“Mr. Al Jabal will see you. I don’t think it is wise, but what do I know? I’m just an old man full of wisdom that everyone ignores.” He pressed a button and a door behind him buzzed. “He’s on the fourth floor,” he grumbled.
Steph thanked him and sped to the door, opening it before the guard had a chance to close it and ruin her chance of talking with Sadiq. She was met by a long line of shiny gold elevators, and she pressed a button in the middle of them. A door on the end dinged immediately, and she rushed over, pressing the button for Sadiq’s floor before staring at her own scared reflection in the golden doors as they closed.
A short minute and yet an eternity later, the elevator doors opened to a series of sleek offices. There were no cubicles, just a large open space in the middle with a big conference table set up and private offices all around the perimeter.
Steph gazed around, not sure where to go next. Then a man stepped out of an office at the end.
He walked over to her, his expression cautious.
“Steph?” he asked.
Steph stared at him. He was handsome, it was true. He was tall, his hair dark, though his eyes were blue, like hers. If one didn’t know better, they could have been taken for siblings, their coloring was so alike. He was dressed in a sharp suit that perfectly fit his form.
Her parents had been right. He was rich, handsome, and had kind eyes. But he still wasn’t Mehdi.
“Hello, Sadiq,” she said.
She went to stick out her hand, realized that was probably an inappropriate gesture to give the man she had abandoned before her wedding, and dropped it.
Sadiq’s eyes darted down, seeing the movement. His expression was maddeningly calm.
“Why don’t you come into my office and we can talk?”
“I would like that,” she said.
He led the way back to his office, which was immaculate. There was a large bookcase with many old volumes on its shelves and a vast mahogany desk in the center of the room. Behind the desk was a large window that looked out at the city, which was glittering beneath the starlight. Steph thought about how many more stars she had seen at Mehdi’s palace, then shook her head.
Mehdi could wait. Now she had to give time to Sadiq.
“You took quite the risk coming here this late at night. How did you know I would be here?”
“I didn’t,” Steph answered, taking a seat as Sadiq sat behind his own desk. “But while we’re on the topic, what are you doing here?”
He gestured to an orderly pile of paperwork on his desk. “The finance district never sleeps.”
“So you work in finance,” Steph said.
Sadiq nodded. “It was a family business, and it’s something I enjoy.”
Steph swallowed. She was making small talk with the man she was meant to marry.
Seeming to pick up on her trepidation, Sadiq leaned in. “You’ve come to tell me that you’re sorry, I take it?”
Steph nodded. “I have, though I imagine it will ring a bit hollow.”
Sadiq stared at her for a moment. His blue eyes really were piercing. Steph imagined had she not been whisked away by Mehdi, she would have approved of her parents’ choice. As it was, her heart seemed to have been totally captured by another man.
“You really are very pretty,” Sadiq said, apparently appraising her as well. “Perhaps we could have had a good life together—though I suppose now that we’ve seen each other, marriage would be impossible.”
“Would you want to get married though, even after all this?”
As Steph listened to Sadiq talk, she realized he could have made a very good friend. Given their circumstances, it seemed that would be impossible now. Still, he deserved the full truth, and she would give it to him.
“No. I only came here because I wanted to see if I could do better with a different life.”
“Your family said that you worked in finance as well,” he said.
“I did, and I hated it.”
Sadiq’s eyebrows shot up at that. “But what’s to hate? The pace is fast, and the money is abundant.”
It was clear to Steph that Sadiq was very passionate about his job. She tried to imagine being home alone at night while he worked day in and day out, doing what he loved. It sounded very lonely.