A few days passed, Heather and Altair both busy with business. They made time to text one another whenever they were free, and they had long talks on the phone every evening. They filled the time until they could see one another again with dreamy discussions of their pasts and their passions.
“Have you seen the latest about us?”
Heather was lying on her back on the glass-topped patio table on the terrace. It was wet from an earlier rain, and the cold moisture soaked through the back of her shirt. The sky above her was a fuchsia-streaked impressionist painting as the sunset burned into a starry night. The cell phone was too hot against her ear from how long they’d been talking. If she put it down, it would have fogged up the chilly glass table.
The breeze that had swept the rain clouds away from the spectacular sunset tugged at her hair and raised goosebumps on her arms, and none of it mattered as much as the voice on the other end of the phone. There was a slightly damp tabloid magazine in her hand, which she held up as she looked at the photos in the center article.
“I haven’t had time to pick up a magazine,” Altair said. “What are they cooking up now?”
“New photos,” Heather said. “They got a couple of us from our last date with Chloe on your shoulders. They think she’s your secret love child.”
Altair chuckled. “Why am I not surprised? We both have the same strong nose.”
“They’re still trying to figure out who I am,” Heather said, grinning. “They’ve decided I’m a super exclusive model from far away, possibly even a long-lost love of yours from Dar-Saila.”
Altair scoffed good-naturedly. “If there had been anyone like you in Dar-Saila, I think I would have known. We don’t get many non-Arabs except the occasional visiting businessman.”
“So I guess I’d be exotic there, huh?” Heather said playfully. “New and exciting. Maybe I should go there and try to catch the eye of a handsome prince.”
They both laughed, a comfortable silence settling on them afterward.
“I would love to take you to Dar-Saila one day,” Altair said suddenly, nostalgic and affectionate. “You would love it there.”
“What’s it like?” she asked, closing her eyes. “If we were there right now, what would it be like?”
“The palace is near the ocean,” he told her. “Anywhere you go, you can hear the roll of the waves and smell the salt in the air. The sea is blue-green and like a jewel where the sunlight hits it. The sand is taupe and soft, and the air is already summer-warm. People are cooking dinner, and you can smell the spices on the breeze. Many of the buildings are from when the island was first settled, beautiful, traditional structures in red and yellow stone, and in the evenings they hold on to the warmth of the day. You can feel it radiating from them, like the love and life and history they contain is overflowing out into the streets.”
Behind her closed eyes, Heather could almost imagine herself there, lying on the sand with Altair beside her, the waters of the Persian Gulf rolling into white foam just a few feet away. She could almost smell the spices, almost feel his hand in hers. If she just reached out, she was certain she would find sand under her fingertips. She sighed longingly.
“There’s always music somewhere,” Altair said. “And the palm trees rustle in the wind, and the sky is so full of stars there’s hardly any darkness at all. That is the one thing I truly regret about living here in the city. There are almost no stars here at all.”
“Yeah. I grew up upstate,” Heather said, letting the fantasy slip away. “Away from the city, the night sky is a completely different creature.”
“When I take you there,” he said, “we’ll lie on the beach and name every star until the tide comes in. Then I’ll carry you into the palace and you’ll be pampered like a princess. Chloe too.”
“Don’t get my hopes up too high,” Heather said, laughing.
“I’m sorry,” he said gently. “It’s easy to get ahead of myself when talking to you. There’s so much I want to show you, the old castle, the courtyards where I used to play, my brothers and their children—”
“You want me to meet your family?” Heather teased. “You are getting serious!”
“I am serious,” he replied at once, not a hint of embarrassment in his voice. “I know it’s still early, but this isn’t a fling for me. I’m in this for the long-haul, Heather.”
Heather bit her lip and flung an arm over her eyes, overwhelmed with sudden, giddy happiness at the confirmation that this was as serious as she’d hoped it was. She kicked her legs, which hung off the edge of the patio table, like an excited child, making the whole table rock.
“Heather?”
She sat up, realizing she’d left Altair in silence for nearly a minute while she’d had her silent celebration.
“Me too,” she said quickly, her voice choked up. “I’m serious about this too.”
“That’s good to hear,” he said, his relief audible.
“It is,” she said. “And I would love to see Dar-Saila someday. Tell me more about it?”
“In the palace, there’s a walled orchard full of fig trees,” Altair said. “When they’re in bloom, the smell is so strong your mouth waters from the other side of the island…”
As he continued to talk, she lay back, sinking into her fantasy once again.
***