by Holly Rayner
“Certainly,” Ali said.
“I think things are going to go pretty well between us. So, um, can you hold that girlfriend slot open for a while? You know, make sure no one else fills the position.”
Ali’s face glowed. “There’s no one else I’d rather hold it open for.”
Chapter 14
Alyssa
Alyssa crouched forward in her desk chair, scanning the documents she’d downloaded for the new case.
“Details, details, details,” she muttered. “It’s all in the details.”
Pausing to rest her eyes, she took a note of a statement and tried not to look at the time on her computer. She was at the office all day, anyway. Why bother torturing herself with watching the minutes tick by?
“Hey.”
Alyssa looked up and found Lucy standing in front of her desk, a stack of folders in her arms.
“Of course it’s you,” Alyssa teased.
“What?” Lucy feigned ignorance. “I’m just taking these papers to Jim. Sorry if I thought I’d stop by and tell you there’s a hottie sheikh at the front desk for you.”
“What?” Alyssa yelped. Jumping to her feet, she looked toward the front of the open area. Sure enough, Ali stood at the front, right by the receptionist desk. He had his back to her, but it wasn’t like that made him any less distinguishable.
“Girl,” Lucy muttered out of the corner of her mouth. “You need to chill.”
Alyssa smoothed her hair and looked around. Several of her coworkers were staring at her.
“What’s he here for? Did he say?” she hissed to Lucy.
“My guess is lunch, seeing as it’s noon.”
“Right.”
Her mouth dry, Alyssa left her desk and walked towards Ali. It had been three days since the movie night at her house, and they had only texted a bit each day since then. She was thrilled to see him, but his showing up announced at her work had her a little rattled. If she’d known he would be dropping by, she would have put more effort into getting ready that morning.
Then again, he had seen her mopey, woe-is-me look on Sunday. If that hadn’t scared him away, a misfit blouse and clumpy mascara probably wouldn’t.
“Hi,” Alyssa said.
Ali turned around, and it was like someone had opened a window and the purest, sweetest air in existence had drifted in. He wore another suit, this one in charcoal gray, and his familiar cologne wrapped around Alyssa.
“Hello,” he said, his voice making heat bloom through her.
“How’d you find me here?” she asked.
He cocked his head and gave her a funny look. “You told me where you worked.”
“Oh. Right. Of course.” Alyssa shook her head. “Silly question.”
“Is this an all right time?” he asked. “I know I didn’t call, but I had a morning meeting a few blocks from here, and I thought I might take you out to lunch.”
“Er, yeah, this is good…” Alyssa glanced over her shoulder, caught several people watching them with unconcealed curiosity, and looked back at Ali. Visitors weren’t totally unknown in the office, but everyone seemed to be taking Ali in with exceptional interest.
Was it because of how handsome he was? Or had the news that Alyssa was dating a sheikh already made the rounds?
They’re probably just amazed to see me with a man.
Stifling a laugh at that realization, Alyssa touched Ali’s arm. “Now is great. I’ll go grab my purse, and I’ll meet you at the elevator.”
In the elevator, Alyssa turned to Ali as the doors closed, about to ask him where he wanted to go. To her shock, though, she found herself in his arms. He kissed her firmly, and Alyssa gasped with surprise and pleasure.
Grinning, Ali released her. “I couldn’t wait,” he explained. “Three days has felt like a long time.”
“I’m not complaining.”
“Oh, no?” Ali cocked an eyebrow, and he reached for her again, but the elevator doors opened on a new floor and they had to quickly step apart as several people joined them.
“Sushi?” Ali asked as they exited onto the street. He took Alyssa’s hand in his, not even bothering to look as he did so and making it seem like the most natural thing in the world.
“Sushi would be great,” Alyssa sighed. And so is everything else right now.
At a restaurant two blocks down from Alyssa’s office, they sat at a table next to a window full of orchids and hanging ivy. Alyssa broke her wooden chopsticks and ran their edges together to get rid of any tiny splinters sticking out. Ali watched her.
