by Holly Rayner
Alyssa saw the two burly men standing near the wall right away. They were dressed in suits and looking at nothing in particular. She remembered what Lucy had said about bodyguards, and she swallowed hard.
I am definitely not in Kansas anymore.
At the table the two men stood on either side of, a couple in their sixties sat. The man was dressed in a suit, and the woman wore a simple black dress with pearls around her neck. At the sight of Ali, they stood. Every function in Alyssa’s body went into overdrive, and the urge to flee pumped through her. She kept her calm, though, and breathed. Ali was with her. Everything would be fine.
“Ali,” his father said, reaching for his son’s free hand. “Good to see you.”
“Father, Mother.” Ali bowed his head. “May I present my fiancée, Alyssa Cambridge. Alyssa, these are my parents, Noura and Fakhir bin Talid.”
“It’s so wonderful to meet you both,” Alyssa said.
With Ali’s parents right in front of her—royalty or not, bodyguards on standby or not—Alyssa realized that what she dealt with was two human beings. She’d built them up to be some powerful force that couldn’t be reckoned with, and now she saw her error.
With that, the fake smile on Alyssa’s face turned into a real one, and she and Ali took their seats. Alyssa put her clutch in her lap, not sure whether it was appropriate to place it on the table or not. She glanced at Ali’s mother and couldn’t see a purse anywhere.
“It’s nice to meet you as well,” Ali’s mother, Noura, said. She smiled the slightest bit, the expression closer to a pursing of the lips than anything else. “Ali has told us very little about his new fiancée, and so we are eager to see her in person.”
“Here I am,” Alyssa said with what she hoped wasn’t a cheesy smile. She looked at Ali, and he squeezed her hand under the table. “And I couldn’t be happier,” she added.
“Ali said you work at a lawyer’s office,” Fakhir said.
“Yes, sir. I’m a paralegal.”
He barely blinked. It was almost as if Alyssa had said nothing.
The waiter arrived and began giving his rundown of the evening’s menu, but Alyssa heard none of it. She looked at Ali, and he gave her a terse smile. He hadn’t been kidding when he’d said his parents were particular.
After the waiter, the sommelier appeared, and a similar production followed, except this time the topic was wine. Alyssa glanced to the side and noticed another employee watching the table. Who was he? The back waiter? Just how many people did it take to serve one table at this kind of place?
“And how did you two meet?” Noura asked the instant the sommelier departed.
Alyssa and Ali glanced at each other. They’d worked this out already, in case the question should come up, and they’d decided to stick as close to the truth as possible. That way, it would be harder to be caught in a lie.
“Randomly,” Alyssa said, at the exact same time Ali answered, “Providence.”
They both laughed, and Alyssa’s heart lit up like a jar of fireflies.
“I like your answer,” she told Ali.
“It’s true.” His gaze jumped across her face. He meant what he said.
Tearing her eyes away from Ali, Alyssa looked back at his parents. “Meeting Ali changed my life. I was going through a really rough time, and he…he sees something in me. He thinks I can do anything I want.”
“You can,” Ali said quietly as he gave her hand another squeeze.
His parents exchanged a solemn look. What it meant, Alyssa couldn’t tell, but if they were displeased with Ali, that was no good. What she had just said was the truth. Ali was a great man.
“Ali is kind,” Alyssa said. “He’s empathetic. He’s generous.” She turned to look into Ali’s face and found him already staring at her. “I don’t know what I ever did to deserve meeting him. But here we are…and…I’m desperately in love with him.”
No sooner were the words out of her mouth then a realization hit Alyssa: they were true. Every single last one of them. She’d only known Ali a couple weeks, but she was in love with him.
Nothing before had been like this. No schoolgirl crush. No whirlwind romance that she’d hoped would progress into something more. Ali saw what Alyssa had deemed darkness and called it hunger. He saw the light in her—the light she’d never even believed in. She would never be able to thank him enough for that.
