Promise This (English Version)

5. Convinced

He saw how Sarah whispered something in Uma's ear and she started walking to the building across the gardens, surely to go to the restroom. After a couple of minutes Hamdan saw her walking back, but she suddenly stopped to look at her phone. At first, she seemed to laugh but Hamdan saw how she wiped a tear with her fingers.

Is she crying?

Instead of continuing her way back to the party, she turned around and headed towards the stables. Hamdan looked around, no one seemed to notice Sarah walking away, so he excused himself and before he got to the restroom, he made a left turn to follow her.

He found Sarah in a dimly lit stable, talking to Princesa and caressing the mare, who had stuck the head out of the stall to greet her rider. It was quite a vision — the beautiful girl with long hair, in a yellow dress, planting a kiss on the white mare's nose. Hamdan didn't want to interrupt what seemed like an intimate moment but at the same time, he needed to make sure that Sarah was fine.

"Hi," he said, cautiously walking into the stable trying not to scare her, but Sarah almost jumped out of her clothes.

"Oh my God!" One of her hands climbed to her chest "You scared me, Shei-- " She took a deep breath. "Hamdan, just Hamdan," she reminded herself. "You scared me, Hamdan."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, it's just that... Are you okay?"

Sarah looked down at the floor and turned her head in a way that her hair covered her face while she dried the tears that Hamdan had already seen. Once he was close enough, she lifted her head back up and tried to smile.

"I'm fine. Thank you."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. It's nothing," she denied.

"Doesn't look like nothing," he said, patting Princesa on the neck.

"I thought nobody noticed."

"I did. Really, are you okay?" He insisted.

"Okay," she sighed. "It's silly, really. I'm an only child and my parents have been away for a few months traveling. And I don't why, but today I was missing them a lot and my dad sent this sweet text saying how proud they are of me and that they miss me and that Argentina has better meat than Texas," she let out a laugh before finishing. "I just lost it, so..."

"Only child?" Asked Hamdan as if Sarah was from another planet.

"Yes. How many siblings do you have?"

Hamdan laughed before answering. "Twenty-three."

Sarah's jaw dropped. "I knew you had a big family, but twenty-three? Wow, that's got to be a lot of fun."

"We hardly get all together but when there's at least eight or ten of us, then yes, it is a lot of fun."

Sarah smiled, seemingly dwelling on what Hamdan had just said.

"Now you are smiling," he pointed out.

Her smile grew wider. "Thank you."

Sarah was without a doubt the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and something was telling Hamdan that her beauty extended well beyond the physical aspect.