“I don’t really know if this is necessary,” Alyssa said. “Lucy did it once, and she made it sound like I’d get a splinter in my cheek if I didn’t, so…” She shrugged and placed the chopsticks on her appetizer plate.
“I simply enjoy watching you,” Ali said. “That’s all.”
Alyssa bit into her smile and ducked her face.
“What?” Ali asked.
“You make me smile a lot,” she explained, peeking up at him. “So much that it’s embarrassing.”
Ali threw his head back in laughter. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“It’s been a long time since I smiled this much.”
“Please don’t stop,” Ali said.
“Let’s turn the tables, because I’m actually blushing a lot right now.”
“I can tell. It’s very cute.”
“Stop,” Alyssa cried, her face getting hotter.
“Okay, okay.” Ali held his palms up in surrender.
Alyssa folded her hands on the table and leaned into them. “Tell me about your meeting.”
Ali, in the middle of taking a drink of green tea, made a face. “It was boring. All numbers. My father wants to open another restaurant here, and he wishes for me to oversee the process.”
“Is he too busy to do that himself?” Alyssa asked.
“Yes. Also, he wants me to take on more responsibility.”
Alyssa couldn’t help herself. “Is that so bad?” she slowly asked.
Ali opened his mouth then closed it. He seemed to be having a hard time answering. “I want to do something with my time, but not oversee a hospitality franchise.”
“Is that why your dad is coming into town? To check on his businesses?”
Ali scoffed. “That’s what he says, but really, he wishes to check in on me.”
“How do you know that?”
Ali tapped his sushi card against the table. He still hadn’t filled it out, and Alyssa hadn’t so much as picked up her pencil, either. She’d been too busy staring at the hunk across the table.
“This is his first time coming to the States in ten years,” Ali said.
“What?” Alyssa cried. “You’re kidding.”
“I promise you I’m not.”
“But he has so much here. His businesses…”
Ali shrugged. “Other people take care of them.”
“I see,” Alyssa said, except she didn’t completely. The life of the one percent was something entirely new to her. The idea of running a giant conglomerate of multiple businesses and never having visited many of them…she didn’t get that.
“Thank you again,” Ali said. He reached across the table and covered Alyssa’s hand with his.
“Ali.” She turned her hand over, and their palms kissed. “Don’t mention it.”
“Still, I’m grateful. My parents can be, ah… a lot to handle.”
Alyssa couldn’t ignore the fear creeping through her. “How so?”
But his gaze had drifted past her. “The waiter keeps looking over here. Maybe we should order. How long do you have for lunch?”
“An hour,” Alyssa said. She flipped her card over and checked the first box she came to. California roll. Nice and simple. She knew she liked that, and her mind was already too preoccupied to think about trying a new kind of sushi.
They handed the cards over to the waiter, and Alyssa immediately set her attention back on Ali. “What about your parents
is a lot to handle?”
Ali clasped his hands on the table and hesitated. “They have high expectations.”
“You told me that,” Alyssa said slowly, and then she got what he meant. “Oh. You mean of everyone.”
“Precisely.”
“What are they going to think of you being ‘engaged’ to a commoner such as myself?”
Alyssa was half joking, but also…that’s what she was, right? Compared to him, anyway.
Ali’s words were slow to come. “Let’s say their reaction was…mixed.”
“You told them already?”
“Yes. We had a short conversation, during which I told them you’re a paralegal from New York.”
“And?”
Ali sighed. “Alyssa…”
“Okay, if you’re not going to tell me, I have to assume it’s really bad.”
Ali’s jaw flexed. “It is not bad. I simply wish to spare you from…from…”
Alyssa barked out a laugh. “Can’t even find a soft way to put it, huh?”
