He rose on his elbow, gathered her to him. “I’ll work the job as if I’d taken the position, so I won’t leave Shaheen in the lurch. All that’ll be missing is the title, which I care nothing about. I want the work itself, the achievement. But contrary to what Shaheen said, I don’t need to be always in Zohayd or need to belong here. I already belong. With you, to you.”
She wound herself around him, inundating him with her love, which, to his eternal relief, was once again unmarred by uncertainty and fiercer than ever before. “You didn’t have to do it. I would have gotten over the last traces of insecurity in a few weeks tops.”
“I wouldn’t leave you suffering uncertainty for a few minutes. You are more than my home, ya kanzi. You’re my haven. You contain me whole, you ward off my own demons and anything else the world could throw at me. I haven’t lost a thing, and I have gained everything. I have everything. Because I have you.”
She threw herself at him again before pulling back to look at him with shyness spreading over that face that was his whole world.
“And you’re going to have more of me. Literally. And in seven months I’ll give you a replica of you.”
He keeled over her. As she shrieked in alarm, he laughed, loud and unfettered, then kissed her breathless, mingling their tears.
A baby. There was no end to her blessings.
After yet another storm of rapture passed, he said, “I want a replica of you.”
“Sorry, buddy, it’ll be your replica. In Zohayd they say the baby looks like the parent who is loved more. Uh-uh-uh…” She silenced him as he protested. “I’ve loved you longer, so you can’t do a thing about it. So there.”
“I trust this applies only to the first baby. The second one doesn’t follow those rules. Second one, your replica.”
“But I want them all disgustingly pretty like you!”
He pounced on her, and soon the laughter turned to passion, then to delirium, frenzy and finally pervasive peace.
And through it all, he gave thanks for this unparalleled treasure, this hurricane who’d uprooted him from his seclusion and tossed him into the haven of her unconditional love.
*