SEVENTEEN
“You know,” Mia said as Rami slipped under the blankets next to her, “I don’t want to rush you or anything, but it’s occurred to me that we’ve been engaged for kind of a long time.”
Rami laughed, reaching out to wrap his arms around the woman he loved. “Is that your subtle way of telling me you’d like me to make an honest woman out of you?”
Mia smiled, lifting her hand to look at the engagement ring he had given her almost a year before.
It had been three months since his father’s death, and Rami had finally settled the last affairs of the estate. The family was not completely broke, and there had been a few salvageable ventures in his father’s portfolio—small business investments where debt hadn’t yet piled up—but Rami’s younger siblings were all looking at having to actually work for a living, instead of having the option to live off of their previously eye-watering trust funds.
“I know we won’t be able to have some huge, grand, luxury wedding,” Mia said, cuddling close to him. “Honestly, I’d be happy just to go to the Justice of the Peace and elope
.” Rami shook his head, letting his hands wander over Mia’s body. He appreciated the subtle changes in her curves since she’d had his child; the fullness to her breasts, the slight roundness to her abdomen that hadn’t quite gone away yet, though breastfeeding constantly had helped Mia to lose basically all of the scant weight she had gained while pregnant. To think I was going to just let her have my child and then leave my life forever. What was I thinking?
“We can’t just elope,” Rami said, kissing Mia lightly on the lips. “My mother would kill me in my sleep if I didn’t have a proper wedding.”
Mia rolled her eyes, arching into Rami’s caresses as her body heated up. “First she won’t let you marry me at all, now we can’t just elope—there’s no pleasing that woman,” she joked.
Rami laughed, returning her kisses. “I think we can start thinking about a wedding. A small one, maybe; just family and close friends.”
“I would love that,” Mia told him, wrapping her arms around him and holding Rami close. “Let’s start…planning…tomorrow.”
Rami chuckled lowly as they both became too distracted, giving into the pleasure they gave each other.
***
The next morning, Rami was getting ready to go into the office when he realized that he needed to visit Mia’s mother. It had been two months since Amie Campbell received her chemotherapy treatment. She was still weak and couldn’t leave the house very much, but the worst symptoms of her disease had almost completely disappeared. The doctors had said that she could go back to taking her regular medication in another few months, and should soon be able to live an almost normal life.
The thought of visiting with Amie lingered in Rami’s mind throughout the day. He hadn’t mentioned that he would be visiting to his fiancée—he wasn’t sure how Mia would feel about the errand he had in mind—but he spent all day checking his watch, counting down to when he would be able to leave the office and visit his future mother-in-law.
Rami left as early as the demands of the day would allow, sending Mia a message that he had an errand to run, but should be home within an hour or two. Rami smiled to himself as he drove; he had had to give up most of his cars, but he had managed to justify keeping the most “sensible” of them—an SUV—on the basis of his growing family. He had thought that he would be depressed as he lost all of the things that had previously distinguished him as one of the elite, but he had instead discovered that he appreciated the few items he could keep a lot more than he ever had done when they were just objects which represented his wealth.
When Amie opened the door to her home, Rami was almost shocked at the way she looked. Even at her best, in the few times he had seen her, Amie had looked as though she might collapse at any moment. Now, however, while she still seemed a little weak, she was walking with ease, and her eyes were no longer full of pain and fatigue.
“Rami! What are you doing here?”
Rami laughed as his cheeks warmed up with a blush at the greeting. “I wanted to talk to you about something,” he said. “Mia doesn’t know I’m here—I’m not sure how she would feel if I told her.”
Amie raised an eyebrow but opened the door wider to let him in. “What did you want to talk to me about?”
Rami took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Mia and I have been discussing our engagement,” he explained. “Now that everything is more settled, and things are more or less normal, we think that it’s time to start planning it.”
“That’s wonderful news!” Amie smiled broadly. “What did you need to talk to be about? Is Mia refusing to wear white or something?”
Rami laughed nervously. “No—no, she’s fine with wearing white,” he assured her. “I realized as I was getting ready this morning that I never asked your permission to marry your daughter.” Rami felt his cheeks heating up more and more as Amie stared at him in undisguised shock,. “I know it’s old fashioned, but I’d feel better…”
Before Rami could finish his sentence, Amie threw her arms around his shoulders, hugging him tightly. “Of course you have my permission to marry my daughter!” Amie gave him a slightly tighter squeeze. “You’ve done all that anyone could ever ask to prove that you love her and will take care of her; that’s the only thing that could ever matter to me.”
Rami smiled at the older woman as she pulled back. “I know I haven’t always been as caring or as attentive as I should be,” he said, thinking of the months after he’d learned of his adoption and received his parents’ ultimatum.
“That’s all in the past,” Amie said, patting his shoulder affectionately.
Rami smiled, exhaling in relief that he hadn’t been met with any resistance—either to his proposal to finally marry Mia, or his gesture of getting her mother’s consent.
“I’m glad to see you’re feeling so much better,” he said, giving Amie another quick hug. “I wish I could visit for longer, but Aziz is teething—and Mia will want me to get back so she can get some respite.”