Behind the Curtain

by BETH KERY

  “Yeah. Rudy just told me. Asher found out this morning. He didn’t say anything when you met?” Tahi knew that Laila had snuck off to see Asher earlier today, before they all planned to leave for the hospital.

  Laila shook her head. Why didn’t Asher mention it? “Where’d Eric go?”

  Tahi made a face. “That’s the thing. Rudy told me that he’s gone to Chicago. Asher thinks he’s going to tell his father about Asher going to work for the L.A. Times, not GGM, before Asher gets a chance to. Asher was really pissed off when he got the note from Eric.”

  “But how did Eric find out about the L.A. Times?”

  “Apparently, Eric got hold of Asher’s cell phone. Rudy said Eric stole it on purpose. Anyway, he was probably nosing around in Asher’s texts. If he was, he found out about Asher’s job, and must have wanted to be the one to break the news to Asher’s dad. You know how jealous he is of Asher. He probably thought he’d just hit the jackpot, finding out about Asher’s plans when Asher’s parents don’t know about them yet. He gets to be the messenger of bad news and look like the hero in comparison to Asher. Slimeball,” Tahi muttered in disgust.

  Shivers poured down Laila’s arms as she recalled how Eric had interrupted their lovemaking last night . . . how smug he’d sounded about Asher’s phone.

  “Rudy said Asher was headed to Chicago to try to stop Eric, or at least try to smooth things over with his parents if he couldn’t get there before the damage was done,” Tahi continued. “When I talked to Rudy, he seemed to think Asher was driving to Chicago, not meeting with you. So I didn’t say anything different.”

  “I texted Asher about Mamma Sophia,” Laila said numbly, thinking about the chain of events. “He must have come and met me instead of driving to Chicago.”

  She recalled asking him what he’d been doing when she texted about her grandmother, and how he’d casually responded that he’d just been eating breakfast with the guys. He’d hidden the truth about his own anxiety regarding his family because he knew she was worried about Mamma Sophia.

  Her throat ached. She stood abruptly and grabbed her purse.

  “Where are you going?” Tahi asked.

  “Just to call Asher.” Her feet faltered and she came to a halt.

  “What?” Tahi wondered.

  “Zara,” Laila whispered. She thought of how her cousin had looked just now as she’d left the waiting room for the cafeteria. She’d been teasing her little brother about something and laughing. “She doesn’t know yet about Eric. Does she?”

  “I haven’t told her,” Tahi said. “I just found out. I wouldn’t be surprised if Eric skipped town without so much as a good-bye text. Would you? And now he’s burned his bridges with Asher. He’s not going to be coming back.”

  “She’s crazy about Eric. This is going to kill her. We’ll have to tell her together, okay?”

  Tahi nodded, looking grim.

  • • •

  A few seconds later, Laila sat on a step in the silent, empty hospital stairwell. He answered on the third ring.

  “Hey. How’s Mamma Sophia?”

  “She’s doing okay. Her blood pressure is coming down. They’re talking about discharging her tomorrow or the next day.”

  “That’s great.”

  “Yeah. Asher . . . where are you?”

  “Out by the pool. Why?”

  “Tahi told me about Eric taking off last night . . . and about where he went.”

  “Oh.”

  “You should have told me. I was hoping when I called, you would have left for Chicago already.” She winced when she realized she’d sounded sharp in her anxiety. “I mean . . . I know you didn’t tell me because you were worried about me. Thank you for that,” she said feelingly. “But your family . . . your mom and dad. You should go to Chicago and try to explain things to them. Even if Eric has told them about your job at the L.A. Times already, they deserve to hear the truth from you.”

  He didn’t respond immediately. Her anxiety doubled in the silence.

  “Asher?”

  “I already told my dad,” he finally said. “Well, I tried to explain, anyway. I called him after I got home from the secret lake.”

  “Oh no,” she whispered, cringing inwardly. She could tell by the resigned, bitter tone of his voice that the conversation with his dad hadn’t gone well. “Had Eric already told him about your job?”

