by Lara Hunter
Emily’s face filled with its usual pink flush and she looked back up at the sky, suddenly self-conscious. Her eyes were blue-green in color, crystal clear with a darker blue, wavy design surrounding the pupil. A deep ocean, her mother used to say.
“Thank you,” she said quietly.
“You don’t take compliments well,” he mused.
She shrugged, sand nestling into her neck as she did so. The feeling was warm and comfortable in a strange way, like she was that much more connected to the earth around her. She wasn’t usually like this—she was never the girl to lay in the sand or dig in the dirt. Too much hassle on laundry day.
“Can I ask you something and hope it won’t have you heading for the hills?” Tariq asked, almost bashfully.
“Sure.”
“We only have a few hours left in my hometown and I was hoping—if it doesn’t seem too forward—maybe you would meet my parents for dinner?”
Emily nearly squealed with delight; she wasn’t alone in her feelings toward the Sheikh. She wasn’t sure what it was exactly, but something at the very core of her being felt strangely tied to this man—attracted in a profound way, both mentally and physically. She felt another wave of heat rush through her face and she could no longer hide her grin.
“Can I take that beautiful smile as a yes?”
“Yes, of course!” she said happily. “Are they, I mean will they… like me?”
“What’s not to like,” he winked. “Shall we?”
NINE
It had taken around an hour to arrive at Tariq’s house from the beach, giving Emily plenty of time to try to brush the sand out of her hair and fix her makeup in the car mirror. She was so excited about Tariq’s newly revealed feelings toward her that she almost forgot to be nervous about her appearance in front of his parents.
Before long, the car pulled up at a modestly upper-class residence in a well-to-do neighborhood. For oil tycoons, the family tried to keep a simple lifestyle, Tariq explained. The driveway lead to a large white home with beautiful bay windows and pillars by the door that accented a lovely front porch.
Tariq and Emily walked up to the front door hand in hand, and Emily noticed Tariq’s grip tighten as his father answered the front door.
He was dressed in a long, brightly colored garb, had beautiful tan skin with few wrinkles, and a round face that his son obviously did not inherit from him. He had a welcoming smile and his eyes immediately brightened when he caught sight of Emily.
“Hello, hello, welcome!” he shouted, his deep voice jovial as he took Emily by the hands and brought her inside, leaving Tariq standing slack-jawed on the front porch. “Nuray! Nuray!” he called, still holding onto Emily’s hands as he led her through the house.
Emily could hear Tariq trailing behind her letting out breaths of embarrassment as he tried to catch up with them.
The house was just as beautiful on the inside as it was on the outside. Smooth walls and comfortable looking furniture decorated the rooms, along with endless photos of Tariq as a young boy. Emily marveled at them as she passed and turned around to offer Tariq devilish, teasing glances.
“Nuray, come quick, Tariq’s brought a girl home!”
Tariq smacked his forehead and blushed. He shook his head helplessly at Emily and sighed. “He’s talking to my mother,” he whispered.
“I figured,” she whispered back.
Tariq’s father, Nazeer, led her right into their brightly colored kitchen. Purples, oranges, and blues made a striking appearance in the kitchen tiling. The whole house was playful and bright in color. The couches were rounded and a deep blue with purple pillows; the kitchen table had an intricately woven lime green tablecloth covering it. The atmosphere from their house alone immediately endeared Emily to her date’s family.
Nuray, Tariq’s mother, was a beautiful woman. She looked to be in her early fifties, with big, expressive brown eyes and long black hair that was braided to the side. She wore a deep maroon dress and an orange shawl with carefully sewn florals in it. The shawl bounced to the side as she ran to Emily and grabbed her hands away from Nazeer’s.
“Tariq!” she squealed, looking at her son. “Tariq, who is this, my son?” She batted a hand at him when he didn’t immediately answer and cupped Emily’s face in her hands as though inspecting her. She smiled at the girl and looked at her husband before announcing, “She’s perfect! Look at her, Nazeer, isn’t she perfect?”
“Not as perfect as you dear,” he said with a tinge of humor in his tone. “Yes, she is perfect,” he finally agreed. “Forgive us,” he laughed. “I am Nazeer and this is my breathtaking wife, Nuray. Wouldn’t you say she’s breathtaking?”
Emily giggled nervously and began to nod. “Exceptionally,” she agreed.
Nuray’s eyes widened and she looked to Tariq with a motherly nod. “Oh Tariq,” she said, her voice full of charm, “we like her.”
“Mother, father!” Tariq started. “Let’s be civil, shall we? You haven’t even heard the poor girls name yet and you’re already jumping all over her.”
“It’s Emily,” she said quietly, tilting her head to the side as she did. She certainly saw where Tariq got his attentive side from. She’d been in his family’s home for less than five minutes and she already felt spoiled.
“Stay for dinner,” Nuray insisted, looking back to Tariq for some sort of approval. “You are staying for dinner, aren’t you?”
