But it wasn’t just a job. It was her and her mother’s dream. Shehadto give it her best shot.
“Look,” Rashid said. “I know I’ve been a bit judgmental with you. You… touch just about every nerve I have. I actually wonder if you were created precisely to get under my skin.”
“Ha!” Ruby exclaimed, pointing at him. “You’re a skin doctor! You should be able to get me out from under your skin, no problem.”
He looked at her with that non-expression again. See? This is why they were such opposites. He was incapable of enjoying a joke. And she was incapable of keeping her mouth shut.
“Idoapologize for judging you, though,” he continued. “You’re not as…badas I first thought you were. In fact, you seem very smart with excellent points—especially what you said earlier about how people assume women who like feminine-coded things have less value. I’m going to have to think long and hard about that. I’d hate for Tara and Noor to think I see them as less because they like the color pink or makeup. But the other things I know about you? Like the fact that you speak before thinking? Or act before thinking? You’re impulsive—you bought that tree without figuring out how to get it home because it was pretty. You move as soon as you get bored with a place. Now you’re moving to a whole new continent, and want to work in a whole new industry, just because of a childhood dream. I do admire your loyalty to your mother and amgrateful that you gave me some insights on some deep-rooted misogyny that I need to work on, but my answer is still no. I won’t refer you for a job in my family’s business.”
Ruby exhaled. That all stung. He was wrong. Shewascommitted to this dream of hers. And the worst part of his little speech is she finally detected a bit of his English accent. “No?” she asked feebly, feeling about as tiny as the sugared raspberries in her drink.
Rashid tilted his head. “You seem like a fun person, Ruby,” he said, his voice a little gentler. “But if I’m referring someone to work in my father’s business, then it needs to be someone I would hire myself. And from what I’ve seen, you wouldn’t be committed. I’m not going to stop you from applying, though. I believe there are vacancies listed on the Hakim Hotel Group website.”
Ruby blinked. But what was the point of applying now? If their father found out that Ruby knew Jasmine and Rashid, he’d ask his kids about her. Rashid would say Ruby’s a bit odd—like always wears Christmas earrings and has perpetual foot-in-mouth disease. And she moves every one to two years and doesn’t talk to her family.
Ruby knew how the world worked. She had to make a good impression on everyone in Canadian retail, because everyone talked to everyone, and for a massive country, Canada had a super small population. She’d never get a job in luxury retail anywhere in the country if she pissed off even one store owner.
And the same was probably true in the UK hotel industry. Ruby took a deep breath. “Okay, I understand. I mean, he’s yourfather. If you wouldn’t hire me, then why would you lethim? But… will you give me a chance to change your opinion? Let’s go out this season… you, me, and the girls. Your sister will stop insisting you need a social life, and I’ll have a chance to fix your terrible first impression of me. And your second and third impressions, too.”
He raised a brow. “You want todateme?”
She shook her head quickly. She most definitely did not want to date this man. “Of course not. We can be friends. Hangout buddies over the holiday season. I’d like to prove that you’re wrong about me not being serious or committed to my dream.”
He crossed his arms in front of him. “And then you’ll ask me again to introduce you to my father.”
She smiled, shaking her head. “No strings attached. I mean it. At the end of December, if you want to tell him all about the impressive, responsible, totally serious woman who’s moving to his country, then I’m not going to stop you, but that will be your decision. I’ll take you and the twins out, say… four times in the next four weeks. We’ll do Christmassy things in the city so the girls can experience all the joys with someone who actually loves it. Just four outings. After the twenty-fifth, you never have to see me again.”
Ruby was almost completely sure that Rashid would say no. Why would he possibly agree to this? He hated Christmas, and he disliked Ruby.
But he loved his nieces.
“Just asfriends?” he asked. The way he emphasized the wordfriendsmade Ruby wonder if he was thinking about them flirting in Reid’s Holiday last week.
“Absolutely. Only friends.” The man may be hot, with a small handful of green flags, but this was now business for Ruby. She could not jeopardize her dream for a holiday fling.
He looked at her with that intense non-smile, then gulped the rest of his beer down in one sip. “Okay, Ruby. Let’s do this. One condition, though: I’ll pay for all the outings with you and the girls. But yeah, you and me… we can hang out this season.”
Ruby smiled.Game on.This was her chance to show Rashid Hakim that she could be serious. She could be committed. And she would be a great employee at any of his father’s hotels.
AFTER RUBY LEFT WORKon Monday, she took the subway and a bus for her monthly pilgrimage into the bowels of hell—otherwise known as her father’s house.
Ruby would prefer to have nothing at all to do with the man, his wife, or his teenage stepson. But she’d made a deal with the devil—and since her father had fulfilled his end of their bargain, she had no choice but to honor hers. When Ruby got to the small North York townhouse where her father and his replacement family lived, she steeled her nerves and knocked on the door. Her father opened the door almost immediately.
“Rubina!” he said with a frown. “I thought you were coming for dinner… We’re almost finished eating.” He moved out of the way so Ruby could come in.
Ruby’s father was short with a receding hairline and a thickening midsection. He wasn’t the type of man anyone would expect to trade in his beautiful wife for a younger model. But that’s not what really had happened—yes, Ruby’s mother had been more beautiful than his new wife Pamela, inRuby’s opinion, but he’d traded Ruby’s mother in for ahealthierwife. One without cancer.
“Hi, Dad,” Ruby said, stepping into the house and taking off her winter boots. “I told you I wouldn’t be able to get here until seven. I worked until six.”
“At least you’re here for cake,” he said, motioning Ruby through his small but pristinely clean house. “I made goat for dinner. Can you believe I cook now? Come, everyone is in the dining room.” His wife and her seventeen-year-old son were at the oak table. Gavin nodded to her, and Pamela stood to give Ruby a hug. “Ruby! Look at you! You should come home more often! I hope you had a wonderful birthday!”
Pamela was about fifteen years younger than Ruby’s father, and objectively there was nothing wrong with the woman. She was a single mother originally from Trinidad, had brown skin and dark hair, and absolutely doted on Ruby’s father. Which was probably what he liked best about her.
Over ice cream and grocery-store cake, they asked how work was and about her move, and asked if she was dating. Ruby gave vague answers that hopefully would satisfy them. She was glad she’d be cutting ties with her only parent again, soon.
She was only here for one reason—while researching how to move to the UK, Ruby had discovered that there was something called a UK ancestry visa that would allow her to both work and own a business there. Since her father’s mother had been born in the UK, all Ruby needed was her late grandmother’s birth certificate to apply. The problem was, her grandmother died over twenty-five years ago, and Ruby hadn’t spoken to anyone on that side of her family in years. Including her father.
After contacting him for the first time in almost a decade, he agreed to track down the documents Ruby needed on one condition: He wanted to see Ruby regularly before she left the country. So, Ruby packed up her Montreal apartment and moved to Toronto last year. She’d been thinking of returning to her hometown to be closer to Marley for a while, anyway.
