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“No… my grandmother.Jadati… she passed away.”
I took a sharp intake of breath, my hand pressing down on my heart. “What? I-I met her before I left and…” I shook my head. “Are you okay? You don’t sound too well, Khalid. Where are you?”
“She shared a dinner with all of us in her bed. We knew that she would stop breathing soon, but she pretended that it was just another family dinner, teasing all of us,” Khalid said, shuffling on the other side of the call. He took a deep breath. “We all said our goodbyes, and she passed away in her sleep.”
“Oh, Khalid.” My heart broke hearing his voice. I wished I had been with her, close to Khalid, so I could soothe him. Take care of him.
A sad chuckle left his lips as he continued, “She asked for a hookah and the oldest whiskey we could find in the palace.”
A grin tugged my lips despite the burning tears in my eyes. “Of course, she did.”
“We tried to convince her not to drink it but Zayed sneaked a bottle to her.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat and said, “I wish I had listened to you and stayed with you for one more week. I will book a ticket for tomorrow—”
“Valeria,” Khalid said, his deep voice floating through my ears. “No, it’s okay. I am fine, sweet.”
I bit my lip, hearing the sorrow and anguish in his voice.
He cleared his throat. “I have to go.”
“Khalid,” I called out to him, clenching my fists. “I love you.”
When he didn’t reply, I added with a small smile, “I will wait for your call.”
The call disconnected, making me lose the breath I was holding. I fell back on the bed, hoping thatjadatiwas resting in a better place. Maybe I can visit Khalid in Azmia as soon as the new fragrance launch campaign is over.
* * *
A month later
“We triedbut he wouldn’t come out of the studio,” Nasrin said, her husky soft voice talking to me through the call.
I swallowed down the emotions that had been swelling inside me since I last heard of Khalid. The night when his grandmother died. He had ignored my calls, texts and voicemails. I wanted to visit him and demand an explanation of his ignorance towards me, but I couldn’t leave my team to do all the launch by themselves.
“Has he been eating?” I asked, hoping he did. Even though he was acting like a jerk, pretending that I didn’t exist, I still cared about him.
“Yes, thankfully,” Nasrin sighed. “Even Zayed cannot make him talk.”
“Oh, no.”
If Zayed couldn’t talk to him, then I didn’t know who could.
“Yes. He has never acted this way before. Zain told me he would often shut himself in the studio, but he still came to family dinners and lunches, but this is different.”
I frowned, leaning back on the chair as one of the staff knocked on the door, asking me if I was dressed. “Give me a minute!” I called out, hearing the hustle in the shooting studio.
I had an interview for my launch that would be aired live all over the world. I was nervous, but I felt sad hearing how Khalid wasn’t taking care of himself.
“Sorry about that,” I said to Nasrin. “Do you think it’s about grandmother’s death?”
“We were all broken up about her death, but I don’t think so. He was acting fine afterwards. It all started the next morning.”
The night he talked to me.
Was it because of me?
“We will try to reach out to him, Valeria. I promise,” Nasrin said, her voice firm. “Until then, good luck for the interview and the launch campaign! We are all excited to purchase the new fragrance.”