Chapter 24
DEJA
Iwoke up to noise filtering into my consciousness. A lot of it, and not the same kind that drifted through our house every morning. This sounded more like an invasion.
My eyes flew open when the piercing screech of furniture being scraped across marble rang out from downstairs.
My heart started pounding. Someone shouted instructions and someone else shouted the exact opposite thing.
A vacuum cleaner whined to life, only to be drowned out by what sounded like a delivery trolley rolling through the foyer.
It was at that exact moment that I remembered what day it was. Colin was flying in, landing sometime today.
The last vestiges of sleep instantly abandoned me and my hand shot out on autopilot, reaching for my phone on the nightstand.
There were no new messages waiting for me, though.
But that wasn’t surprising. We had committed to writing letters, and while I wouldn’t have traded the anticipation of finding one in the post for anything, it was a pretty inconvenient system for coordinating international travel.
Colin might be over the Mediterranean right now or he could already have landed. The romance of handwritten correspondence lost most of its charm when one party was crossing continents and the other had no clue when to expect them.
When yet another crash rang out from downstairs, I swung my legs over the side of the bed and padded barefoot across the thick carpet, phone in hand. I pressed my ear against the door when I reached it. “That arrangement goes next to the staircase!”
“No, not that one! The white lilies!”
“Where’s Farah?”
“Which Farah?”
A loud groan rang out and I finally opened my door to find the corridor full of movement.
Housekeepers rushed past with polished serving trays, two of my cousins who didn’t live anywhere near Cairo raced around a corner carrying flower arrangements, and one of my uncles was talking loudly into his phone.
No one seemed to notice me at first, so I took a few tentative steps out of the room and wandered to the balcony overlooking the foyer. When I looked down at it, however, I blinked a couple times, convinced that I might still be asleep.
Overnight, the foyer had been transformed into a scene that belonged in the pages of one of White Water Lily’s luxury campaign books.
There were possibly thousands of flowers, towering arrangements framing the sweeping staircase overflowing with white roses, orchids, jasmine, and every other variety of bloom I adored.
Garlands had been wrapped around the railings and crystal vases covered every table, making the entrance hall look like a botanical garden. I inhaled instinctively, leaning over the railing as I tried to absorb every detail.
“My darling!”
I jumped when I realized I was the darling in question. Aunt Nawal, one of my mother’s sisters, had spotted me. Her eyes widened after they’d swept across the length of my body, and she shrieked. “Deja!”
Every head in the foyer turned upward. An army of my aunts narrowed their eyes as Aunt Nawal pointed at me with genuine horror overtaking her features. “You’re still in your pajamas!”
“I just woke up,” I objected, but she was already charging toward the staircase.
“The man is flying halfway around the world for you!” she admonished loudly. “You should’ve been ready to receive him hours ago.”
“I uh…”
When I trailed off, a few more aunts blinked, as if they only just realized the seriousness of the situation, but Aunt Nawal was in full panic mode. “We need to get you ready. Right now. He could arrive at any moment!”
By the time she reached the landing, two more aunts had materialized behind her, one clutching a garment bag and the other a jewelry case. They followed me into my room. Aunt Farida gave me a dramatic onceover before raising the back of her hand to her forehead.
“My goodness, look at the state of her.” Aunt Farida threw her hands into the air. “Why are you just standing there?”
“What do you want from me?” I asked, crossing my arms as I backed toward my bathroom. “I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about.”
“The fuss will still be here after you’ve become presentable.”
“I am presentable,” I tried, but every woman within earshot laughed, and the next thing I knew, they really descended.
Farida took one arm and Nawal took the other, speaking over me when I even tried to open my mouth. “I need to?—”
“Hair first.”
“No, makeup.”
I planted my feet and narrowed my eyes at each of them in turn. “No, I have to brush my teeth first. After that, I’ll get myself dressed and ready for the day.”
They argued for a minute, but when they finally released me to face off with each other instead, I slipped into my ensuite bathroom, locked the door behind me, and leaned against it with my eyes closed, grateful for the moment of privacy.
