by Holly Rayner
How could he have been so stupid? Sadiq—a man who considered himself to be so smart, a man who had taken on the entire business world and topped them all—had forgotten all about one small discussion that since come to ruin his life.
Before Hallie had come over to Al Shayam, he’d been bragging to Fakhir the whole day.
“Hey, remember who was right and who was wrong? Oh yes, me, and you, respectively.”
Fakhir had shrugged. “I’m not marrying a complete stranger, Sadiq. This whole thing is crazy! Do you even know who this woman is?”
Sadiq had googled Hallie and put her image up on his computer screen, twirling it so Fakhir could see. “Only America’s number one gold digger. She’s quite beautiful, is she not? I think she’ll be quite amenable to the life I can give her, and once I grow tired of her conversation, I’ll leave her a lifetime’s worth of riches and move on. It’s the perfect plan.”
“So you want to move forward with the billboard then?”
“Of course I do. Make sure all the in-app purchases are ready, too, so we can make some extra bucks.”
“You got it, boss. Drinks tonight?”
“No. I’ve got to prepare for my future bride!”
He had laughed at his own joke, forgetting the conversation had ever happened the moment Hallie walked through the door and all his expectations had completely melted away. She had been so witty, so honest and forthright. She was nothing like the papers had made her out to be. She was the most amazing person Sadiq had ever met.
And she was gone.
Fakhir came in then, clearing his throat.
“Sadiq? It’s been done.”
He stared out the window, not bothering to look back at his friend and business partner. He felt barely alive since she left. “Thank you, Fakhir.”
“Sure thing.”
Sadiq could hear Fakhir’s footsteps, and was surprised to hear his voice right behind him.
“If you really love her, you shouldn’t give up.”
Sadiq turned in his chair to look up at his friend. He shook his head in defeat. “She told me never to contact her again. Isn’t it better to respect her wishes, even if it makes me miserable?”
Fakhir shrugged, taking a seat across from Sadiq. “I don’t know, but what I do know is I’ve never seen you like this over a woman before. This Hallie is obviously more special to you than you ever let on. She was angry when she left, but maybe now that some time has passed, she’ll be willing to hear you out.”
The Sheikh frowned, skeptical, but his friend pressed on.
“What have you got to lose, Sadiq? You’re the man who has everything, and she’s the one thing you actually care about. You’re really telling me you won’t fight for her? Who are you?”
Sadiq stared into his friend’s eyes, knowing that he was speaking sense.
He loved Hallie, and somewhere, beneath all that anger, she loved him, too.
He would fight for them both. After all, Hallie was worth it.
FIFTEEN
Hallie stared dejectedly into her bowl of ramen noodles.
When she’d arrived at the Al Shayam International Airport, she’d headed straight to a kiosk and asked to buy a one-way ticket to New York City. That ticket alone had completely wiped out her bank account.
Mallory had been a good sport when she’d come crawling back to work. The woman had taken one look at her puffy eyes, the bags beneath them, and hadn’t asked a single question. Hallie had gone back to entering data, as though nothing had happened.
But something had happened. Someone. She couldn’t get Sadiq off her mind, no matter how hard she tried. He even haunted her dreams.
Hallie slurped on the processed noodles, trying to enjoy the overly salty broth. She tried not to think about the delectable meals she’d shared with some of the best company she’d ever enjoyed, just the week before. She tried not to think about how much she’d smiled and laughed, and felt actual happiness again.
She’d tried telling herself, over and over again, that none of it was real, because Sadiq had just been manipulating her for the sake of increasing his profits. But there was an annoying little part of her brain that didn’t quite believe it—that didn’t want to accept that she’d been betrayed so callously.
He had looked so upset when she’d stormed out. A man who was so cold and calculating wouldn’t keep up the charade even as she left, would he? She remembered how it felt being carried in his arms across the desert, and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to dispel the image from her memory.
Of course it wouldn’t go.
“Hello?”
Gemma came into her apartment, unannounced. Since Hallie’s return, she had confided everything to her friend, who had been more than supportive.
“Over here,” Hallie said from her small kitchen table.
Gemma plopped down next to her and took a scathing look at her bowl. “Ramen? Again? Honey, we need to get you some real food.”
“I get paid tomorrow. Then I can have some real food.”
“You need more than that,” Gemma said, looking her friend up and down.
Hallie tried not to wince at what her friend probably saw. She’d been a complete wreck since coming home.
“I’m taking you out tonight.”
