Marrying the Sheikh

“Anyhow,” Hannah said as she bit into the slice. “The king and queen… tell me what happened!”

Ella drizzled dressing over her salad, looking at the pizza and wishing she could eat like that.

“They’re not a king and queen,” she said stabbing her salad with her fork. “They’re a royal highness and a royal… a royal…”

“Pain in the butt?” Hannah said, knowing exactly where her friend was going.

Ella nodded and chewed on her spinach. “Yeah, sort of. I mean, I don’t want to sound mean. In fact, I don’t really know the bride at all. I’ve only met her once.”

“Once? That’s it?” Hannah asked, grease running down her chin. She dabbed at her face with her napkin and kept talking. “Really, El, that sounds pretty weird to me. What kind of bride isn’t involved in planning her own wedding?”

Ella thought of a million words she could have used to answer that, but decided to keep her mouth shut. She trusted Hannah, but she also trusted that she could be overheard by anyone at any time and she didn’t want to take that chance. A client was a client, no matter what.

“Oh yeah,” said Hannah, setting what was left of her slice down on her plate. “I know, you can’t bad-mouth them.” She made air quotes with her fingers when she said it.

“Honestly, Han,” Ella said. “They’re fine. Really. It’s just another culture. Maybe that’s the way it’s done in Al-Ibran.”

“What, a wedding without a bride?” Hannah laughed.

Ella went on to fill Hannah in on how she had continued to handle the wedding arrangements without Nadia being present.

“She instructs her groom, who instructs his assistant, or whatever you call him, who instructs me.”

“So you don’t even meet with the groom?” Hannah asked.

Ella felt her heart clench. She hadn’t seen Karim in person since the flight back from Eleuthera. She had thought about him daily, but hadn’t dared call him or press for an appointment. Instead, she had dealt with Djaron and the lady in pink, whose name she had learned was Amira. Nadia would text Ella occasionally, but usually only to complain that she'd done something wrong with the table arrangements or the menu.

“No, not since the island,” Ella said.

“Ooh, what happened on the island?” Hannah asked coyly.

Ella rolled her eyes at her friend. “Nothing happened on the island. I already told you that. We got stuck in a storm. I sprained my ankle. We slept in separate rooms and then we flew home the next day. That’s it. Nothing else. Nothing happened!”

Hannah laughed and held up her hands in mock defense. “Whoa, okay, girl! I believe you. I believe you that nothing happened. I also believe that you wish something had…”

Ella picked up a roll and threw it at Hannah. “Shut up and eat your slice of grease and cheese!”

They went back to their meal and the conversation turned to Hannah's baby and the shower Ella was planning. But in spite of herself, Ella’s thoughts kept returning to what Hannah had said and how right she had been; Ella had wished something more had happened on that island, and she hadn't been able to stop thinking about it since.

TEN

The next few weeks flew by as Ella busied herself with planning the wedding of her other client, the football player, organizing Hannah’s upcoming baby shower and a few other client appointments for weddings coming up the following year. She continued to finalize the arrangements for Karim and Nadia’s wedding, too; working through the Amira, Djaron and a handful of other surrogates. Occasionally, she was able to pin Nadia down for a phone call, but that was almost always late in the day. The one time Ella had gotten a hold of her in the morning, Nadia had sounded like she had been recovering from the night before, but had told Ella she had just woken up.

Karim and Ella had had no contact, except for an occasional glance when she stopped by to deliver some samples or pick up payment for a deposit. One time, she saw Nadia leaving Karim’s office when she arrived. Karim came out and made a show of putting his arm around Nadia, pulling her close for a passionate kiss, and Ella felt her stomach flop at such an ostentatious show of feigned affection.

Why was Karim avoiding her, she wondered. She still couldn’t figure out what she had said or done, back on the island, to make him change so much. Before the trip to Eleuthera, they had gotten along just fine. Their phone calls were friendly and light, their meeting at the café was casual and comfortable. Even the time they spent on the jet together had been enjoyable. She wished Karim could be that way with her again, but the more she saw him, especially with Nadia, the more she knew that wasn’t going to happen.