Sarah stopped at the first gas station she found. Completely out of breath, she held on tight onto the steering wheel.
How could I let that happen? How?!
Hamdan had left her shaken, he was seeing right through her and was so confident in his words. How come he was not scared like she was? It was like he did not care about the consequences, as if the only thing that mattered to him was how he felt, and he was desperately trying to figure out how she felt. Even though he evidently had a very clear idea already.
She leaned back and closed her eyes, his fresh citrusy smell hit her nose. She looked down and realized she was still wearing his hoodie. She yanked it down from the collar with both hands and whined. The situation had become more than what she could manage on her own. With trembling hands she reached for her phone and started messaging Tom, who thankfully was online.
Sarah
Are you busy?
Tom
Nope! Just got home.
She exhaled relieved and glanced at the clock on top of the screen.
Sarah
Skype in 30 minutes. Bring the ice cream. THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!
When Sarah was done telling her best friend everything, she was sitting on the living room rug of her apartment with Rooster and his bowl next to her. Tom's face seemed to be frozen on the laptop screen in front of her after she filled him in with every detail of what had happened since she met Hamdan. Before starting, she asked for no interruptions due to the urging she had to blurt out everything to her best friend.
"Tom?"
His green eyes could not be wider. "You. Are. In. Deep. Shit."
"Really? I had no idea!" She rolled her eyes.
"Are you fucking kidding me? I did not need ice cream for this! I needed vodka!"
Rooster buried his nose in the pint of ice cream between Sarah's legs. "Rooster! Seriously! This is the last one!" She scolded, putting two spoonfuls of ice cream in his bowl.
"Sarah..." Tom's tone shifted to a serious one. "Why didn't you say something?"
Her shoulders hanged. "Because I thought I could handle it, that it was nothing."
Tom gave her a sympathetic look. "Alright. First of all, don't you ever do that again, keeping things from me, we're not like that, okay?"
"Okay," she pouted.
"Second of all, and this is important, how did you feel when he said all those things to you?"
She put her spoon down and covered her eyes with both hands. "You have no idea," she looked at Tom again. "My brain turned into mush, I could not think, I could not utter a word—"
Tom lifted one eyebrow. "You could not utter a word?"
"I know! And his eyes, oh my God... when he looks at me I just can't function," she sighed deeply. "He could dismantle an atomic bomb with one look."
"You're so gone..." He pointed out, shaking his head.
Sarah straightened herself up. "But he was very overpowering and I didn't like it."
"You didn't like it because you are a control freak and apparently you've met your match!" Said Tom with an accusatory index finger pointing at Sarah. "And also... what did you expect with that bipolar behavior of yours?"
"Why are you being team Hamdan?"
Tom continued as if he had not listened to her question. "Sarah, I seriously can't believe it, I've never seen you like this over a guy but why aren't you happy?"
"Dah! Because he's not just some guy! I work for him! Okay? He is the future Emir of Dubai, he is royalty! And I'm not."
"So, what? I mean, look at Prince Harry's new girlfriend; she's an actress, she's American, she's not white and she's divorced!"
Her brows grew even closer together. "What? Okay. First, I don't know what you're talking about... and second, I thought you didn't keep up with the royals!"
"Oh well!" He waved his hand nonchalantly. "It's just that the UK is not like the UAE. Over here, the tabloids and paps make it impossible for anybody to not keep up."
Sarah exhaled trying to not lose patience with her disperse confidant. "Whatever... can we focus on my life here?"
"Okay, okay... all I'm saying is that it's 2017 and times change. Perhaps this is the right moment for the Crown Prince to shake things up a bit in Dubai," he winked with a mischievous smile.
"That's the thing! See? Prince Harry—"
"I thought we were done talking about him."
"Let me finish!" She replied bug-eyed. "Prince Harry can have a girlfriend. Hamdan can not! He's not even supposed to be alone with the future Mrs. Al Maktoum until they get married! Let's say we start... what? Dating? That's another thing that I don't know how it would play out. If everything is great could I ever be his girlfriend? No! So what would that even make me? Could I ever call him my boyfriend? Introduce him to my parents? NO! It's too complicated."
Tom was staring at her unimpressed. "You're thinking too much. What does Pat always say? Where there's a will..."
"There's a way." She finished the sentence annoyingly.
Oh my God! Dad! He would die if he knew...
"And how about the kiss, did you kiss him back?"
"Ugh, a little bit..."
"Ha!" He mocked and started singing. "Hamdan and Sarah sitting on a tree... K - I - S - S - I - N - G!"
She rested her elbows on the table and cupped her face with both hands. "I don't even know why am I talking to you."
"Because we're soulmates! Okay, listen!" Tom ordered snapping his fingers. "You are incredibly scared and I get it, believe me I do... But like I said, I don't think you ever, ever felt like this before. So, why don't you just give it a try?"
"It's too much," she shook her head.
"Think about it. I don't want you to spend the rest of your life wondering what if..."
Think about it? All I've done is thinking about it and the more I do, the more reasons I find to convince myself that this is completely insane.
