by Leslie North
Chapter 5
“Oh my, you have had an incredibly frustrating day. I had no idea that you did not even know who you are,” Adilah said to her. “And my brother probably made it worse.”
“He did!” Cassie spat out. “He refused to listen to me, he dragged me to a meeting going on and on about coloured pens and paper, and he got angry when I sat in his seat,” she added as Adilah chuckled.
“Yes, he always sits on the left side of his car. It's quite unusual.”
“He is just too controlling. I do not know how I am going to survive.”
“You seem like a strong woman. I think that you will be okay.”
Cassie sighed. “This is crazy!” she said. She continued to search through her suitcase and found a Samsung phone in there. She turned it on, but like the laptop, there was a password that she did not remember. She threw it on the bed in frustration willing herself not to cry in front of her new friend.
“Don't worry, habibti. You will remember soon,” Adilah said to her.
“Well, tell me the dos and don'ts in regards to your brother,” she asked to distract herself, “So, I do not screw anything else up.”
Sliding closer to her, Adilah lowered her voice as she looked Cassie in the eye, “DO everything he says, the exact way he wants it,” she answered as she shivered. Covering her mouth, her eyes danced with fun at Cassie’s look of horror. Unable to continue, Adilah burst out laughing before she sobered up. “Okay listen, here is everything you need to know about my brother. When he was nine years old, our father entered him into a boxing match,” she began as her brows furrowed at the memory. Cassie raised her eyebrows in surprise.
“At nine? That is so young,” she replied.
“Tell me about it. Not only was he too young and inexperienced, the other boys were several inches taller than he was and easily outweighed him. He trained hard but it did not help him in the match. He lost badly, like really badly. He only landed one punch. Our father was not impressed and told him so as he scolded him for not winning.”
“What? He was only a little boy.”
“Our father told him that if he worked hard, then he could control the outcome. Those words stuck in his head. Ever since then, he has worked hard at everything, exercises complete control over all his actions, and he absolutely does not tolerate failure.”
Cassie covered her mouth as she imagined a nine-year-old Hussain who should have been hugged instead of reprimanded. No child deserved such a cold response from a parent at such a young age. It made sense to her why he was the way he was and she felt as though she now understood him a bit more. “Wow, I could not imagine ever telling an adult that let alone a child. That was cruel.”
“I know, habibti. My brother is a good and honourable man who also happens to be a perfectionist and over protective when it comes to me,” she added.
“Well of course, you are his twin sister.”
“I understand that but it is too much sometimes. I am a grown woman!”
Cassie laughed. “I do not even know if I can relate or not as I have no idea if I have any siblings.”
“Maybe a good night's rest is what you need. You might remember something in the morning,” Adilah said as she got up from the bed. “Oh and if you need anything for your head, you should find whatever you need in the bathroom,” she added.
“Thank you,” Cassie replied.
“Good night, habibti.”
“Good night.”
***
The next morning Cassie got up feeling refreshed. She had slept pretty well considering that she was in a horrible situation, but her memories still had not returned. Rubbing her head, she pushed lightly at the bumps, wincing. She could not tell if the swelling had gone down yet, but it was still painful to the touch. Stumbling into the bathroom, she took a long hot shower.
As she looked at her clothes, she picked up another bodycon dress and shimmied into it before slipping on her heels. If she really was here to work for Sheik Hussain, it seems as though she would have brought more appropriate work clothes than the body hugging dresses that seemed to be designed more for catching a man’s attention than being a diligent assistant.
With that thought, Cassie looked down at her ring finger with horror. Was she married? Did she have children? Staring at her hand, she did not see any sort of tan line where a ring might have been as she expelled a sigh of relief. Just as she was walking out of her room, she ran into Adilah.
“Morning,” Adilah said to her with a big smile on her face.
“Morning,” Cassie replied with an equally large smile.
“Did you sleep well?” Adilah asked her as they both walked down the hallway.
“Like a baby.”
“That is good. Do you remember anything?”
“No.” Cassie shook her head, “And it is so frustrating.” Adilah put her hand on her shoulder.
“Don't worry. You will soon.”
The two headed downstairs and into the dining room. Hussain was already at the table reading a newspaper. He lowered his newspaper as the two walked in and looked at them with a narrowed gaze.
“Good morning, brother,” Adilah told him as she leaned down to kiss him on the cheek.
“Morning,” he replied flatly.
“Morning,” Cassie said to him.
“Hello.”
