Aria
I’d had so much fun today, exploring the festival with Berevan and Serfina.
The park was a sea of bright, beautiful colours of the women in their Kurdish dresses and the men in their outfits.
So many people had turned up. Live Kurdish singers had been on the stage during the day and carried on into the night.
It was something I never knew existed, but I was so glad to be a part of it.
“What is it?”
“It’s amazing,” Serfina added, eating one.
“It’s kubba. The outside is rice, kneaded together, with spiced mince, walnuts and sultanas stuffed inside. Then it’s shallow-fried.”
I took a bite. The flavours worked well together, the sultanas giving it a slight sweet edge.
“This is good,” I said with a mouthful.
“When I make them, I have to make some without sultans for Sebastian.” She smiled.
“I’m the same when I make carrot cake for him.” I took another bite.
“Aria is such an amazing cook. You need to try the cakes she makes. She used to make them all the time when we were younger,” Serfina said.
“Looks like we will be setting up a girlie lunch, then,” Berevan suggested.
“That would be lovely.”
“We can go through your wedding plans, Serfina.” Berevan smiled.
“I need all the help I can get.” She chuckled. “Right now, though, I’m going to get us some food. I’m starving.” She wandered off through the crowd.
“I’m looking forward to the wedding.”
“Me too. How long have you and Soran been married?” I asked.
“Six years now. Pretty much since the moment I came to the UK. But we’ve known each other since we were children. We grew up in the same village. Then Soran came over to England when he was around nineteen, and I stayed.”
“Why didn’t you come over together?”
She paused for a moment before answering. “The Kurdish people were oppressed during that time, and my family fled the village before I had a chance to leave.”
“I’m really sorry. I didn’t know.”
She squeezed my hand. “It’s fine. After, I joined the Kurdish female army and started advocating for women’s rights over there. There was so much I wanted to do, but unfortunately, I had to leave the country for political reasons.”
My eyes widened. Berevan looked so delicate, and I would never have thought she’d done all of that in her life. It made me think about university and what I really wanted to do with mine.
“Nyx?” I heard Sebastian’s voice from behind, and I turned around to face him.
“Hey, I’ve hardly seen you today.”
“I know. I didn’t want you to miss out on the fun.” He kissed me softly.
“Berevan was telling me about her life in Kurdistan.”
Sebastian looked over at her, and she smiled at him. “Not too much. I don’t want to bore Aria with it.”
“Don’t be silly,” I replied.
“Sorry, Berevan, do you mind if I steal Aria for a minute?”
“Of course,” she replied.
I took Aria’s hand and led her a few feet away. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I need to go deal with something at the office.”
I furrowed my brow. “What do you mean? It’s 9 p.m.”
“I’ve had an alert on my phone with the alarm, and security needs to give me a rundown.” He took hold of my hands and squeezed them.
“Oh. Has someone tried to break in?”
“They think it was a system error, but I have to be there as I’m the CEO.”
“Ok. I understand.”
I let out a silent sigh that he was leaving to go deal with something at work that Caspian could have probably dealt with. The whole point of having him there was to take some of the pressure off Sebastian.
“I’m really sorry.”
“It’s fine. I’ll let Berevan and Serfina know I’m going.”
“No. You stay and have fun. I’ve already asked Logan to collect you when it finishes, and he’ll take you home.”
“Sebastian—”
He cut me off. “Stay. Enjoy the rest of your night.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Fine. Will you be home when I come back?”
“I don’t know how long this will take.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Just go, Sebastian.”
I went to turn, but he gently took hold of my wrist. “Please don’t be like that, Nyx. I can’t help it. The company means a lot to me.”
“I know it does, but you need to think about yourself for once. You look tired. Like you haven’t slept properly for weeks.”
“I’m fine. You don’t need to worry about me.”
“But I do, and you can’t seem to understand that. I’ve always worried about you.” I took a deep breath, pausing for a moment. “It’s fine. Go.” I kissed his cheek quickly and walked back over to Berevan.
“What’s wrong?” Serfina asked as she returned with more food.
Her eyes drifted past me, and I knew she’d clocked Sebastian walking away.
“Apparently, he’s had an alert on his phone about Luxe Corp. He’s gone to sort it out.”
“Oh,” Serfina replied, her eyes not quite meeting mine.
“It must be hard, running such a large company by himself,” Berevan said.
“He’s not on his own anymore. He has someone else to help, but he’s stubborn.”
“Sebastian has always been like that. He never lets anyone help him. He thinks he can do it all himself,” Serfina agreed, as she started eating some rice on her plate.
“I can’t keep telling him to slow down. He doesn’t listen.”
“You do what you need to do,” Berevan said.
“You know what … I think I will.”
Serfina smiled at me. “I know that look. Come on. Spill.”
“I’ve decided not to put uni off anymore. I’m going to do my applications to become a social worker. It’s time I started doing something for myself.”