Coming Home (English Version)

27. Angel

"Do you have your phone with you?" I ask her.

She furrows her brows. "What? No."

"Good."

My grip around her tightens and I let my body fall backwards on the pool, she lets out a high pitched scream that is soon muted by the water. We both swim back to the surface and I reach for her arm to bring her laughing self close to me.

"I love you too, I love you so much." I tell her, looking into her eyes before I kiss her wet lips.

---

"I could seriously stay in bed all day with you." She says.

The white sheet covers our bodies as we lay down facing each other, her hair still feels a bit wet when I brush it back from her face with my fingers.

"We will eventually get hungry." I reply. "Are you hungry? I could cook you something."

Her smile broadens. "I'm okay. What I really want is to know what have you thought about us, about what we are going to do."

I clear my throat and lift my elbow to rest my head over my hand. "Well, I guess our options are pretty narrow. I cannot have a public relationship unless I'm married and since you definitely do not want to get married we would have to keep the secret."

She opens her mouth to say something but I stop her with my palm because I'm not done talking and I'm pretty sure what she's about to tell me.

"I know, I know." I continue. "It's far from ideal and if it was up to me I wouldn't have a problem letting everyone know we're together, but my position is a difficult one and you're aware of that, but being with you is more important to me than marriage."

"Hamdan, I--"

"Wait, wait, wait. I promise you it won't be that bad. Because I also thought that you're part of the family." I carry on. "We can be close, we can share certain spaces, be together at occasions and no one would suspect a thing."

She sits up on the bed covering herself with the sheet. "Are you done?"

"Please don't say that we cannot do it." I plead.

She scoffs. "I know we can, it was my first option but the more I thought about it, the more I disliked it. I don't want to keep things a secret."

I sit up as well. "Layla, we can't be publicly together, the family would never allow it and even if they did, the backlash and criticism would be enormous, especially for you because you're the woman and I'm afraid I couldn't protect you from that and it would drive me insane."

The mere thought of that scenario makes my blood boil and she needs to understand that I can fully accept and embrace who she is and what she wants, but the rest of the world would destroy her before doing the same as I.

She comes closer, looking empathetically at me, her fingers run behind my ears and her hands finally settle on the back of my neck. "I'm not willing to keep our love a secret, we deserve a lot more than that. And if what it takes for us to be together without hiding is signing a contract and having a big party, then I can do that."

My eyes frantically search hers. Is she serious?

"Yeah." She reaffirms as if she was reading my mind. "Let's do it, let's get married."

I jump up and hug her, bringing her body to lay down on the bed once more and leaving mine on top of hers. I don't want to let go, ever. This moment, feeling her warm and soft skin, hearing her laugh, knowing she wants to be my wife... this moment is perfection.