At least half a dozen women were arguing in my bedroom, not one of them apparently concerned about the fact that I’d escaped. It sounded like they were much too busy blaming each other for my current state and trying to decide how to fix it.
Meanwhile, I used my phone to call Jasmine, but she didn’t answer. Even as I scowled at my screen and cursed under my breath, I wasn’t the least bit surprised. She was probably downstairs, enjoying the spectacle.
Praying to every god out there before I tried again, I hit call once more, but the result was the same.
When her cheerful voice spoke through her voicemail, I considered leaving her a message, but telling her that I was being hunted and that I needed either help or snacks seemed pointless.
So I hung up and slid down the bathroom door until I was sitting on the cool marble floor.
This was absurd. Everyone seemed to have collectively forgotten that I was perfectly capable of dressing myself and it was all because Colin was arriving. For a second, I let myself just sit with that knowledge.
Colin Thayer, my future husband, was either here or almost here. After a month of exchanging letters, photographs, and gifts, I was finally going to see him again. I was just about to smile when a sharp knock landed on the bathroom door.
“Deja?”
I froze but didn’t say a word.
“Come out.”
“No. I’m hiding.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I’ll come out when everyone promises to behave.”
Laughter erupted outside, but Aunt Nawal spoke through the amusement. “We are behaving. You just need to get dressed before your fiancé arrives.”
“If that was you behaving, then I live in here now.”
Someone actually rattled the doorknob, but I ignored it, knowing after years of using this as my refuge when I was being chased by my siblings that the door would withhold their assault.
Resting my head back against the wood, I took a minute to breathe, then got up and finally ambled over to the sink to brush my teeth.
Thankfully, a shout from downstairs caught my aunts’ attention and I heard a few of them rush away, followed not long after by the murmur of the others’ voices moving down the hallway.
While I was curious to know what had drawn them away, I counted to fifty before I unlocked the door and cautiously peeked into my bedroom, finding it empty.
Unfortunately, the unmistakable crunch of tires from the circular driveway below filtered up through my open balcony doors, letting me know not only what had caused my aunts to disperse so suddenly, but also that I’d officially run out of time.
I padded out onto the balcony just in time to see a sleek black SUV roll to a stop and my stomach flipped, anticipation suddenly buzzing in my veins. As I watched, Dad climbed out first, Khaled emerging behind him.
My uncles and aunts were suddenly congregated in the driveway, already laughing and talking to Dad and Khaled, but I waited with bated breath until the final figure stepped out of the car. Colin.
For one long minute, I simply stared at him, here in the flesh after a whole month of spending every waking minute wondering what he was going to write me next. I felt a smile slide across my lips as I stared at him, but the flight had also clearly taken its toll.
Colin’s shoulders were rigid beneath a navy blazer, his dark hair more unruly than usual, and faint shadows sat beneath those remarkable gray-blue eyes. He looked completely exhausted and utterly bewildered.
The poor man had barely planted both feet on Egyptian soil when my family rushed him.
Nawal kissed both his cheeks while Farah adjusted his collar.
One of the housekeepers thrust a glass of juice into his hands and one of my uncles shook his hand in a grip so firm, I could almost see his knuckles going white all the way from here.
Colin smiled politely and exchanged small talk, but when he finally glanced up, his eyes landed directly on me, and suddenly, everything else just disappeared. One corner of his mouth lifted into that gentle half smile I’d thought about far more often than I cared to admit over the past month.
I smiled back, then mouthed, Sorry.
His shoulders moved with silent laughter, but three of my aunts swooped in again and Colin disappeared into a tide of Saads.
For the next few hours, he might as well have ceased to exist. Every time I asked where he was, I was told in no uncertain terms that he was busy—in a meeting with my dad, being shown around the gardens by Khaled, or just he’s with the men.
Eventually, I started wondering if my family had hidden him deliberately, but once the masses started saying their goodbyes, I realized this was my chance. Everyone was distracted and the blockade between us was finally thinning, so I slipped into the hallway and went to find him.