“What? No. I can’t…”
Gemma put up a hand, stopping her protest. “I don’t care what excuse you have. I’m buying. You’ve been in a slump ever since you got back. I’ve never seen you like this, even after you were dumped on national television, so I know it must be bad. What do we do when we fall off the horse, Hallie?”
Hallie knew the answer. She’d been trying to tell herself all week that she needed to pick herself up, dust off, and get on with her life. It just seemed impossible.
“We get back on,” she mumbled.
Gemma stood and grabbed Hallie’s forearm, lifting her up from the table. For such a tiny woman, she was surprisingly strong.
“Yes we do. So get your butt in the shower, clean yourself off, and put on something flirty. Tonight we’re going to meet some new men, and you’re going to enjoy it!”
Hallie groaned. “Do I have to?”
Gemma pushed her towards the bathroom. “Yes. And you better be ready in an hour, Hallie, or I’ll dress you myself.”
“You’re a mean little thing, you know that?”
“It’s called tough love. Now shower!”
Just over an hour later, Hallie was made up and dressed better than she had been in a week. She tried not to slouch as she was tugged down the street by Gemma, who was prattling on about nothing in particular. Hallie was glad Gemma liked to talk so much. It meant she didn't have to say anything, and she really didn’t feel like talking.
“So of course there’s this party, and there’s a few big names going. I thought to myself, we should go, and Hallie can talk to some guys who know what it’s like to be on camera.”
Hallie’s brain slowly processed that statement.
“Wait, we’re going to a party?”
Gemma smiled. “Yep. Just up here…here we are!”
The party was at a trendy bar just a few blocks from Hallie and Gemma’s apartment building. They got in an elevator and proceeded to the fiftieth floor. When the doors opened, the whole city was displayed behind massive windows, spread out beneath them.
The bar was an upscale, classy place, teeming with minor celebrities. Hallie recognized a lot of faces as she and Gemma made their way through the crowd to the bar. Gemma ordered them both cocktails and dragged Hallie over to a standing table.
“What now?” Hallie asked.
Gemma was putting on her best flirty face as she gazed around the room. “Now we wait,” she replied, making sexy eyes at a guy at the next table.
Hallie stared out the window, seeing her very sad looking reflection looking back at her. She had to rally. She just had to. Sadiq was gone. He wasn’t coming back for her. She had asked him not to.
A pair of men from anoth
er season of The Perfect Couple approached their table.
“Hallie Richards and Gemma Sheridan, right? I loved your season!”
The man was tall, buff, fair-haired, and handsome. Exactly the type the producers liked to cast for these types of shows. He made small talk with Gemma, while his friend (Eric, was it?) tried to talk to Hallie.
“So…how are you?” he asked.
Could he be any more generic?
Hallie pasted on her best smile. “I’m great. How are you?”
“I never believed what they said about you, you know.”
“What’s that?”
“About you being shallow and dumb. I could tell you were smarter than that.”
Hallie stared at him. She wasn’t sure how to respond to such a statement, but the truth was, it was one of the few compliments she’d received from an American guy in a long time.
“Thanks,” she said.
“I feel so bad for the ones they pick to be the villains. It’s like, here we are, trying to make it in show business, and they have to ruin our image. Its nuts.”
Hallie paused. “Show business?”
Eric raised a perfect, dark eyebrow. “Of course. You can’t tell me that you joined this franchise in the hope that you’d find true love.”
He said the last part in a false singsong little voice, and Hallie tried not to spit her drink in his face. She really had been fooled, hadn’t she? Was that to be the story of her life?
“Right. Well. I hope you get the fame you’re looking for.”
She meant it as an insult, but the man took it as a compliment.
“Hey, you, too, Hallie. There’s a place on the Hollywood Boulevard for all of us, am I right?”
“Mmm,” she said, non-committal.
He took that as agreement and started blathering on about how easy it had been to get an agent, but how he wasn’t sure if he trusted the guy because he wasn’t landing any gigs. Hallie tuned him out. While he talked, she was transported to another place, with another man.
Sadiq had driven them across the bay out on his yacht. The stars were shining brightly above them, though there were much fewer visible that close to the city. He pulled out one of the chairs, turning it into a kind of chaise longue, perfect to fit two people.
“Shall we?” he asked.
He sat down on one side, his arm stretched along the side of the boat. Hallie gladly cuddled in next to him, nestling into the crook his body left for her. The water lapped gently against the sides of the yacht.
“So, what delicious treats have you secretly stored in your cooler this time?” she asked.
Sadiq reached over and opened the small compartment, pulling out a cheese plate and a bottle of wine.
“Yum!” Hallie said.
Sadiq unwrapped the cheeses and handed one to her. “You have to try this. It’s my absolute favorite.”