“We’re only staying until tomorrow,” Tariq said. His smile read one way, but his tone read another. Emily could tell there was still some unspoken tension between the Sheikh and his parents. Perhaps they’d never really spoken about their disappointments, she surmised, or maybe it was Tariq who felt guilty about being around them.
Regardless of their family history, Nuray continued to stare at her son curiously, expecting an answer to her question. Emily’s stomach grumbled quietly; she could smell something heavenly cooking on the stove.
“Yes mother, we’re staying! No reason to assault the poor girl.” Seeing that she was free from his parents’ grasps, Tariq made his way to Emily’s side and took her hand into his, leading her to the dining room.
Before long, a traditional meal of vegetables, dips, chicken and rice, and delicious flatbreads was presented at the table along with some wine. The spread looked like something out of a magazine and all of the sudden Emily was back in disbelief mode. How did she end up here? Suddenly it seemed inconceivable that she was in the office yesterday worrying about Mike and now she was in the Middle East having a delicious meal with a delightful family and their handsome son.
“So tell me, Emily,” Nuray began. “How long have you and my son been a couple?”
“Uhhh…” she stammered, taking a strategic sip from her wine before looking up bashfully at Tariq.
“Long enough to know I believe Emily is one of a kind,” Tariq said with ease, charm and sincerity dripping from every word.
“What do you do, dear?” Tariq’s father asked, scooping up some hummus in his flatbread before looking back up at Emily with curiosity.
“I’m an accountant at a travel company in Phoenix,” she said with a polite smile. “Actually that’s sort of how Tariq and I met. It was at a charity event. I was up for auction, to raise money, and—”
“Oh, that’s my Tariq,” Nazeer interrupted with a sly grin. “He’s a charmer, isn’t he? Did he sweep you off your feet?”
Emily blushed and Nuray batted her husband’s arm playfully. “Oh dear, you’re embarrassing the poor thing!”
“It’s not hard to do, so don’t worry about it,” Emily said, her face turning a color that should only be reserved for tomatoes. “Yes. Tariq’s certainly been a charming man, so far.”
“Did he take you out to see the sights?” his mother asked; both parents now seeming to hang on every word Emily said.
Tariq stepped in, then, and began to regale them with their tales of the day and all of the places they had seen so far in Al Dirhan. His mother tea
sed him in much the same way that Emily did, saying that he was supposed to be a leader in romance and yet all he’d done was taken her to burial sites. He commented that she and Emily were going to make wonderful friends, to which the table laughed.
“So, Emily, I’m sure Tariq has raved about his parents to you,” Nazeer said with some suspicion as he looked at her.
“Oh,” she grinned sheepishly and looked to Tariq in embarrassment. “This was sort of a spur of the moment thing, actually…”
“Well, I’ve been in the oil industry for forty years now, just like my father before me. My wife was a nurse before she joined in our family business.”
“That’s very impressive,” Emily said with genuine interest. “And how did the two of you meet?” she asked, trying not to scarf down everything on the table.
“Well,” Nuray began hesitantly, looking to her son for permission, it seemed. He closed his eyes and made a waving motion with his hand for her to continue. “Our marriage was arranged,” she said simply. “It was the happiest day of my life when I finally got to marry Nazeer.”
“That’s really lovely,” was all Emily could say. Way to open your big mouth, she thought. Meeting the parents was awkward enough when you’d been dating the person for months, let alone two weeks. And now, thanks to her bright idea questioning, they were on the uncomfortable issue of arranged marriages.
Emily looked to Tariq to see whether he looked annoyed or not, but he simply looked down at his plate. Maybe enough time had passed that the subject no longer bothered him?
“You weren’t nervous that you wouldn’t get along?” Emily asked in a small voice, unsure if she was stepping over any boundaries.
“Oh no,” Nuray shook her head as she refilled Emily’s wine glass. “Nazeer has been the best thing to ever happen to me. And not just because he’s rich, you know.”
Emily and Nazeer erupted in laughter. “Good to know, dear,” Nazeer said with a chuckle.
“I’m serious! He’s everything I ever wanted in a husband. He’s kind, generous, and quite the dancer.”
Emily was positively tickled by the comment. “Dancing is important to you?”
Nuray closed her eyes with an unspoken joy and nodded; her hand now moving over her heart. “Oh yes. You know, every night when I would come home from work, he would be here waiting for me with my favorite record on. I could be in the worst mood and he would still make me take his hand and dance with me until I felt better.”
“That’s amazing,” Emily swooned.
“He’s an amazing man.”
“I think this is my favorite conversation I’ve had in a while,” Nazeer said.
Tariq raised his eyebrows dismissively; staring forward in some kind of a daze. His mother stared at him with a look Emily couldn’t define.
“Did it worry you that you hadn’t really known him before you were married?” Emily asked, looking back and forth between the pair. The two of them seemed so happy. All she’d ever known of her parents were arguments. Over small things, sure, but arguments nonetheless.
