. “I am happy,” he said to her. “It’s just that I’m really surprised. It’s really nice of them, but…” He stopped speaking.
“What is the matter?” she put her hands on his shoulders.
“I know they have the money and can afford this because of their inheritance, but, it’s just that I wanted to buy the house for both of us.”
She lifted his chin with her finger and looked into his eyes. “I understand, Faizan. But look at it from your sisters’ points of view. They have the money and they wanted to give us a wedding gift that would be memorable. And just like me, they were terribly worried about you. It was their way of assuring themselves that you would come back. You can say that it was like an act of faith. Besides, we can then use the money you would have paid for the house for our future children.”
He smiled widely and nodded. “It’s a huge wedding present. I’ll have to specially thank them for it. That’s really generous of them.”
“So are you happy about it? Because I want you to be.”
“Yes, I’m ecstatic.” He hugged her tightly again and then let her go.
She smiled, feeling giddy, but also a little hesitant as they walked into the living room. His sisters had also furnished the whole house. Would he be happy, or would he think it was way too much?
She looked at him and then smiled. His mouth had dropped open again as he looked around the living room. It had been furnished tastefully with cream and gold curtains, a gold Persian rug, and cream leather chairs. The gold accents around the living room gave it an expensive but not overdone look.
“Wow! They also furnished the living room,” he said.
“They did,” she put her arm around his shoulder. “Actually, they furnished the entire house.” She held her breath as she looked at him.
He beamed. “Okay, maybe I need to call them right now and thank them. This is really generous.”
She smiled in relief at the look on his face. He looked genuinely pleased; very happy, in fact. “Let’s see the entire house,” she said.
They went on a tour of the three-bedroom house. It was big, but definitely nowhere as big as Audrey’s or even Trisha’s. She liked that. They would still both be able to easily find each other if they were in different parts of the house.
They came to a room that was unfurnished, and he turned to her and asked curiously, “How come this room isn’t furnished?”
A thread of excitement went through her as she glanced around the room. She answered, “That’s because this will be the nursery. Since we don’t yet know what our first baby’s gender will be, I decided that this room would be left unfurnished until we do.”
He looked at her for a long moment and then took her in his arms. Wrapping his arms tightly around her, he said, “I can’t wait for that day when we will hold our first baby in our arms. You will be such a great mother.”
“And you will be a great father,” she said to him.
She stayed in his arms for a long moment, completely content to stay that way forever. They separated reluctantly after a while and then they went to look at the rest of the house.
After they finished the house tour about half an hour later, they left. On the way back to Trisha’s, Zainah said to Faizan, “I can’t believe we will be married in just a few days.”
“I can’t wait,” he said. He took her hand in his, and they held hands as they chatted about their future until they got to Trisha’s house. Just before Zainah exited the car, Faizan asked if he could pick her up in the evening to see a movie. “Or we can go out to dinner if that is what you prefer.”
“Oh, Faizan, I can’t. I’m so sorry. I promised my new friend, Carrie, that I would go with her to visit her grandmother who resides at The Fruitful Vines.”
“Oh, okay, no problem. You’ll be free tomorrow morning, won’t you?”
“Definitely,” she said.
“Okay then, I’ll pick you up in the morning so we can spend the day together.”
“I would love that,” she said. She chuckled. “Thank God that we’ve basically finished everything we have to do for the wedding, or I would be so frazzled. We have your sisters to thank for that.”
“Yeah, they’ve been great. Trisha would not be back from the bookstore by now or I would have come in to thank her for the house. I think I will go to the bookstore now to thank her for the generous gift. I will call Audrey and Sienna while I’m there.”
She kissed him and then got out of the car. After waving to him, she went into the house. She immediately changed into a comfortable t-shirt and a pair of jeans. Jeans was not something she was used to, not until she’d come to Rosefield. In fact, she couldn’t remember ever wearing them. Not back in Nira when she was a teenager, and certainly not in the women’s camp. It was another item of clothing she had objected to when Leila had w
orn them at Fatima’s house.
She left her room and went into the kitchen to cook something special for Trisha, Frank, and Ruby. She wanted to use the gesture to say thank you once again for everything they had done for her and Faizan. She decided to cook her special lamb tagine and couscous for them. She had made it a week after they’d come back from their honeymoon and they had loved it. Even Ruby, who was a very picky eater, had enjoyed the couscous.
When she finished cooking the meal, she went into her room, sat on her bed, and began to read her Bible. After a while, she stretched out on the bed, still reading. Soon, she unknowingly fell asleep. She awoke some time later when she felt something or someone scratching her nose. She opened her eyes and beamed at Ruby who was standing beside the bed, smiling mischievously as she scratched Zainah’s nose with her little fingers, and then touched her cheeks and her hair.
Trisha came into the room and chuckled, “Ruby, you naughty little thing! There you are! Come, let Aunt Zainah sleep.”
Zainah shook her head and smiled. “Don’t worry about it, Trisha,” she said. “I’m awake now.” She stood up from the bed, lifted Ruby into her arms, and went out of the room with Trisha.
Frank came back an hour later and they all had dinner together.
Carrie arrived at about eight o’clock. Zainah quickly grabbed her purse from her room, kissed Ruby’s cheeks, and waved goodbye to Frank and Trisha. She went out to Carrie’s car with her.
As they drove to the old people’s home, Zainah chatted with Carrie for a while, and then looked out the window at the passing cars. She was grateful for Carrie’s friendship. When Faizan had been away and Trisha and Frank were still on their honeymoon, Carrie’s friendship had kept her from being really lonely.
She remembered the day she met Carrie. It was a few days after she’d arrived in Rosefield and just a day after Faizan had left for his mission. She had been pushing a cart and walking up and down the aisles of the supermarket, totally confused by all the brands of different products on the shelves. She only wanted to buy a few things, but there were so many brands of all the things she had on her list that she didn’t know which ones to pick or which was better than the other.