  “No,” he stated flatly. “Eric had made an appointment to see Dad this afternoon, but he hadn’t actually broken the news yet. So the joke was on me, in the end. I ended up telling my father before I was ready to. And on the phone instead of in person.”

  “The conversation went that bad?”

  He gave a dry bark of laughter. “Bad is an understatement. He was so shocked . . . and then so pissed off, he was having trouble putting more than three words together at a time.”

  So disappointed. He hadn’t said the two words, but somehow she’d heard his thoughts.

  “Asher, you have to go to see your parents.”

  “I only have a few more nights here. I only have a handful of days left with you. Why should I waste them on a lost cause? They aren’t going to understand.”

  She squeezed her eyelids tight, hearing his desperation beneath the cracks of his calm voice. “But it’s your family. Your mom and dad love you. Underneath their anger, they’re probably hurt.” She swallowed back the lump in her throat. “I don’t want to miss any time with you either. I hate the idea. But you should go and try to explain to them why you want to work at the Times and why you don’t want to work at GGM . . . tell them why you want to follow your own path.”

  “My dad accused me of being a traitor on the phone. They’ll never accept it, Laila.”

  “But you have to try. If they don’t understand today or tomorrow or next year, maybe they will someday. There has to be a beginning to healing sometime. You have to be honest about who you are in front of them, no matter how hard it is.”

  She heard his soft laugh.

  “What?” she asked.

  “You give that advice so convincingly, but you won’t take it from me.”

  “It’s not the same situation, Asher.”

  He exhaled heavily. “Yeah. I guess you’re right.”

  “Are you going?”

  “Yeah. I’ll leave as soon as I can,” he said.

  “It’s the right thing to do.”

  “How can driving away from you be right?”

  His bitter, solemn voice echoed in her head. A tear splashed down her cheek. He made a good point. Nothing about being separated from him at that place and time felt right.

  “It’ll only be for a night or two. We’ll see each other soon,” she managed to say after she’d gotten hold of herself.

  Neither of them said anything further about it. Somehow, Laila thought Asher was thinking the same thing she was at that moment, however. Maybe they’d see each other again in a day or two. But both of them knew a longer, farther separation loomed close. They still hadn’t come up with anything to solve that horrible reality.

  She was hanging up her phone, her heart feeling like a heavy stone in her chest, when the stairwell door opened.

  “There you are,” Tahi said. “Mamma Sophia wants to see you.”

  “She does? Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah. She just wants to see her little kibdi,” Tahi said, grinning at the familiar Moroccan endearment. “We’ll tell Zara about Eric after you finish with Mamma Sophia?”

  Laila’s small smile vanished at the reminder of Zara.

  “Yeah,” she agreed. “I guess the sooner we get it over with, the better.”

  • • •

  Zara’s reaction to the news that Eric had left Crescent Bay wasn’t at all what Tahi and Laila had expected it to be.

  “So what if he left for a little b
it? Why do you guys look so serious?” Zara wondered, nonchalantly sipping the coffee she’d brought up from the cafeteria.

  “It’s not for a little bit,” Tahi said uneasily. “Rudy said Eric’s gone for good.”

  Zara slid her cell phone out of her pocket and held it up pointedly. “Then how come we’re meeting tonight over at Chauncy’s?”

  “Eric said he’d meet you tonight?” Laila asked disbelievingly.

  “Don’t look so surprised,” Zara said, rolling her eyes. “Just because he got sick and tired of Asher being rude to him all the time over at his house doesn’t mean he wanted to leave me. He’s still on vacation, you know. He’s got a hotel room in Crescent Bay.”

  Laila and Tahi shared an uneasy glance. What was Eric up to?

  “If Asher was rude to Eric, it was probably with good reason,” Tahi stated bluntly. “Eric went to Chicago specifically to tattle to Asher’s dad that Asher wasn’t planning to work for the family business. Eric wanted to be the one to break the bad news. He loves to gloat over making Asher look bad. He’s been doing it to Asher his whole life. That’s what Rudy told me.”