Even though Hussain had replied to her, it was not very friendly.
“What are you going to do today?” Hussain asked his sister, as the maids were serving them breakfast.
“I am going into the bakery today.” Adilah turned her attention to Cassie. “I own a pastry business,” she said with her eyes lit up.
“Bring me back something sweet,” Cassie joked.
“I will actually. I would love for you to taste my food.”
“I look forward to it.” Cassie took a sip of her coffee.
“Hussain,” Adilah called.
“Adilah,” he replied.
“You know that Cassie cannot remember anything.”
Cassie looked at Hussain to see how he would respond. She had been trying to tell him about it but he had not listened. Thankfully, Adilah had brought it up. Hussain raised his eyebrows and chewed his eggs before he replied.
“What do you mean?” he asked his sister.
“When she bumped into the vase, she seems to have lost her memory.”
Hussain looked at Cassie with his eyebrows raised. “Is that true?” he asked her.
“Yes, it is as I have been trying to tell you.”
Hussain grunted. “That is… odd.”
“Yes and I think that maybe a tour around the city might help jog her memory,” Adilah suggested.
“And who will do the work?”
“Hussain! Can you not think about work for one second!”
Hussain took a sip of his tea as he looked at the two women. “So then you will not be going into the bakery today?”
“Of course, I am, brother. You should be the one to take her around.”
“Excuse me?”
“You should go with Cassie. I have to be at the bakery,” Adilah replied as Cassie’s head bobbed from right to left as she watched the twins argue over her.
“And I have a busy schedule,” Hussain shot back.
“You are always busy. This will be a good opportunity for you to take a step back from work.”
While Cassie had only just met them, she agreed with Adilah. Hussain seemed like he worked all the time. At least, he talked about work. A lot. In fact, it had been nonstop since Cassie regained consciousness. He definitely needed to relax. However, she was not so sure she was prepared to spend the day with him. Would he be fun to hang out with? Was she?
Hussain sighed deeply. “Fine,” he said after a long pause as his sister smiled triumphantly at him. Cassie wondered if she should thank him for agreeing, but instead ducked her head and quickly shovelled food into her mouth.
“We have to go to the office first,” Hussain added as
Adilah frowned at him.
“I thought that we had finished this topic and agreed on everything,” she replied.
“Yes, yes, I will take her; however, there is a meeting that I cannot reschedule.”
“Cannot or will not?”
“Both. It is an important meeting, Adilah.”
“It's fine. If the meeting is that important, we should go there first,” Cassie interjected for the first time.
After breakfast, Cassie and Hussain got into the Rolls Royce and headed to the office. As they walked into the conference room, there was a man of average height with light brown hair waiting for them. Dressed in an expensive navy blue suit, he extended his hand for Hussain to shake.
“Morning Sheik,” the man said to Hussain.
“Jacob, glad you could come. How are you enjoying your time in Al-Qalta?” Hussain asked as he shook his hand.
“Well, it’s much different than my home state of New Jersey,” he replied.
As they all sat down, Jacob kept looking at Cassie with an odd expression on his face. The way he was looking at her made her feel very uncomfortable as she had no idea who he was. They were both American, maybe they had met before? She tried to ignore the uncomfortable feeling and just took meeting notes.
“Who was he?” Cassie asked Hussain after the meeting had ended.
“One of the board members of the rival company I want to purchase,” he replied.
“What is the name of the company?”
“Eastern Mountain Herbs. It is one of the largest spice companies in the US and one of our biggest competitors. They were recently dropped from the New York Stock Exchange as their stock price has been plummeting consistently for months. Their CEO was recently fired and they are ripe for a takeover.”
Cassie frowned. The name did not ring a bell to her. She thought maybe she was over analysing things about the look he had given her but she just could not shake it off. At that point, she felt even more frustrated about not being able to remember anything. Maybe she knew this man?
Chapter 6
Right after the meeting, Hussain was gathering his things together when his phone vibrated indicating that he had a message. Pulling it out of his pocket, he leaned against the doorjamb with his left hand in his pants pocket and texted with his right.
His cousin, James, was returning his message as he quickly tapped out a response. He looked up and stared at Cassie as she sat there doodling. She really was a beautiful woman with her silky brunette hair and alluring green eyes. She was wearing a blue bodycon dress and peep toes pumps, while it definitely was not suitable for work, she looked fantastic in it.
“Sheik Hussain, what are you looking at so intently?” Kalik asked quietly as he walked up to stand next to him.
