She pointed a finger at the exit again, directing me out. I shook my head.
“Please,” I implored her, raising an eyebrow. “Just five more minutes of your time. Five minutes, and then I can be out of your life for good. I swear.”
Chapter 7
Angie
The rage filled my stomach, making me want to tear at my hair. I couldn’t believe his persistence, his enduring arrogance. Rami stood before me in that immaculate suit, looking dapper and charming in my sad little classroom.
He was telling me about this bet he’d had with his friend. A bet that said he could get anyone to fall in love with him. Even an American, he said. But I’d been too tough for him. I’d been “the wrong woman” for the kind of bet he was up against. But he was too proud, and he wasn’t willing to go down without a fight. Even if that meant including me.
“All right,” I told him, when he asked if I’d let him have five more minutes. I had nothing else to lose. The call from my father that morning had been tearful, heart-wrenching. Again, the students had crowded around my desk, patting my arms and asking me what was wrong. What could they do? They were children. They couldn’t help me. But they were trying their best to comfort me, if nothing else.
“Okay. I need to win this bet. And in order to win it, I have to make you fall in love with me. Essentially, that means you have to marry me,” Rami said to me, saying the words with such certainty, as if I would just buy into something so serious so quickly. What a joke.
“Marriage?” I asked, aghast. “I mean, what makes you think I would—”
“I know. I know it’s a big thing to ask anyone,” Rami said, doing his best to calm me. “But as I told you, I am extremely wealthy. And foolhardy, as you already know.”
“Something like that, although I might choose a different word,” I told him, my eyes glittering.
“Sure. I’d wager that. But listen. I’d be willing to give you half a million dollars for your trouble, ensuring that we both benefit from the arrangement. If you agree to it, that is.”
My heart thudded in my chest. Half a million dollars? Was he kidding? I hadn’t even heard of that sum of money being together in one place.
I pictured Rami’s bank account as a giant ocean, swimming with cash. I wanted to leap into it, to throw it over my body. I wanted to take it home. Were people really ever that comfortable? Did people really sleep at night without the shadow of whatever they needed to pay for on their shoulders?
“Wait. Say that number again?” I asked him in disbelief.
“Five hundred thousand smackeroos,” Rami said, using an American word and chuckling at his cleverness. “What do you think?”
During these silent seconds, I thought instantly of my mother, and the surgery she so desperately needed. Five hundred thousand dollars was more than I would make in ten years. And by then, my mother probably wouldn’t even be around anymore.
I swallowed harshly, wondering at the weight of what I had to give up, versus what I would be giving up if I didn’t go through with it.
“I can tell you’re considering it,” Rami said, his eyebrow twitching.
“Well, of course I’m considering it.”
I leaned against my desk, wondering at this predicament. If I agreed to it, I knew I would have to legally marry Rami. Which meant that I’d have to spend a bit of time with him, at the least. Ensuring that the marriage looked “right” for his friend, the one he’d made the bet with. The thought made my stomach stir.
“What would make you accept?” he asked, tilting his head to the right.
I tapped my fingers along the edge of my desk, trying not to look at him too closely. When I did, I was overcome with his outrageous good looks. The refined suit, its fabric thick and unwrinkled. His five o’clock shadow, which yielded a perfect texture across his brown skin. I’d known since moving to Al-Jarra that the men in this country were almost unfairly handsome, but he took the cake.
“I’ll give you some money upfront,” he said suddenly, his voice deepening.
“How much?” I asked.
“Ten thousand,” he said, stepping forward. His eyes met with mine, bringing a shot of emotion up and down my spine. “It’ll go into your account today, if you give me your details.”