Tariq’s parents, on the other hand, seemed not only to love each other but to genuinely like each other. Emily envied that; so far in her life, she’d never truly felt invested in her romantic relationships. She’d felt attached to boyfriends, sure, but she’d never felt head over heels. She’d never felt like she couldn’t get enough of them.
Until now, anyway.
If Tariq even was her boyfriend. She still wasn’t clear on the details of their courtship. Though she was sitting at a dinner table with his parents, so things were looking good.
“I wasn’t worried,” Nazeer said, his wife nodding in agreement. “I dated before your mother.” He looked to his son with a glint in his eyes. “I know this might be shocking to you, son, so cover your ears now if you still want to look at your father like an angel.”
This was the first time Tariq cracked a smile, slight as it was.
“I dated, unbeknownst to my parents; I was with a young woman for a year in high school and I never felt for her the way I felt about Nuray the day we met. I learned then that love isn’t about how long you’ve known someone for; it’s about how they make you feel and who they inspire you to be.”
“And what did Mother inspire you to be?” Tariq asked.
“A better man. I knew the second I met her that I wanted to be worthy of her respect. So I vowed to myself that I would always make sure she was my partner in life. I wanted her to like me.”
Emily looked at Tariq and offered him a private smile. “Sounds familiar.”
“Oh, and you should have seen him trying to impress me!” Nuray cut in. “Every day was something new. He would take me and my family out on the boat and try to catch fish. He was so embarrassed one day I caught a jesh umalhala. That’s about two feet long, I suppose. He was so embarrassed because all he caught was this little yanam. Just a baby!”
“’Look at what Nazeer caught!’” Nazeer mocked, giving his wife a reproving stare. “That’s what she yelled back to her family. She was laughing so hard she was crying,” Nazeer related, red now forming in his cheeks. “I was so humiliated, but then she picked up her umalhala and gave it to her mother. She pretended that was the fish I caught. Her parents were so impressed, they still rave about it to this day.”
“That’s so cute!” Emily grinned.
“Mother!” Tariq said, now finally in on the conversation. “You lied for him!”
Nuray chuckled; her body bouncing in her seat as she wiped tears of laughter out of her eyes. “I had to! He just seemed so sad!”
The rest of the night went on with more hilarious stories from his parents about their marriage and raising Tariq, and it was during that evening that Emily decided that's what she wanted—a love like that. People who stood by each other and vowed to be the best people they could be just so they could make the other happy.
To Emily’s delight, Tariq dropped his walls and actually participated in their conversation with charming additions and his full attention. It was the most fun she'd had in a long time.
At the end of the night, Tariq’s parents offered to drive the couple back to the airport to catch their flight. Emily and Tariq hopped into the backseat of the luxury vehicle, and as soon as the car began moving, Nuray turned in her seat and smiled knowingly at the pair, her eyes sparkling with delight as she said, “So, when are you getting married?”
“Mother!” Tariq cried.
“Well!” she defended. “Come on now! You're nearly thirty, my son. It's time,” she said, tapping her finger against her watch. “And Emily is so lovely. We love Emily, don't we, Nazeer?”
“Love her!” he called, his eyes not leaving the road.
“Well, thank you,” Emily said with a timid smile. In truth, she didn't know when the last time was that she'd felt so charmed by someone’s parents.
“Well?” Nuray said in a hopeful tone, her eyes flicking back and forth between the pair.
“Mother,” Tariq said again with a low laugh. “Please. We haven’t been together for long.”
“Your father and I married just a week after we met! Please, she’s perfect,” Nuray intoned. And then her voice took on an edge that only mothers can pull off. It was somewhere between a shrill lecture and a loving nudge as she pleaded, “We so want to see you settle down.”
“Grandkids!” Nazeer interjected, fully knowing he was being a troublemaker. “The best thing about grandkids,” he added, eyeing Tariq in the rearview mirror, “is that they’re small and cute, and as soon as they start screaming you can send them home!”
Nuray’s eyes widened as she stared at her husband and then the couple continued to taunt and tease Tariq on the subject of marriage and children.
“We tried to get him to marry, you know, Emily?” Nuray said, her tone now somewhere between annoyed and factual.
“I heard,” Emily responded awkwardly. So much for not bringing it up.
“Oh, here we go…” Tariq complaine
d, burying his face in his hands.
“Oh, stop!” his mother chided. “But then he left for America.”
“Which turned out to be wildly successful,” Tariq interjected.
“But you know what?” Nuray continued. “We are so glad he didn’t.”
Tariq looked up, his face creasing with emotion as he gazed at his mother. His expression said he wanted to ask more, but his mother picked up on this before he could say anything further. She reached her hand behind her and tapped her son’s knee with the tips of her fingers. “You did what was right for you.”
“Now, do what’s right for Emily and make her an honorable woman!” Nazeer cheered from the driver’s seat.