Hallie did, delighting in the sharp, creamy taste of the cheese. “I can see why.”
“You know what else is my favorite?” he asked.
Hallie was looking at the cheese plate, trying to guess, when she felt his lips against her ear.
“You.”
“And that’s when I told him, ‘Look, Jon, if you can’t get me on Modern Family, I don’t want to work with you.’”
Hallie blinked, coming back to the conversation at hand. If she had looked glazed over, Eric hadn’t noticed.
“Did you get the role?” Hallie asked, hoping that was the right question. Had he said anything about it before she zoned out? Her feet were starting to ache in her heels. She wanted to go home and curl up in bed, alone.
Eric beamed. “Damn right I did. I played one of their neighbors in this really funny scene…”
He went on to describe a perfectly forgettable scene. Hallie couldn’t take it anymore. She turned to Gemma, who was having an animated discussion with Eric’s friend.
“Gemma, I’m going home.”
“What! Hold on a minute,” she said, flashing bright white teeth at the blond man who was clearly very interested in what she had going on.
Gemma pulled Hallie aside and stage whispered at her. “What are you doing? The night’s just started!”
“You told me I needed to get out. I got out. Now I want to go back in.”
“You’re not trying hard enough, Hallie. Just stay with us for a while. If you don’t like that guy, there are plenty of others here!”
Hallie gazed around the room. Beautiful, shallow people were making connections all around her, and she felt like a complete stranger to the whole situation. This wasn’t her place. She needed to get out, stat.
“I’m going. Make sure you take a cab home and call me if you need anything,” Hallie said, staring pointedly at Gemma’s current interest.
Seeing she wouldn’t win this particular battle, Gemma sighed. “Get home safe, okay? Text me when you get there?”
“I will.”
Hallie half-limped over to the elevator, and, to her bliss, got to ride it solo all the way down. No one left a party in New York that early. She would be perfectly safe getting home. The blister forming on her right heel would need to be soaked, anyway, and there was no way she would smile though that pain for the rest of the night.
When she got back to her apartment, Hallie texted Gemma that she was home safe before drawing herself a bath. She sighed as she let her body sink into the warm water, even as she drew up her knees to fit in the tiny tub.
The Winter Palace had an amazingly large bathtub. She had imagined sitting in it on her wedding night, with Sadiq right behind her as her pillow—the perfect way to relax.
Hallie closed her eyes, a tear squeezing from her lashes as she tried to forget, and failed.
Would Sadiq really haunt her for the rest of her life? Would she ever find a way to move on?
Did she really want to?
SIXTEEN
The next day, Hallie sat at her computer in her gray, corporate world, entering information from paper format into digital. One document after the next, she typed on and on, one earbud in her ear as she listened to music. Keeping her mind occupied with work was the only way she could keep herself distracted from what her brain clearly wanted to think about.
Her phone dinged, signaling an email, and, ready for a break, Hallie pulled her earbud out of her ear and tapped open her phone. It was probably just another junk email, but her eyes were starting to burn from looking at the computer screen for so long, and even a phishing scam was better than nothing.
When she saw the email subject, her breath caught in her throat.
Your LoveMatch Account
Hallie gulped down some air, and instantly began to choke. She feigned a cough, taking a sip of lukewarm tap water before she was able to calm herself enough to open up the message. She read each word very carefully.
Dear valued customer,
It is with regret that we inform you that LoveMatch is no more. While we truly believe in the mission of LoveMatch, the software still has many bugs, and is being suspended until further notice. We understand the frustration this might cause, and are willing to provide full refunds to those who made in-app purchases.
Sincerely,
The LoveMatch Team
Hallie read and reread the email four or five times.
Sadiq had shut it down. Why?
She told herself that this was a good thing. Now no one could be hurt like she had been. She tried to imagine all the unwitting American girls flying off to the Middle East just to be some rich guy’s arm candy. Now they would be spared such a humiliation. If only Hallie could say the same of herself.
None of this changed the fact that Sadiq had buried himself under her skin, right beneath the surface of her heart. Her time in Al Shayam had been the happiest of her life. And he’d torn it all to shreds.
“Woah, are you seeing this?”
One of her coworkers had run over to the window behind her, joined by several others a moment later. They were looking up and l
aughing in disbelief.
“Hallie, you’ve got to see this!” one of them said.
Hallie stood and walked over to the window, staring up.
Hundreds of rose petals were falling from the sky, delicately twisting and twirling in the wind as they plummeted toward dirty the New York streets. When Hallie caught a glimpse of the coloring, she gasped.