Their eyes met, and Ali smiled. Right away, the tension broke.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “If you’d rather not go through with this—”
“Hey, I told you I would do it, and I’m not going back on my word. I just would love to get, you know, an idea of what I’m going up against here.”
“Okay. Fair enough.” Ali leaned back in his chair, draped an arm over its side, and nodded. “My parents—my mother, especially—can be…critical.”
“Gotcha,” Alyssa said, her voice strained. She was trying hard to be cheery, but she was afraid. What if she made a fool of herself? Ali’s parents were royalty! And, on top of that, they were from another country. They probably had customs that Alyssa knew nothing about.
“What did they say when you said you were engaged to a paralegal?” Alyssa asked.
Ali sighed. “They said that at least I am getting married…” Ali’s face hardened. “Which is far more than they ever expected to hear.”
Alyssa shrank back in her seat, not sure who she felt worse for—herself or Ali.
“Ouch,” she muttered.
“Yes.” He grimaced. “Alyssa, please understand that I do not see you that way. Titles and positions—they mean nothing to me. They never did, and they never will.” Again, Ali took her hand, and warmth filled her.
“I believe you,” she said. “And I’m glad you told me the truth about your parents. It was hard to hear, but I feel a little more prepared at least. How long will they be here for?”
“A few days, but I was thinking one dinner should suffice.”
Alyssa tried not to sigh with relief. Ali might have been honest with her about how brutal his parents could be, but they were still his family. She had no right disrespecting them.
Even if they had already snubbed her—and before even one meeting.
“Will Friday night work for you?” Ali asked.
“Two days from now?” Alyssa’s pulse raced. That was soon.
“Yes.” He raised his eyebrows, and Alyssa saw the fear there. Even though Ali said he was against so much of what his parents stood for, a part of him still wanted to impress them.
God, could she relate to that.
“Friday night is good,” Alyssa said. “And don’t worry. I’ll dress nice.”
“You always look great.”
Alyssa snorted. “What about Sunday night? Jeans and a T-shirt? My face all red and puffy from crying?”
“I still thought you were hot.”
Alyssa grinned, flustered; the room was suddenly too hot.
“Are you all right?” Ali asked.
“Fine,” Alyssa said. “Just a little, um…” She looked over her shoulder. “Where is that dang sushi?”
Ali chuckled. “Relax. We have all the time in the world.”
“I have to be back at work in about thirty,” she reminded him.
“I meant you and I. We…” Ali turned Alyssa’s arm over and lightly trailed his fingers up the inside of her arm. “…have all the time in the world.”
Every nerve in Alyssa’s body and every corner of her soul sang in delight. She licked her lips, working her heavy tongue around but finding no response. How had she gotten so lucky?
It was decided. She would do everything she could to impress Ali’s parents on Friday. If any man was worth it, he was.
Chapter 15
Alyssa
Lucy and Alyssa stood in the corner of the bank, Lucy’s hands on her hips and Alyssa fiddling with the pen.
“Sign it,” Lucy said.
Alyssa gnawed on her lip. “I don’t know if this is right.”
“What would Ali say?”
Alyssa sighed. “He’d tell me to do it, but—”
“No buts. Just do it.”
“Okay. Fine.” Signing the back of one of the checks Ali had given her, Alyssa held it up and inspected it. Two thousand dollars. Yikes.
“What about the other one?” Lucy asked.
Alyssa frowned. “I don’t need the other one.”
“You don’t know.”
Giving her friend a look, Alyssa put the pen back in her purse.
“Oh, come on,” Lucy said. “How many times in the last five years could you have used an extra few thousand dollars?”
“More than I want to think about,” Alyssa said.
“If it were me, I’d deposit it and keep it for a rainy day.”
Alyssa rolled that idea over in her head, liking it less the more she thought about it. “I don’t even want to be depositing one check. I’m only doing this because I don’t have anything good enough for dinner. I told Ali this isn’t about money for me, and I’m not going back on that.”
