Chapter 35
ISAAC
“It’s our last day and you’re excited about a dam?
” Jasmine asked for at least the sixth time this morning as we left the ship behind.
The fingers of her one hand were wrapped loosely around mine, but she used the other to pull her massive sunglasses to the tip of her nose, peering up at me over the frames like she was trying to decide if I was joking.
“There are historic ruins and botanical islands right in the river, and the only thing you’re interested in is a dam. ”
“It’s not just a dam.” I grinned as I tugged her closer to my side. “It’s one of the greatest engineering achievements of the twentieth century.”
“Fascinating,” she said.
Joseph fell into step beside me. “Well, actually, it really is fascinating. Do you know that they transformed Egypt when they built that dam? We were finally able to control flooding from the Nile, and the hydroelectric power plant creates electricity for at least half the country.”
Zara groaned behind us. “They really are excited about a dam.”
Jasmine let go of my hand to walk with Zara instead while Joseph and I led the charge to the car waiting to take us to the Aswan High Dam. She took Zara’s arm and let out a dramatic sigh. “I think I might’ve made some terrible life choices recently, if this is where my decisions have brought me.”
Zara nodded, resting her head against Jasmine’s shoulder. “We both have. Perhaps it’s time to reassess.”
I laughed. “You two spent all of yesterday buying handwoven scarves in every village we stopped at. I think I saw a few new handbags too.”
Jasmine arched an eyebrow at me. “So? They’re beautiful.”
“So is reinforced concrete that boosted agriculture, industry, and tourism,” I argued.
“We supported the local economy,” she countered. “Because of us, someone’s child had food on the table last night.”
“And because of the dam, there was affordable food to buy for that table,” Joseph reasoned, then sighed as we climbed into the air-conditioned car. “It’s a big dam. How are you not excited to see it?”
Jasmine sighed again but came back to my side to sit next to me in the back row of our little van. Zara and Joseph took the middle row while an older couple from the cruise climbed in at the front. Our driver slid the door shut.
“I feel like there should be more education about how important this dam is,” I said.
Joseph twisted in his seat to look at me, enthusiastically nodding his agreement. “Most of the tourist sites on the Nile cruises are obviously historic, but that doesn’t mean something that changed what Egypt’s future looks like shouldn’t warrant the same level of attraction.”
Zara groaned. “Don’t talk to me about levels of attraction right now.”
He laughed. “I wasn’t talking to you.”
She heaved out a sigh that made me think she’d been serious about questioning her recent decisions, but not even that could dampen the anticipation I felt over getting to see this dam in person.
True to what I’d thought, it was enormous, so impressive that I got a little emotional when it first came into view.
Lake Nasser stretched toward the horizon on one side and the Nile flowed north on the other, and that same sense of wonder I’d had at Karnak washed over me. This was no less impressive a feat, even if it was much newer.
Once we were standing at the top, the girls still seemed uncertain why they’d joined us, but I was gaping and Joseph turned in a slow circle. “I can’t believe we’re actually here.”
“I know,” I replied. “I can’t believe they let people stand up here. It’s so cool.”
Jasmine leaned toward Zara. “How many times have they said that in the last ten minutes?”
“More than I’d like to think about,” Zara murmured, then cleared her throat and smiled sweetly when the guide joined us. “Oh, look. We’re about to begin. Wonderful. That means we’re almost done, right?”
I ignored her. Joseph and I took places right at the front of the group as the guide started explaining the construction—mercifully in English—and I hung onto every word as he spoke about the rock fill, the turbines, and the spillways.
Joseph eyes were practically glowing. Both of us were in complete awe.
“This is unbelievable,” he murmured. “I can’t believe I’ve never been here before. From now on, I’m coming at least once a year. On my birthday.”
“I’m so with you,” I agreed, but when I glanced over at Jasmine to at least try to explain why this was so amazing, she was gone. I frowned at Zara. “Where did she go?”
Zara shrugged. “I have no idea. She didn’t say.”
I turned back to the guide, but I couldn’t relax again until she came back into view about ten minutes later.
The satisfied smile on her lips said she’d been up to something and I arched an eyebrow at her when she rejoined us, desperately trying not to overanalyze why I’d been so very on edge while she’d been gone.
“What did you do?” I asked.
She smiled. “You’ll see. Come with me.”
“Come with you where?” Joseph asked. “The tour isn’t done ye?—”
“You can thank me later.”
She grabbed my hand and tugged me toward a security guard, where I quickly realized she’d finagled something again. This felt very, very familiar to me after the Pyramids.
The guard waited until all four of us were there. Then he tucked his thumbs into his belt and nodded for us to follow him. Less than five minutes later, we were standing inside the High Dam. I blinked at her, struck completely dumb.
“You…” I inhaled a deep breath and tried again. “Did you bribe someone?”
She shrugged but her soft smile and the twinkle in her eyes told me I was right. “You’re welcome, nerds.”
In a state of complete disbelief, I finally looked away from her and took in the corridors running in every direction. Pipes disappeared into massive chambers as the distant hum of machinery vibrated faintly through the concrete beneath our feet.
“This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” I said hoarsely.
“What a privilege to see it from here,” Joseph whispered, wide eyed as we drifted closer to admire one of the enormous turbine halls. “To think, my mother once banned me from using screwdrivers and look at where I am now.”
I laughed. “My mom banned me from taking apart our kitchen appliances too.”
“What did you dismantle?” he asked. “In my case, it was our toaster. Mom was not happy.”
“I started with the coffee machine, which is, like, her most prized possession,” I admitted. “At least, it used to be. Then I moved on to the vacuum cleaner. She was more okay with that, but also not really.”
