“She’s never been reasonable in her life,” Rami said, sounding every bit the spoiled man-child Mia had found so irritating in the early days of their relationship. She took another breath, stroking her abdomen softly. If Rami sometimes acted this way, she reminded herself, it was because his parents had been the kind of people who only ever showed affection by way of gifts. They weren’t anything like Mia’s parents. Underneath that spoiled little boy attitude, he is a caring, loving person, and you know it, she reminded herself.
“Give her time,” Mia suggested again, keeping her voice as mild and reasonable as possible. “What can it hurt? It’s not like she gave you a deadline about telling her you weren’t going to marry me.” Mia’s stomach churned at the idea. In spite of Rami’s protests that he loved her, that he would never give into his parents’ demand, she couldn’t help thinking of just how much he would be giving up by staying with her. She couldn’t help wondering if he had really considered the realities of letting go of his wealth.
“I guess you’re right,” Rami said, standing with a sigh. He turned away from her, and Mia closed her eyes for a moment, feeling the little twinge of pain she’d felt ever since the drive home from Rami’s parents’ house, every time Rami turned away from her. “I think I’m going to go for a drive.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” Mia saw he was tense. It was silly, but Mia couldn’t not ask—even knowing full well that his response would be to tell her stay home, relax and rest.
“I won’t be gone long,” Rami said, giving her a wan smile. “I can never stay away from you very long, can I?” Mia chuckled softly. She had to admit he was right; even before they’d had any kind of real relationship—before they’d had a business relationship, much less a romance—he hadn’t been able to stay away from her for very long. He’d had some guy trailing her, finding out her habits. She had forgiven him for that act of stalking; he had apologized, and ultimately, as strange as it was, it had come from a good place.
“Just promise me that if you start getting really upset, you’ll pull over?” Mia looked up into his dark eyes. “I swear to God, if you get into a wreck, I will strangle you with my bare hands.”
“I would never do that to you,” Rami said, leaning down and kissing her lightly on the forehead, before heading to the door of his lush penthouse apartment, leaving her alone once more.
Rami had gone for “a drive” three times already in the week since their disastrous meeting with his mother. Mia picked at the fringe of the blanket that covered her legs, resisting the urge to get up and call him, to ask him to come back and stay with her. She would have to have faith that he would come back under his own steam, as he had the three times previously. “He’s dealing with a lot,” she told herself. Mia frowned, feeling a twinge of something that wasn’t quite resentment. “He’s dealing with a lot, but at the same time he doesn’t have to deal with growing a whole baby.”
Mia picked up her glass of water and took a sip. It didn’t help that she felt as though every bone in her body was splintering inside of her; that it was an effort just to get out of bed in the morning, much less to keep trying to get Rami to talk to her. She came to a decision: she wasn’t going to call Rami and beg him to stay with her; she would call her mother instead.
Mia worked her way off of the couch and walked across the room, feeling the ache deep in her hips. “Not even the good kind of ache,” she whined to herself. It occurred to her that she and Rami hadn’t made love in a week—maybe that was part of the problem. Mia sighed and found her phone, which was charging over by the wall.
Her mother picked up after two rings. “Hey Mama,” Mia said, settling herself on the couch once more. “How’s you?” Mia smiled as she heard her mother laugh.
“As good as I’ll ever be, I suppose,” Amie said wryly. “How’s my girl?”
Mia shrugged. “Rami’s off on a drive, and I was feeling a little lonely,” she explained. “Do you need me to take you to see the doctor this week?”
“Sweetie, you need to be taking care of yourself,” Mia’s mother said firmly. “Not driving across town to ferry me around to get my blood taken by those vampires.”
Mia smiled to herself. “It gives me something to do, instead of just sitting around worrying about Rami, or being bored,” she insisted. “If I didn’t know better I’d think you don’t want to spend time with your only daughter.”
“I do want to spend time with you, but I don’t want it to be while you’re worrying yourself to nothing over my health,” Amie said, sounding concerned. “I know Rami’s upset about his parents, but he should be there for you, too.”
Mia shrugged. “I knew he had a kind of…” she hesitated, “not a selfish streak, but….”
“Maybe a self-centered one?” her mother interjected.
“I mean, if I hadn’t already known for years that I was adopted, then I guess I might react the same way,” Mia pointed out. “You have to admit it has to be a really…I mean, how do you know who you are anymore, if someone tells you your whole life story is built on a lie?”
“But it’s not. It’s just the circumstances of his being part of that family,” Amie insisted. “He’s the same person he always was.”
“I think,” Mia said slowly, not wanting to be unkind to the woman who had shown her so much love for as long as she could remember, “it’s sort of…I can’t fully understand it myself, I admit that.” She paused and took a breath. “But if I found out that such a crucial part of my life was…different from how I’d thought, then I’d be kind of out of it, too.”
“You’ve always been my tender-hearted girl,” Amie said lovingly. “I know he loves you—I could see it all over him. But he’s got to grow up—you know that as well as I do.”
Mia grinned at her mother’s frank comment. “Yeah,” she agreed with a sigh. “I really think he just needs time. I need to be patient with him.”
“You’re not doubting that he’ll stand by you, are you?”
Even though she knew that her mother couldn’t see, Mia shook her head emphatically. “I’m about 99.9% sure that he would rather be with me than please his parents,” Mia said.
“And the other .1%?”
Mia looked around at the luxurious space—the only kind Rami had ever lived in.
“He’d be giving up a lot of money,” she said quietly. “On top of that, he’d probably lose all contact with his entire family if his parents disowned him. So I mean…it’s a big deal. It’s a big decision.”
“His mom doesn’t expect you to get an abortion or something, does she?” Mia’s hand instinctively shot down to the subtle curve of her abdomen.