“Yeah, but this is for him,” Lucy pointed out, following Alyssa to the front of the bank.
“Hi,” Alyssa said to the bank teller. She swiped her card and handed the check over, purposefully taking her time answering Lucy.
With the money deposited, Alyssa looped her purse over her shoulder and the two of them headed for the door. She couldn’t imagine she would be spending two thousand dollars that day. Too bad there wasn’t some way to deposit part of a check.
“Yes,” Alyssa said, dodging a group of tourists standing in the middle of the sidewalk. “This is for Ali. I want to impress his parents—not for their sake, but for his.”
“That’s really sweet, Alyssa.”
Alyssa glanced at her friend, wondering if she meant it. Lucy could gush about guys like any other girl, but when it came down to it, she wasn’t a romantic person. She didn’t believe in soulmates or people being destined to meet. She understood everything in pragmatic terms. She couldn’t watch a movie without pointing out all the practical reasons the scenes would never actually work.
“What style are you thinking?” Lucy asked. “There’s this cute boho shop right around the corner. They might have something dinner-appropriate.”
“I don’t know.” Alyssa scrunched her face. If she was going to bend her morals and spend Ali’s money, she wanted to make sure she went all out.
After spending all of the last two days thinking about it, Alyssa had finally decided that she needed to go shopping; while she had some cute dresses in her wardrobe, the little black one she’d worn to the fundraiser was as good as it got. And, since she couldn’t afford a super nice dress on her own, that’s where Ali’s check came in.
Just once, she promised herself. I’m only doing this once.
Never mind that she still had the other check folded up in her kitchen drawer.
“Where are you going to dinner?” Lucy asked.
“Ali didn’t say, but I’m sure it’ll be somewhere really fancy.”
“Will they have bodyguards with them?”
Alyssa’s almost tripped over her feet. “I…I don’t know.”
Bodyguards. Now there was a thought.
“They are royalty, right?” Lucy asked. Noticing Alyssa lagged behind, she slowed her walk.
“Technically? Yeah.”
Lucy laughed. “Is there any other way to be royalty than the technical way?”
Alyssa’s stomach twisted, and her tongue became heavy. “I’m really nervous, Lu.”
“Aw, babydoll.” Lucy made a pouty face and placed her hands on Alyssa’s shoulders. She said something else, but a truck roared by at the same time, deafening Alyssa.
“What?” she yelled.
“This city is too dang noisy!” Lucy shouted. The cacophony quieted. “Kidding. I freaking love it here. What I said was, you don’t have to be nervous. Do you really care about what Ali’s parents think?”
“I care about what he thinks,” Alyssa said right away.
“Okay. There you go.”
“Yeah, but here’s the thing. He cares about what they think—likely, more than he wants to admit.”
“Hmm, why does that sound familiar?” Lucy tapped her chin and squinted her eyes, pretending to be thinking hard.
“I know, I know. Trust me.”
“At least you know.” Lucy jerked her head. “Come on. We have to hurry if we’re gonna get you home in time. When’s he picking you up?”
“Eight.” Again, Alyssa’s stomach twisted.
“How about this store?” Lucy asked.
They stopped walking, and Alyssa looked at the name on the front window. It was a designer brand store, and Alyssa had seen its clothes and accessories in magazines before, but she’d never once thought about shopping at the place.
In the window, mannequins wore chic monochromatic dresses and hats. Past them, a thin woman in heels arranged hangers on a clothing rack.
“I don’t know…”
“You said you want to impress them…”
Lucy was already opening the door, so there was no point in protesting. This had been Alyssa’s idea, after all. Might as well go through with it.
“Good afternoon,” the woman in high heels said, turning to them with a smile on her face. Alyssa couldn’t believe the contrast between her professional appearance and the gum-chewing teenagers who worked at the places she typically shopped at.
“My friend needs a dress to impress her boyfriend’s parents with,” Lucy said.