“Cassie,” Hussain replied without taking his eyes off her. “She says that she does not remember anything,” he added. Kalik raised his eyebrows.
“What do you mean she does not remember anything?”
“She said that she could not remember anything after she regained consciousness.”
“She did hit the vase hard.”
“She did,” Hussain replied.
“There is something about her. I cannot put my finger on it but I do not trust her,” Kalik informed him. “Her behaviour when she first arrived versus now is vastly different. It is as though she were a different person.”
“Well, she might very well be,” Hussain replied. “Assuming there’s any truth to her story.” Shaking his head, “There are so many discrepancies. For starters, the agency has not sent me any information on her. Secondly, look at how she is dressed. That is not appropriate office attire.”
“I will run a background check on her,” Kalik replied.
Nodding his head, “Good. I want to know everything about her, where she was born, her family, education, everything.”
“I will work as fast as I can and get back to you.”
Hussain paused for a moment, “Why would an American want to work as a temporary assistant in the Middle East?” he asked Kalik.
“Well you are a much respected sheik and own one of the largest spice companies in the world,” Kalik replied with a shrug. Hussain sighed. His instincts were always right. While he was more attracted to Cassie than he would want to admit, there was definitely something off and he needed to find out what it was.
“Well until we find out everything about her, it is better to be careful,” Hussain said as Kalik nodded.
“Yes, sir.”
“Miss Milton, let’s go.”
Cassie looked up from her doodling. “Okay,” she replied as she stood up to follow them out.
“So where are we going now?” Cassie asked Hussain. He rubbed his temples in irritation. He could not believe that he was actually going to go sightseeing with this woman. To him, this whole endeavour was a complete and utter waste of time. Time that he should be spending building his business. He still had a few board members who were not convinced about the viability of purchasing Eastern Mountain Herbs.
“Everything we do will have to be on my terms,” he said to her as she raised her eyebrows.
“Seriously? It is meant to be a fun day, and you want to control that too?” Cassie sighed heavily and ran her hand through her hair wincing when she touched the back of her head. Hussain looked away. He so badly wanted to run his hands through her hair and stare into her green eyes. He was annoyed with himself for feeling like that towards a woman he did not trust.
“It is either that or we do not go,” he said. He was not into sightseeing but if he had to do it, then it had to be where he wanted to go.
“Fine,” she said grumpily. They sat quietly for a few seconds before Cassie started talking again.
“Why don't you play the radio or something? It is rather odd to ride in silence,” she said.
“I like it like this,” Hussain replied, closing his eyes. He was used to not listening to the radio because he tended to use the drive time to work. He liked the silence. Something he was not so sure he would have with Cassie sitting beside him.
“It is boring this way,” Cassie replied grumpily. Hussain did not even respond to her because if he did, they'd keep on talking and talking. Instead he pulled his phone out of his pocket and started texting James. His cousin had been spending a lot of time with his girlfriend, Tanya. He was taking her to different places and taking his time to court her. Hussain found the concept of courtship as it pertained to his cousin hilarious because it was so very unlike him. He had never spent so much time on a woman.
When they arrived at their first destination, they exited the air-conditioned car and stepped out into the hot Middle Eastern sun. Pulling his suit jacket off, he placed it in the car and unbuttoned the top three buttons on his shirt.
“What is this place?” she asked him as she looked around.
“We are going to see the ruins,” he replied. He was passionate about his country; especially the architecture and it had been a number of years since he had visited.
“Okay,” she replied. She pulled a digital camera out of her bag and decided to leave the bag in the car. Hussain started walking towards the broken down pillars and arched doorways. There were some walls that were still intact and in good condition. Some of the bricks were stacked haphazardly as if they had been pushed over by a giant.
“Wow,” said Cassie with her green eyes widened and a big smile on her face. She switched on her camera and started snapping away. Hussain pretended as if she was not there and simply appreciated the sight.
“What was this place?” Cassie asked him.
“Sheik Omar's home. He was a powerful and kind sheik during the era of Muhammad.”
“And this place has been here for that long? That is incredible.”
“It is.”
Holding her camera up, “We should take a picture together.”
Hussain turned to face her with a frown on his face. “Why should we do that?” he asked. He was not keen on the idea
of taking photographs. It was not his forte. It was even worse that this photograph would be of he and Cassie.
“To commemorate being here together. Come on,” she moved closer to him and stood on her tiptoes. Hussain looked down at her. Just what was she doing? He was a sheik. She needed to act accordingly.