Chapter 20
DEJA
Running even before I hit the stairs, I clutched the package from Colin so tightly to my chest that I was half-afraid I was crushing something.
“Deja!” Jasmine called after me, laughing as her footsteps smacked against the tile behind me. “Wait for me!”
“Sorry, but no!” I called back, bursting into my bedroom while my heart raced with exhilaration and anticipation coursed like electricity through my veins.
Unfortunately, Jasmine was fast. I barely had time to jump onto my bed before she was launching herself onto the mattress with me.
“This is it,” she announced, flopping onto her stomach. “I’m here for the grand unveiling. You may begin.”
“You are not here for anything,” I said, swatting her hands away as she tried to reach for the box. “Will you please leave me alone so I can open it?”
“No.”
Mom appeared in the doorway moments later. “What is all this commotion about?”
“Nothing,” I said immediately, not wanting to include yet another member of my family in this, but Jasmine pointed at the package.
“It’s from Colin,” Jasmine said. “It’s the first one.”
I sighed but carefully started opening the packaging while Jasmine leaned over my shoulder like a vulture who’d just discovered food and Mom moved further into the room.
“Stop touching.” I slapped my sister’s hand away again. “It’s mine. Just let me open it.”
“I’m not touching anything,” she said, already reaching for the package again.
I twisted to put my back to her. “I can feel you touching, Jasmine.”
Our mother crossed her arms, a fond, soft smile tugging at her lips. “You are both behaving like children.”
“We’re not,” I started, but Jasmine shoved me sideways just as I found what I was looking for between all the tissue paper and packing peanuts inside the box.
The letter had been tucked carefully between two smaller boxes underneath the rest of it, but as I pulled it out, Jasmine gasped like I’d unearthed treasure and reached for even that.
“Ooooh,” she said as I snatched it out of her reach. “Read it out loud.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.” I scanned it quickly, my eyes flicking across Colin’s neat, precise handwriting just to make sure the contents were appropriate to share.
I wasn’t expecting him to have included anything salacious, but there were things that could be for my eyes only. Even if it wasn’t sexual or explicit.
Jasmine, however, kept trying to pluck the paper from between my fingers. “Oh my God. Will you just read it already?”
“I’m trying, but you’re making it pretty hard.”
Even my mom came closer, looking amused as she sat down on the armchair near the bed. “Girls, behave.”
“I am behaving,” I insisted just as Jasmine snatched the letter out of my hands.
She held it up dramatically. “Success! Let’s see what the infamous Colin has got to say, shall we?”
Mom nodded enthusiastically. “Share with the class, please.”
Jasmine unfolded the papers, a slight pucker appearing between her eyebrows before she lifted it to her nose and sniffed it. “This smells like Armani.”
Mom blinked rapidly, rising from the chair and coming over to give my letter a sniff of her own. She rose slowly, then sighed. “We can fix that.”
“What is there to fix?” I asked. “Not everyone has to wear something we’ve created.”
“No, but he should. We’ll send him something better,” she said, thinking out loud. “Something more distinctive from our men’s line.”
I shook my head but didn’t bother arguing. Whether or not I approved of this plan of hers was of no consequence. She would send him whatever scent she had in mind and there was nothing I could do to stop her.
Turning back to the smaller boxes, I reached in and extracted one, sliding open folded cardboard to peek inside. My entire being went still when I realized what it contained.
“Wait,” Jasmine said, sensing the shift in me. “What is that face all about? What is that?”
I didn’t answer, simply lifting the brand-new Hasselblad camera out of the box for her to see. It was still in its case, another smaller box containing multiple different lenses and a tripod.
Even Jasmine went quiet for half a beat. “Oh.”
Mom leaned in, her eyebrows sweeping up with approval. “Oh is correct. That’s very expensive.”
“This is…” I started, but I couldn’t even finish my own sentence before I’d swallowed past a lump of emotion and thought it over for a beat. “I think it’s the most thoughtful thing anyone has ever done for me.”
Jasmine launched herself at me this time, pulling me into a tight hug. “Okay, I officially approve of Colin!”
“That’s nice, but I didn’t ask you for approval,” I said, my voice lacking any real bite.
Mom smiled as she watched me turn over the camera in my hands once my sister had finally let go of me. “This is a very thoughtful gift.”
I looked up at my mom, knowing she would understand how much this meant to me, but Jasmine had already moved on. She was digging through the rest of the box, tearing into it like she’d never heard of the word boundaries.
“I found more things,” she announced happily.
“Fine. Have fun. Let me know when you’re done so that I can also find out what I was sent.”
In the meantime, at least she’d finally let go of my letter and I reached for it. Falling back against the bed, I rested my head on a pillow and carefully unfolded the papers once more, reading properly this time what he’d written.
Dear Deja,
Thank you for your letter. It nearly killed me, but it was worth the attack my body staged.