  “Oh, poor Asher,” Zara said scathingly.

  “Zara, listen . . . I really think you have to be careful about Eric,” Laila said, growing more and more unsettled by the second.

  Zara’s laugh made a chill go through her. There was something in her cousin’s face in that moment that she’d never really seen before, a bitterness, distrust . . . even disgust toward Tahi and her. Was this what falling for Eric had done to Zara? Turned her against them, Zara’s cousins and best friends? It was like Laila was watching this whole situation with the guys—their carefree summer—begin to unwind.

  Grow rancid.

  “That’s funny. You preaching to me about being careful with Eric, when you’ve jumped into a grave far deeper than any of us with Asher. Sweet little Laila isn’t so innocent anymore, is she? And yet you sit there and try to throw the blame on Eric?”

  Laila flinched back, thinking of how Eric had interrupted Asher and her in bed last night. He’d apparently told Zara about it.

  “And you’ve been listening to that little weasel Rudy too much,” Zara said, turning to Tahi, malice twisting her pretty face. “What if Eric did go to Chicago with the intention of telling Asher’s dad about Asher’s plans? Eric does work for GGM. He probably thought Asher’s father should know Asher was never planning to come on board. Eric is loyal to the business and to his family. What’s so horrible about that?”

  “Because Asher should have been the one to break the news.” Laila defended Asher hotly. “He planned to do it in person next week. Now Eric has ruined everything with his interference.”

  “Eric hasn’t ruined anything. Asher’s a liar. How is that Eric’s fault?”

  “Oh, and Eric is just an angel in all this,” Tahi seethed, her cheeks flushed. “And since when do you get off, acting all holier-than-thou. Like you don’t lie through your teeth dozens of times a day—”

  “Shut up. Zarif,” Zara warned in a hiss under her breath, her white teeth bared.

  Tahi and Laila glanced over their shoulder. Tahi’s older brother, Zarif, entered the waiting room. Laila waved self-consciously at her cousin. Zarif waved stiffly, a puzzled expression on his face. He went over to the vending machine without saying anything, but Laila thought he’d looked a little suspicious about their hushed, charged conversation.

  • • •

  Zara was cool toward Tahi and Laila for the rest of the evening. Tahi was furious at Zara. Laila was angry too, and worried, and . . . sad. What had seemed like a tiff to Tahi felt like a tear to Laila, somehow, like something elemental had ripped in her family life. Zara was changing.

  So was Laila. And that had her scared as much as anything.

  After they’d returned to the cottages, Laila texted Asher. She wasn’t sure if he’d met up with his parents yet. But she wanted to give him the information that Eric had returned to Crescent Bay, in case he didn’t know it.

  Where’s he staying in Crescent Bay? Asher texted her almost immediately when she wrote about Eric.

  There was something about the terseness of his texted question that sent off an alarm in her head.

  I don’t know. Some hotel. Asher . . . promise me you won’t look for him.

  A short pause ensued.

  I’m close to my parents’ house. We’ll talk about it later, he texted.

  A vivid picture popped into her head of Eric and Asher pounding on each other.

  Okay. I understand. But promise me you won’t look for Eric before you go. Please?

  I just pulled up at my parents’ house. I promise. I’ll call soon.

  A feeling of relief went swept her at his promise, but she was anxious for him too because of the imminent meeting with his parents. She didn’t want to bother him while he was trying to explain his decision to them. Determined to give him space, she set aside her phone.

  Since Zara was mad at them, Tahi and she decided to sleep at their own family cottages that night instead of on the sleeping porch. After Laila got into bed, she found herself staring at Mamma Sophia’s empty bed, that increasingly familiar ache expanding in her belly. Her grandmother had been more alert, but very emotional, when Laila had gone to see her that evening. She’d reached for Laila’s hands, beaming at her.

  “My little kibdi . . . The light of my life. Beautiful Laila,” Mamma Sophia had uttered quietly in Darija.

  A poignant feeling of love unfolded inside Laila at the memory. What would she do without her grandmother? What would Mamma Sophia think, if she knew about Asher . . . about her granddaughter’s lies?