“That was very poetic,” Fakhir said, but he wasn’t even looking at Alyssa. His was looking down, at his phone.
Alyssa blinked, pain seizing her chest. Was it just her, or were Ali’s parents like this with him, too? She looked to Ali and found his jaw clenched and his nostrils flaring.
It’s just dinner, Alyssa reminded herself. We’ll be out of here soon.
Fakhir put the phone down and adjusted his lapel. “You’re quite the actress, Miss Cambridge. Did you study somewhere, or is theater a skill you pick up in your profession?”
“My…” Alyssa shook her head. “What?”
Noura pursed her lips and kept her gaze lowered. Ali’s hand tightened on Alyssa’s so hard it started to hurt.
“Father,” Ali said through gritted teeth. “What are you suggesting?”
“I suggest nothing, Ali.” He raised his chin. “I state the facts. Did you really think word of your partying lifestyle would not reach your mother and me? We may not visit the States regularly, but you’ve been here for several years now, and we have eyes and ears everywhere.”
Ali’s jaw ticked, and his face grew red. “We have talked about this. Those days are behind me, now. I met Alyssa, and we are engaged.”
“Nonsense,” Fakhir snapped. “You expect me to think you’ve suddenly changed? If you were trying to be better, you would be home. You would be entering a marriage with someone your mother and I knew and approved of. Instead, you are here, running around, spending money, doing who knows what…keeping your mother and me awake at night. That is what you do.”
Retorts rose in Alyssa’s throat, but she bit her tongue. She needed to wait and let Ali take the lead.
“What will it take to show you how serious I am about my future?” Ali asked. “My fiancée is right here, sitting next to me, and still you believe me to be a failure.”
Noura inhaled sharply, her shoulders rising nearly to her ears, and looked away. Her husband picked up his phone and tapped at the screen.
“That’s not what your bank account leads us to believe,” Fakhir said. He flashed the screen at Ali and Alyssa, showing a list of bank transactions. “Your mother and I have been so worried that we felt compelled to monitor your spending. Today, a check for a considerable sum was deposited by one Alyssa Cambridge.”
All eyes at the table fell on Alyssa, and the most awful feeling she’d ever experienced shot through her veins. Shock glued her to her seat, made her tongue heavy.
No, no, no.
This wasn’t how the night was supposed to go. This wasn’t how she wanted Ali to find out she’d deposited the check, wasn’t the first impression she wanted to give his parents.
“We know she’s not your fiancée,” Fakhir hissed. “She’s a hired girl.”
Noura blinked rapidly, like she was about to cry.
“The shame,” Fakhir spat. “How could you, Ali? You have everything in the world, and all you need to do is show up. Be there for your country and your family.”
“It’s not how it looks,” Ali said, his words clipped. “The money was to pay Alyssa back for something—I damaged a painting in her apartment.”
Fakhir’s laugh was rough. “I’m no fool, Ali. Do not try to play me as one. Two thousand dollars to repair a painting? Do they pay paralegals in America that well?”
Shame coursed through Alyssa. She was so stupid. No one at the table even looked at her, but she felt as if a spotlight shone on her head. The worst part was that, only minutes after realizing she was falling in love with Ali, she saw how pointless this all was.
She would never fit into his lif
e. Even if she hadn’t deposited that check, Ali’s parents wouldn’t like her. Even if she and Ali really married, she would spend the rest of her life as an outsider in his world. This whole relationship, both the fake parts and the real parts, had been doomed from the start.
She’d just been too foolish to see it. Too hungry for change. Too desperate for meaning.
Pushing her chair back, Alyssa stood. Ali’s hand fell from hers, and everyone looked her way.
“It was nice to meet you,” Alyssa told Fakhir and Noura. She kept her chin raised and her jaw set. “I’m sorry things had to turn out this way.”
“Alyssa—” Ali said.
“I have to go,” she gasped, not looking at him. If she permitted herself even one look at his face, she would break down right then and there. Tears pricked her eyes, and she needed to get away from other people before she lost it completely.