He chuckled. “My mother’s final straw was the radio. When I put it back together, there were two springs left over and she missed her favorite show. It was a nightmare.”
“I still have the three screws from that vacuum cleaner in my desk back at my mother’s house. To this day, I have no idea where they came from.”
He nodded solemnly. “I know how you feel. I needed to know how those things worked and I genuinely thought I could put them back together.”
“It’s like they’ve regressed,” Zara murmured quietly. “They’re like little boys again.”
“What, we can’t reminisce about spending our childhoods taking toasters apart?” I asked, giving my head an exaggerated shake. “What is the world coming to?”
“Taking those things apart helped us build the skills we have now,” Joseph insisted.
Jasmine folded her arms and cocked an eyebrow at him. “Unless that skill also included putting them back together properly, the only thing it helped you build was your ability to break perfectly good appliances.”
“No,” I said. “They all worked again eventually. Just, uh, maybe not as well as before.”
“In my defense, I was six with the toaster thing,” Joseph said. “Mom said we needed a new one anyway.”
Zara sighed and glanced at Jasmine. “I can’t believe we’ve voluntarily attached ourselves to them.”
Jasmine shook her head, but I caught the smile.
I slipped my hand into hers as we followed our security guard tour guide farther into the dam. Surprisingly, she squeezed my fingers instead of pushing me away or hanging back with Zara, and even asked a few questions of her own as we progressed.
It made something deep down in the recesses of my soul warm right through. I was in full engineering nerd mode and she was still here, still touching me and looking at me like she had plans for us later. It was hot as hell.
Jasmine stayed right next to me for the rest of the tour, even if she did tease me when we finally got back aboard our ship late in the afternoon. “If they had a gift shop, you two would have bought the whole place out.”
“Proudly,” I agreed, grinning as we walked down the corridor to her suite with Zara and Joseph laughing behind us. “Engineers should get complimentary access to all dams. I’m serious. That was awesome.”
“Not only engineers,” Joseph called from behind. “Architects too!”
“Anyone with an interest in the built environment,” I agreed loudly, chuckling as we stopped outside of Jasmine’s door.
None of us mentioned the fact that Joseph and Zara kept heading to her suite or that my fingers were linked with Jasmine’s as she opened the door. They slowed briefly to wave.
Zara smiled and tugged him down the hall. “Are we meeting up for dinner later?”
“Let’s talk at seven,” Jasmine suggested, pulling me into the suite with her without waiting for a response.
When the door swung shut behind us, she stepped into me, her arms sliding around my waist as naturally as if they belonged there. “Well, did you have fun?”
“Are you kidding?” I asked, holding her to me and staring down into her eyes. “You organized a private tour, knowing exactly what that would do to me, and now you’re asking if it was fun?”
“I may have had an inkling, but I’m just making sure.”
I laughed. “That might’ve been the nicest, most thoughtful thing anyone has ever done for me.”
“I just wanted to see you happy.”
“I don’t think words are going to do it justice. I may have to demonstrate.”
Before she could ask what I meant, I pulled her toward me. Her surprised laughter faded as soon as I kissed her. She melted into me. Her hands slid up to my chest as she kissed me back.
When we finally came up for air, she smiled. “If that was the demonstration of how it made you feel, I understand perfectly.”
I chuckled, but as I held her gaze, for a brief, terrifying moment, the words I love you climbed all the way up my throat. They were right there, a second away from coming out, but then reality crashed back in.
Hard.
There was a plane ticket back to Chicago in my inbox and Basel had plans for Jasmine. So many things waited to tear us apart once this cruise ended, and that was tomorrow.
Mercifully, that realization made the words slip away, and instead, I brushed a kiss against her forehead. “I really did have the best time, baby. Thank you. Again.”
“You are so very welcome,” she murmured, inhaling a deep breath before letting go of me and kicking off her shoes. Padding over to the mini-bar on bare feet, she glanced at me over her shoulder. “A toast to a successful trip?”
When I nodded, she pulled two tiny bottles of champagne out of the fridge and straightened up, handing one over before hooking her fingers around mine once more.
She pulled me out to the balcony, popped open her champagne without bothering with a glass, and folded her legs underneath herself as she sank down on one of the loungers.
I took in our last sunset on the Nile with her as the ship prepared to carry us back to our real lives. We managed to put off whatever the future had in store for us for a few more hours, but when I woke up the next morning, I knew immediately that the bed was empty beside me.
For a second, I thought she might already have left and panic nearly overwhelmed me, but when I sat up, I realized the balcony door was slightly open and she was right there, standing with her back to me and her elbows resting on the railing.
Only a few days ago, I’d been standing in that exact spot, convinced both she and Egypt were slipping through my fingers, and now, she was the one quietly watching the riverbank drift past. Fishermen were untying their boats or waving at the ship when it passed, smoke curling from fires being started to cook on every so often.
By this evening, we’d be back in Cairo and the cruise would be over. While I didn’t know exactly what our future held, I did know for an absolute fact that once we set foot in that city, everything would be different.
As I watched her, however, I realized that I was done being a passenger on this ride. There were so many things I didn’t know, but it was time to decide what I wanted.
And what I wanted was her.
If I was going to bet on anything, it wasn’t going to be a job, a city, or even a country. It was going to be Jasmine Saad. Right then and there, I decided that no matter where my career took me, Jasmine was going to be the deciding factor.
I was finished worrying about projects, money, or contacts. She was the most important consideration and the only one I would be using to make my decisions from now on.
The only question left was one that wasn’t mine to answer. Could I make Jasmine Saad happy?
Forever?