  She realized that her hand was moving nervously at her belly. Graphic, erotic images flooded her mind’s eye, memories of her and Asher’s moments at the secret lake this afternoon. She thought of how he’d ignored his own family crisis in order to be with her during hers.

  She clamped her thighs together tightly and moaned in misery. What if she was pregnant? It was like a blade in her side, imagining her mother’s bewildered reaction at her secrecy and betrayal. Her father’s. Mamma Sophia’s.

  She envisioned their subsequent worry and anguish, and their anger at her betrayal of their trust. It tormented her, considering it. And yet . . . somehow that cutting pain freed her too. Because even though she imagined hurt and disappointment on her family members’ faces, she knew they would see her without blinders on. They would see Laila truly.

  They would likely reject her.

  The very idea made it hard for her to draw air. Her family was her whole world. The idea of being cut off from them felt like suffocating.

  But being without Asher? Well . . . imagining it made her feel as if her heart were freezing in her chest. It would have to turn to ice.

  Because otherwise, she wouldn’t be able to stand the pain.

  • • •

  When she got up the next morning, there was a text from Asher. He said that his mother was insisting they all have lunch before he left for Crescent Bay. They wanted one more opportunity to talk him around to their point of view, but Asher was resolute in his decision. Grimly so. He texted:

  I know I’m disappointing them. I hate it. They think they know what’s right for me so well, and that I’m just being stubborn in going against them. But it’s them they know about. Not me.

  She’d sensed his loneliness in those words. It made her ache for him.

  He wanted to meet with her at the secret lake at four or five o’clock. But Laila was forced to tell him that she wasn’t sure if she could go. There was a possibility Mamma Sophia would come home this afternoon. She wanted to be there to get her grandmother settled, and to support her mother too. Her mom had been energetic and vigilant about Mamma Sophia’s care since the heart attack, but Laila, who knew her so well, sensed how strained and anxious she was beneath he
r smiles. To add to everything, her father had been forced to travel back to Detroit, just for the day, in order to see to an emergency situation in his shop. So he wouldn’t be there to assist her mom.

  But won’t your mom’s sister be there to help her with your grandmother? Asher texted.

  Yes, but Mamma will want me here. Laila paused in typing, torn. It was so hard to convey to him the elemental bonds of her family.

  She started to text: But I’ll do what I can to meet you later . . . if not tonight, then tomorrow. I promise. I’ll get back to you when I know more.

  • • •

  Mamma Sophia was discharged that afternoon. Everyone pitched in to make her as comfortable as possible. All their efforts must have worked, because Mamma Sophia was fast asleep by five o’clock.

  Laila put down the book she’d been reading to her grandmother and turned out the light in their bedroom. Her mother, aunties, Zarif and Tahi were all drinking tea in the kitchen when she entered.

  “Have you told Laila yet, Khal-ti Amira?” Tahi asked Laila’s mother. Laila paused next to the table when she saw the anxiety in Tahi’s eyes.

  “We’re all going back to Detroit tomorrow,” her mother stated, calmly taking a sip of her tea.

  “But . . . but what about Mamma Sophia?” Laila asked, stunned.

  “Zarif has kindly arranged for a friend of his—a man who owns a private ambulance service—to transport Mamma Sophia back home. She’ll be much more comfortable at our house, and we need to get her in to see Dr. Boulos,” she said, referring to Mamma Sophia’s regular doctor in Detroit. “Are you sure your friend is doing this as a favor, Zarif? I wouldn’t want you paying for this out of your own pocket.”

  “She is my grandmother, you know,” Zarif said, smiling. He noticed Laila’s mom’s intensified worried expression and added quickly, “It’s a favor, Khal-ti Amira. Honest.”

  Laila heard all of this through a ringing in her ears. This was it. The end. It had come sooner than she’d thought. She wasn’t prepared—

  “Laila? You okay?”

  She blinked and focused on Zarif’s handsome face. He looked concerned.