"This man could be the love of your life," Tom added.
"He's not the love of my life!" She protested, grimacing at the laptop.
Tom moved his face closer to the screen. "How do you know?" He challenged.
Sarah started searching her brain for answers and could not find any. She hated being speechless again in such a short period of time.
"Exactly!" Tom boasted. "You don't know and there's only one way to find out."
After a restless night, Sarah could not wait for the sun to come up. She paid an early visit to the gym, took a shower and was washing the breakfast dishes, thinking what time would be good to go see Princesa without running into Hamdan. She was feeling guilty about the way she treated him. He had been nothing but nice to her, well, he wasn't exactly nice the night before but she understood where he was coming from. She hated to admit it, but Tom was right. And that kiss, she could not stop thinking about it, the tingling feeling his lips left on hers. She was still wondering where the courage to push him away came from because what she really wanted was to kiss him back, fully and completely.
A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts. She found it strange that the sound seemed to be coming from the bottom part of the door. She ran to get it and gasped at the beautiful sight of white roses and orchids. Ali — the doorman — peeked over the flower arrangement he was holding and greeted her.
"These came for you!"
Sarah smiled and moved so Ali could come in, he had to do it sideways to fit the flowers through the doorway.
"Please, set them over here," she instructed, clearing the black table where she normally dropped her bag and keys.
Sarah thanked Ali as he closed the door behind him and left.
The silver base of the arrangement contained what she estimated to be at least ten dozens of white roses, forming an oval shape with accent branches of orchids on top. She was biting her lower lip with eyes fixed on the small cream envelope peeking out of the flowers. She opened it and read the short and sweet message.
I'm sorry,
H.
Her stomach clenched with emotion but at the same time she felt even worse than before, she should be saying sorry too. She continued to admire the flowers when her ringing phone made her run to the bedroom. Her breathing was cut short as she saw the screen; it was a call from a private number, like the night before when he called. She swiped the green button to pick up and closed her eyes.
Please be him, please be him.
"Hello?" She answered.
Her eyes opened up when she heard his deep voice on the other side. "Hi."
She immediately felt her heart racing. "Hi," she replied.
"You're not going to hang up on me?"
"No."
"Okay, that's a relief."
She looked down at the floor and laughed. "Thank you, Hamdan. For the flowers, I just got them."
"You don't sound mad anymore, so they worked."
"You're just lucky that I'm a sucker for flowers," she joked.
His laugh echoed on the phone.
"No, seriously..." She continued. "I'm sorry too. My attitude has been all over the place with you."
"It's okay. I think I know what that was about... but either way, I'm not proud about the way I treated you and I want to make it up to you."
She looked up. "Huh?"
"Have dinner with me on Friday. Please."
She did not see it coming, her eyes wanted to leave their orbits. "Dinner? How? Where?"
"My home. It's the only safe place I could invite you over."
Dinner at his place? We can't... we shouldn't.
But Tom's words came to her mind. Maybe she could give it a try, maybe only one dinner. She wanted to say yes but the fear and doubts were keeping her from it.
"Please, Sarah. Don't make me beg because I will," his tone turned even deeper, making him irresistible.
She rubbed her forehead. "Okay."
"Perfect," she could hear the excitement in his voice. "I'll send a car to pick you up. It's not how I would like things to be but—"
She did not let him finish. "It's fine. I get it."
"It's 8 okay?"
"Yes."
"I'll see you Friday then."
"Hamdan?"
"Yeah?"
"How did you get my address?"
"Um... yeah, hum, I—" He stammered. "Ahem, I might have stolen some info from the stable's files yesterday..."
She narrowed her eyes. "Hum! So you're a thief too? You're starting to look more and more like Aladdin."
He chuckled. "Well, I don't want to disappoint you, but I don't have a magic flying carpet."
Her lips turned into a big smile. "Oh! I was starting to count on it!"
"On Friday, you will know where I live and I'll text you my phone number so you can save it. We will be even."
"Good. That's how I like it. See you Friday."
All the concerns kept roaming in the back of her mind as she hung up, but she chose to be happy and thrilled. She wanted to enjoy what was happening and she set her mind to live in the moment. She got a text message with Hamdan's number and proceeded to save it. Recalling the note on the flowers, she simply typed H on the contact name. Giggling like a little girl she texted Tom.
Sarah
So... what does a girl wear for dinner with a prince?
She threw herself on the bed waiting for Tom's reply.
Seriously, what am I going to wear? What will he be wearing? A kandura? I have only seen him in kanduras or sweatpants. Does he ever wear jeans? I think a dress will do, but not short though...
She was putting herself up to go check the closet when she felt her phone buzzing.
Tom
OMG!!!! YES YES YES!!!!!!!!!! I'll call in 5 minutes!!
She grinned at the screen. It was going to be a long wait until Friday.
***
I'm on a roll, you guys!!! Words are just flowing! Now, I can't promise to keep up this pace but I'll try my best.
Thank you so much for reading!! Don't forget to vote and comment, it's what keeps me going with this story.
XOXO,
Sophie.