Her vision blurring, Alyssa rushed across the restaurant and out the front door.
Chapter 17
Ali
Ali’s ears roared, and he stood staring at the door Alyssa had just run out of.
“Well,” his father said briskly. “That is about the reaction I would expect from an escort.”
“She’s not an escort!” Ali roared.
A few heads at nearby tables turned toward him, and Ali’s mother gasped.
“Ali!” she gasped. “How dare you—”
“We’ll speak about this later,” Ali said.
“Son—” his father started, but Ali was already headed for the front door.
On the street, he looked up and down the sidewalk, his heart racing Alyssa. Bright lights sparkled and music blared from passing cars. The sidewalk was crowded with Friday-night revelers, but there was no sign of Alyssa.
She was gone.
Cursing under his breath, Ali pushed his fingers through his hair. How foolish he had been! Alyssa had tried to tell him how worried about the dinner she was, and he had refused to listen. She’d likely known what he had not wanted to face head-on—there were too many ways the night could go wrong.
Ali started to pull his phone from his pocket, meaning to call Alyssa, just as he caught sight of her at the corner. She had her arm up in an attempt to hail a cab. Pocketing his phone, Ali ran to her.
“Alyssa!”
Dropping her arm, she turned around to face him. Her eyes were red and wet, and she blinked swiftly and looked away.
An iron fist seized Ali’s heart. She was hurt, and it was his fault.
“I’m sorry,” she gasped. “I couldn’t stay in there any longer. I know I said that I would do this one last favor, but I…I couldn’t, Ali.”
“I understand.” He took a step towards her, but Alyssa noticeably flinched, and he stopped.
“The things they said…” She shook her head.
“They do not know you, Alyssa. If they saw you as I do, they wouldn’t—”
“I’m not talking about what they said about me.” A look that could only be read as utter sadness came across her face. “What they said about you.”
Ali stiffened. “I know.”
Alyssa snorted and shook her head. “They sounded like my mom.”
Ali reached for her, and his fingers grazed her arm, but neither one of them made a move to touch further. Something had changed, and Ali felt it deep in his bones.
“How long were we going to do this for, Ali? Really? And please give me a real answer. Did you want to turn this fake engagement into a fake marriage? Maybe add a fake baby for the hell of it?”
Ali bit the inside of his cheek. The light at the corner changed, and a group of people crossed, only to be replaced by a new influx of pedestrians, and still Ali had no answer.
Alyssa’s eyes brimmed with tears. “It was too much, Ali. This lie, it was too big…”
“I know.” He nodded. “Alyssa, I know. You asked me to pretend to be your boyfriend, and that is one thing, but to masquerade as a fiancée is another entirely. I apologize.”
“Thank you.”
Alyssa’s body language remained stiff, and though she had accepted his apology, Ali knew nothing had really changed. She probably hated him for what he had done. He couldn’t blame her.
“Did you tell them the truth?” she asked after a pause. “Or are you going to?”
“I…” Ali struggled to answer.
In the neon light from the grocery store, Alyssa’s cheeks turned pink. “Oh,” she said quietly. “I see.”
“It would make everything worse right now.”
“And it won’t somewhere else down the line?” Alyssa raised her eyebrows, waiting for his answer. When it didn’t come, tears flowed down her cheeks. “I was telling the truth in there, Ali. When I said that you changed me, I meant it.”
“Alyssa,” Ali said gently. “You’ve changed me, too.”
“Okay, but how much of this is real?” Alyssa’s hands tightened into fists over her clutch.
Ali stared at her in confusion. “You and I are real.”
“What does that mean? Which part of us?”
“I enjoy being with you, Alyssa. I do. Do you not believe that?”
Alyssa pressed her shaking hand to her eyes. “I more than like hanging out with you, Ali.” She bit her bottom lip. “God, I’m so stupid.”
“No,” he answered fiercely. “You’re not.” He reached out to touch her elbow, but she still wouldn’t look at him.
