He exhaled. “Me too. But I hate that I did what your father did. That I was controlling—”
“No, Rashid. You should have been honest with me, butyou are not like my father. His goal was to get my money. Your goal was to—”
“Get you,” he said softly. “I did it because I didn’t want to lose you. I wanted you to stay with me.”
And that was remarkable. Never in all the times Ruby had moved had anyone said they didn’t want her to go. No one had ever asked her to stay.
A huge part of her wanted to stay with him, because she had no idea if she’d ever feel like this for someone again. Or if anyone would ever ask her to stay again.
She had to be touching this man. She unbuckled her seat belt, took off her gloves, and took his soft cheeks in her hands. They looked into each other’s eyes for several long moments, then he put his arms around her waist and pulled her in for a deep kiss.
And it was perfect. It always had been. And knowing that this was a goodbye kiss and that she probably would never get a chance to explore his mouth and lips like this again didn’t make the kiss any better than all the other kisses, because perfection couldn’t be improved on. He pulled her closer until his arms were tight around her, and she could have stayed in his arms forever.
When they finally separated, he smiled and asked if he could walk her inside.
Ruby exhaled. She wished that she hadn’t broken things off two days ago, because she could have had more of him in the last two days. But if that kiss told her anything, it was that the more she had of Rashid, the harder it would be to walk away.
And they both knew shehadto walk away. She shook herhead. “It’s fine. I need to do this alone. Thank you, though, for the apology. And for everything else.”
“I should be thanking you, Ruby. I was dreading being here at Christmas and…”
She grinned mischievously. “And youlovedit, right?”
He laughed. “You, Ruby Dhanji, did the impossible. You made meenjoythe holiday season. Are we going to stay in touch?”
She wanted to. Ruby knew she was going to keep in touch with Jasmine and the girls, and probably Ayesha, too. She still was hoping to get a job with the Hakim Group in the UK, and she wanted to see his parents when they were in London. But Rashid… It would be harder to stay friends with Rashid. She wanted to one day—he was a good person, and honestly, he needed a fun friend like Ruby in his life.
But Ruby wasn’t strong enough for that yet. She needed time to get settled in her new home. Time when she wasn’t reminded of what she’d left in Toronto.
“Give me a few months in the UK. I don’t know how long, but I need to get over us. Let me get settled there, and you get settled here, then, yeah. I’d like it if we could be friends.” He would be coming to the UK regularly to visit his parents, and Ruby would be back in Toronto for visits, too. But she wasn’t going to have a fling with him again. Casual wasn’t possible with this man.
He nodded. “Okay. I’ll wait for you to reach out when you’re ready. I’ll get you a luggage cart.”
After he helped her put her luggage on the cart, Ruby smiled again. They were behind his car, both smiling like dorks who didn’t know what to say. She didn’t want another goodbye kiss,but she didn’t know what else to say or do. Finally, he reached out and pulled her into his arms in a tight hug. She inhaled deeply at his cool winter-clean smell and planted a small kiss on his neck. “I’m going to miss you,” she whispered.
“I’m going to miss you more.” He tucked her hair behind her ear and then kissed her on the forehead. “Now go… make your dream come true.”
Ruby smiled, then pushed her luggage cart toward the entrance, not turning back but knowing that Rashid’s eyes were on her as she walked into the airport.
AFTER NINE GLORIOUS WEEKSof living in London (or close enough to London), Ruby was mostly acclimated to being a resident of the United Kingdom. She was long past her jet lag. She’d figured out which nearby supermarket had the best premade sticky toffee pudding and which chip shop’s fish had the lightest batter, and she’d bought adorable pink rubber boots and a tan raincoat. She’d even made friends with some coworkers. A few of them had gone out for drinks last night, which had her hitting the snooze button on her alarm a few too many times this morning.
Ruby sat up with a start—she’d wanted to be a bit early for work today. She was convinced her manager Shahin didn’t like her much—and she needed to step away from the front desk at four o’clock sharp for a call with her lawyer. She didn’t want to be on the receiving end of Shahin’s brand of British Indian condescension twice today. After practically crawling out of bed, Ruby turned on the kettle for some tea and hopped into the shower to jolt her awake.
So far, UK living exceeded her expectations in some areas and fell flat in others. Ruby was settled into an apartment—charmingly called a bedsit flat—that managed to be smaller butsunnier than her one back in Toronto. After a few interviews, she’d been offered three jobs—one in a department store, one in a High Street boutique, and one as a front desk supervisor at a Hakim hotel in Surrey, a suburb of London. Ayesha had emailed her about the role a few days after she’d arrived and arranged for Ruby to interview with the hospitality manager. It was one of the Hakim Group’s older and bigger hotels—not one of the Raj boutique hotels. And Surrey wasn’t quite city living or country living. She took the job, though. It was the foot in the door she needed.
Despite her coolness to Ruby, the hospitality manager Shahin was incredibly knowledgeable and experienced. Ruby was learning so much from her, even if she was a bit particular about how things should be done. Ruby’s front desk supervisor role felt a lot like her role as manager of Reid’s holiday store—without the designer fragrances and Christmas ornaments. She even had the same number of employees reporting to her. Her flat was close enough to the hotel that she could walk to work or to a few small restaurants and a supermarket. A bus could take her anywhere else she needed to go, including the train station if she wanted to go to London. She’d gone into town to go clubbing with her new friends once, and it was fabulous. Overall, Ruby was surprised at how easy it had been to settle in England. A big part of her had been scared that after looking forward to this move for so long, there was no way that the reality of UK living would live up to the hype in her head.
But she loved it here. Truly. The people she’d met were kind, their accents were charming, and the food and shopping in London were excellent (not so much in Surrey, but it was a suburb; she couldn’t expect much).
It wasn’t that she didn’t miss Toronto—because she did. The Shayne Freaking Loves Olives group chat was still very active, but Ruby had now replaced Nik’s position as the one who had no idea what the others were talking about half the time. Reena sent pictures of Aleem regularly, and Ruby couldn’t believe how much he’d changed in a few weeks. Her friends insisted on constant updates on her ye olde English relocation, and they’d been delighted with her pictures of double-decker buses and London taxis. They mentioned seeing Jasmine a few times, but none of the other Hakims.
Of course, Ruby missed Rashid. A lot. But being so far away, plus their agreement that they wouldn’t contact each other for a few months, helped. And even though she was literally working for the Hakim family, she had no contact with any of them after she got the job. Hakim and Farida were working out of their country inn near Manchester. And Ayesha was in Toronto.
Everything wasn’t perfect, but life rarely was. More than anything, though, Ruby was incredibly proud of herself. She was one step closer to making her dream a reality. And if the meeting with the lawyer today went as well as she expected, then nothing else would stand in her way.
At four, Ruby connected to the call from her laptop in the little office behind the front desk.
“Hi, Veronica,” Ruby said when she saw her lawyer’s face fill the screen. Veronica Ali was a referral from Reena, and so far Ruby was glad she’d put the fate of her mother’s inheritance in Veronica’s hands.