It’s definitely not you I’m allergic to, for what it’s worth. I’ve always struggled with seasonal allergies. That’s probably not something I should be putting in a letter at this point, but you can’t fault me for being honest.
On that note, I’ll also admit that I’ve been pretty bored since you left. I really am counting the days until I fly to Egypt. I loved those pictures you sent of the market and I can’t wait to see it in person.
It made everything here seem pretty pale in comparison.
Outside of that, I’m not even really sure what to tell you about the past couple weeks. I’ve been working, naturally, and attending more meetings that should be legal for one person to have to sit through.
My gym routine is starting to annoy me, and look, I know exercise is necessary, but I feel like there’s got to be a better way of going about it than endless running, sit-ups, and push-ups. I’m thinking I should take up mountain biking or climbing.
At least that way, I’ll get to be outdoors more often. I’ve always wanted to. It’s just been hard to find the time. Fall probably isn’t the best time of year for that though, but then again, I’ll be over there soon and I’ve heard your weather is much better.
For now, golf is probably the only thing keeping me even marginally sane. I know you don’t particularly care for the game, but to me, there’s something about being out there with nothing but grass and sky as far as the eye can see.
I wish you would’ve been with me last weekend. The weather was perfect and it was quiet, which was nice. The people at the club asked about you, Ms. Grand Theft Auto: Golf Cart Edition. You would’ve had a blast racing around with so few other golfers out that day.
I paused to smile and Jasmine noticed, turning away from whatever she’d been talking to our mom about to arch an eyebrow at me. “What?”
“Nothing.”
It wasn’t nothing, though. Colin wasn’t only looking forward to coming here. He was bored over there without me. His sense of humor shone through even on paper, and honestly, while the letter wasn’t romantic or groundbreaking, my heart was still fluttering like a hummingbird in my chest.
So, uh, about the camera, I’m not sure if it’s an appropriate gift to send, but I love your pictures, and according to the all-knowing internet, this is the one any aspiring photographer wants.
If you don’t like it or if it was too forward of me to send something like that right off the bat, just pop it in a closet till I get there and I’ll try to teach myself how to use it once I arrive.
Also, you are an amazing photographer, Deja. I’ll admit to not knowing a whole lot about the technical aspects of photography, but yours are the first pictures I’ve ever seen that I keep looking at.
Mom made a soft sound of approval beside me, alerting me to the fact that I wasn’t reading alone anymore. “He sounds like a very nice man.”
I exhaled slowly, trying not to get too annoyed about the fact that neither she nor my sister would just let me have a moment of privacy for this. “That’s because he is. He’s one of the good ones, Mama.”
Jasmine made a face from the floor where she was digging through some of the other boxes she’d uncovered. “Nice is not the concern.”
“What is the concern then?” I asked.
She looked up at me. “The rest of the family is going to eat him alive.”
I threw a pillow at her, but she laughed and caught it. Mom shook her head. “Colin will be fine. He handled your father without running away. That’s a promising sign.”
“I don’t think that’s the standard we should be using,” I muttered, but I was smiling anyway because she was right.
My dad had always been a massive hurdle in this particular aspect of my life.
The fact that Colin had not only survived him, but had apparently done so with ease, was comforting.
I turned the page of the letter to find I’d reached the last part, so I read slowly, wanting to savor my first letter from him for as long as I could draw it out.
You have an eye for capturing the beauty in moments where others would see nothing out of the ordinary. That’s a real talent.
I’ve been trying to spot all those glimmers you taught me about, too. Pretty sure Isaac thinks I’m going nuts for suddenly pointing out sunsets or the colors of the leaves as they start changing. I don’t really care what he thinks, though.
Seeing those things keeps making me smile. I guess that’s the only thing that’s important.
I’m keeping your flower petals, by the way. They’re in a dish in my room. I’ve tried to smell them each on their own and putting different ones together, but I think you might need to let me in on your secret, because so far, I haven’t had much success in making them extraordinary.
On the other hand, I’m starting to think that maybe it’s just you. Maybe your personal touch is what makes them extraordinary.
See you soon,
Colin.
As I let out a content sigh and let the letter rest over my face so I could breathe him in, Jasmine suddenly squealed. “It’s Cartier!”
I sat up to see her holding a velvet box with a set of tasteful gold bangles inside. My mother blinked a couple times, then smiled. “He also has taste.”
Falling back against the bed, I set the papers down on my face again, itching to take the camera for a spin even as I inhaled the Armani cologne I remembered catching whiffs of on him every so often.
Jasmine was still gushing about the bangles, and I loved them, but I appreciated the camera, and his letter meant the world to me.
Unfortunately, a ruckus suddenly sounded downstairs, voices, footsteps, and laughter echoing through the house. Jasmine sighed. “Oh no.”
Mom shushed her. “They’re your brothers. Be nice.”
I sighed under the letter but finally folded it again, tucking it carefully into the drawer of my nightstand before I followed Jasmine and our mom out of my room, already dreading the roasting I was about to receive from the rest of the Saad clan.