Finally, Alyssa dropped her hand, and her gaze connected with his.
“I’m in love with you, Ali.”
It was like someone had punched him in the chest. All the air left his body in one quick exhale. They looked at each other, Alyssa’s eyes filled with passion. With hurt.
“You…” Ali shook his head, his brain not functioning properly.
No one had ever told him they loved him, except his mother. And even her affections had not been present for years. When it came to women, Ali didn’t typically spend enough time dating one person for things to progress to such a stage.
What did it mean to be loved by a woman? To love a woman?
Alyssa had brightened his life for the better. He thought about her all day long, and the idea of her being with someone else made his stomach hurt. They had only known each other for a couple weeks, but when he imagined his future, now, it was filled with scenes of the two of them. He was never alone. He had her.
And he wanted to have her for…what? The rest of his life?
Ali had not studied the situation that closely. And what of love? He understood lust. Infatuation. At what point did those kinds of feelings turn into something deeper?
“You don’t have anything you want to say?” Alyssa prompted, her chin trembling.
“Alyssa…” He reached for her, but she took a step back.
“You don’t,” she said. “Okay, then.”
“This is all happening so fast,” Ali said. “My parents are sitting in the restaurant right behind me. How can I answer now?”
“It’s a simple question, Ali.”
“It isn’t that simple,” he said. “Please don’t make it out to be.”
“I’m not making the situation anything it’s not,” Alyssa answered. “I just opened my heart up to you, and you…you…” She shook her head. Pulling off the ring he’d put on her hand not an hour before, Alyssa extended it to him. “Take it,” she said. “Please.”
Ali accepted the ring, but he did not pocket it. “You can still wear this.”
“What?” Alyssa guffawed, and fresh tears ran down her cheeks. “What are you talking about? Why would I wear that?”
“I…I don’t know.” Ali pressed his fingers to the spot between his eyes. “Alyssa, I’m not thinking clearly right now.”
“But what I said is simple. Love is simple.” Her face softened as if she had realized something. “Or maybe, for some people, it’s not.”
Behind Alyssa, a taxi stopped and a man stepped out of the back. Before Ali could so much as take a step
for Alyssa, she was climbing in the vacated taxi.
“Goodbye, Ali,” she told him, slamming the door.
Ali launched himself at the taxi, but it was too late. The car was pulling away.
He ran his palm down his jaw, a heavy fog filling his mind. The night that been so meticulously planned had blown up in what seemed like only a few minutes. He pulled his phone back out.
He would call her. He would tell her he was sorry, and that…what?
If he said he loved her, would that change things? Even if he got down on one knee and proposed—for real—the past would still exist. He would still be the person who had hurt her.
He looked at the ring in his palm. It was still warm from Alyssa’s finger. When he’d picked it out for her, he’d been excited to see her wear it, thinking it would be beautiful against her skin tone. Now, it was nothing but a reminder of how foolish he was.
Putting the ring in his breast pocket, Ali headed back for the restaurant, only to find his parents exiting, their two bodyguards close behind them.
“We’re leaving,” his father announced. “I do not wish to dine in front of people who have seen my son throw a fit.”
Ali worked his tongue around. A part of him wanted to yell at his father, to accuse him of ruining things with Alyssa, but that wasn’t right. His parents hadn’t created a story about a fake fiancée. They might have had soul-crushingly high expectations, but while Ali was busy lying, they were keeping occupied with the truth. They were forthright with him. Always. Whether they liked something or not, they let him know.
“I am sorry, Father, Mother.” Ali bowed his head.
His mother sighed. “Why, Ali? Why lie to us?”
He stared at her. “Because you are never happy with anything I do.”
“And this was supposed to make us happy?” she asked. “Did you believe you could keep such a lie going forever?”
“No,” he said. “I had a plan for its resolution.”
“A resolution!” His father threw his hands in the air. “How intelligent!” Shaking his head, he moved for the car waiting in the street. “Don’t tell anyone about this,” he said over his shoulder. “The press will have a field day.”