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“Are you close?”
“Not really.” A familiar lump was rising in her throat. “It was good for a while, but as I got older, I felt really out of step with the rest of them. I was the one reminder of my mum’s life before. I feel like it was sad for both of them in that way…” Her voice trailed off.
Desmond’s fingers rested loosely on her hip, and it was pleasantly distracting. “But?”
“I don’t know. I don’t really look like them.” Her little brother and sisters, with their cinnamon-colored curls and wide gray eyes were sweet in their own way, but spoiled. And her parents had doted on them. “I was…quieter. Russell is very hearty, and a little loud. I always felt like I was spoiling their fun, theirlook, and my mum was anxious to make sure I wasn’t being left out, and that just made me feel awkward.”
“And then?”
“I heard them talking one night. I was probably about sixteen at the time, maybe Hind’s age. I’d been looking at colleges and Russell was talking to my mum about cost. He was saying that I was an okay student but not a brilliant one, and he was worried about financial aid, and maybe it would be better for me to go to a technical school for a bit or get a job first—find my sea legs, he said. And he said, ‘Remember, we have a family to take care of, and we can’t compromise that.’ Excluding me, basically.”
“He didn’t think of you as his.”
“Exactly. It wasn’t the advice that he was giving that hurt so much—it was good advice. It was just hearing him talking about me as if I were a problem to get rid of so they could carry on with theirrealfamily. I was determined to get out of New Orleans and prove I was worth more than what he thought I deserved. I ended up here.” She lifted her shoulders, ignoring the knot forming deep in her tummy. She hadn’t told Desmond even half of the story, but that was all she wanted to share right now.
“It’s easy not to visit much when the distance is so great. And they don’t seem to miss me, honestly, so…”
She wished the words back the second they came out of her mouth; she sounded so self-pitying. Desmond didn’t seem to mind, though. She scuttled closer to him and rested her cheek on his shoulder. He kissed her softly, gently, caringly.
She hadn’t wanted to sleep because sleeping meant waking up and it being the next day when she would have to return to her real life. But fatigue had taken over and they’d both finally slept.
And now it was 9:00 a.m. and she’d missed breakfast with HindandDesmond was still there.
The watery light of the early morning so particular to London illuminated his golden-brown skin; he was sprawled face down beside her, gently snoring into his pillow, and she felt grateful she could not see his face. She bit her lip hard and turned her attention back to her phone.
There was a text from Hind canceling breakfast on account of being exhausted.Thank goodness.Of course Hind was exhausted after yesterday’s shenanigans.
The second and third messages were the same ones she received every month, from the Bahr Al-Dahab National Bank. And if there had been even a little fairy dust left from the night before, she was dropped squarely back to earth by the texts. The first:
Your salary has been credited to your account.
And then, almost immediately after:
Your loan installment of 18,483 riyals has been successfully paid.
Just about half her salary, the amount legally allowed for the bank to take. With trembling fingers, Val logged into her banking app and sent another five thousand into her loan account, leaving just enough to get through the rest of the month.
This dissolved the afterglow rather rapidly. Val bent over and shook Desmond’s shoulder, then again but harder. For the first time since yesterday, looking at him gave her no fluttery feelings because she was consumed by the cold, hard chains of reality. “Desmond!”
He muttered something and yanked a pillow over his head.
“You have to go,” she said briskly, and when he didn’t respond she clapped her hands. “Desmond!”
He groaned and pitched the pillow at her playfully. “What, no breakfast in bed?”
“Desmond!”
He yawned, and rolled over, wrapping the coverlet tightly round him.
Val let out an outraged squawk, then yanked the coverlet with all her strength. She slid out of bed, wrapping the coverlet round her as she went. Desmond dived for her and secured the end. The two engaged in a rather undignified struggle before Val emerged panting and victorious. His eyebrows climbed.
“Oh, no, you don’t. Time to go,” she ordered, although she couldn’t hold back the smile creeping across her face, despite the way her morning had begun. “You’re impossible.”
“And you,” he said simply, “are absolutely enchanting, Valentina Montgomery.”
That seemed to undo something in her. For a moment worry was shoved aside and she kissed him, her body fitting as perfectly against his as it had last night. He didn’t push for anything else, just kissed her back. Val felt relief—of course she did.
This was goodbye.