Julian
Can’t wait.
My heart does a little dance and my stomach flips. It feels like my skin isn’t fitting right because I’m so anxious to get to him. I’mready.I think Alok is right though. The universe is trying my patience. I’m ready to scream.
Which makes being super nice and polite to the girl asking me questions as she looks at my passport difficult. I’d been waiting for almost half an hour to get to this point.
Finally,by the time I feel like I’m going to explode, I’m let through. My heart races as I once again follow the crowd of people heading to baggage claim.
He told me he’d be wearing a bright blue beanie with his team logo, which he was kind enough to send to me. He’d also be holding a sign that had my name on it.
My stomach flips almost violently as I walk into the baggage area. My eyes dart around. I’m not sure who I’m looking for so I focus on the signs. There are men in suits with tablets and names on them. Last names.
My guy isn’t going to be one of them. He’s going to be beyond them.
I nearly trip and land on my face when I catch a glimpse of my name on a white sign. People keep getting in my way, so it isn’t until I’m almost to him that I’m able to lay my eyes on him. As soon as I do, it feels as if I’ve always had his face in my mind. He has beautiful brown skin and piercing brown eyes, even from a distance. He flashes a kid a smile as they walk by and my stomach flips.
His smile is… it makes my heart race. I can’t tell much more about him since he’s wearing a beanie and a thick jacket over light washed jeans. But everything inside me says he’s swoony.
He watches the people spill out of the terminal to baggage claim. Looking for me? He must be. That’s why he’s here. It isn’t until I’m nearly right in front of him that he meets my eyes.
Licking my lips as I stop in front of him, I ask, “Julian?”
His eyebrows knit together. “Yes.”
I wait a beat and I immediately realize something’s wrong. I tap the sign with my name on it. “I’m Arush.”
Now he frowns. “You are.” He says it not as a question but it’s still unsure. I nod anyway.
Julian shakes his head. “I think…” He pauses to consider me, his eyes moving down my body for a second and then his frown deepens. “Arush Bakshi?”
I grin. “It’s BAHk-she, but yes, that’s me.” I pull out my passport and show him, which I probably didn’t need to do. His eyes flicker over the information and then meet mine again.
“Please don’t take this as an insult or anything, but I was expecting a woman.”
“From Male Order Spouses?” I ask, confused.
“Yes.”
A beat passes.“Male. As in, not female,” I say.
He’s still looking at me like I have three heads. Pulling out my phone, I bring up the site and point at the world. “Male. As in not female,” I reiterate.
“Oh wow,” he says and then bursts out laughing. It’s the kind of laugh that I swear I can feel vibrate through me. Even though this meeting isnothow I imagined it would go, his laugh makes me smile. “My brain wanted to see mail, so that’s what it saw. Homonyms for the win, I guess.”
I nod. Okay, cute and funny I suppose, but this is now a disaster. My chest hurts and I think I’m going to throw up. “Are you going to return me?”
Julian’s amusement dies quickly. “Return you?”
I nod again. It’s hard to breathe, like someone just cut off the oxygen flow in this enormous room.
“You’re not a possession, Arush. Not an object to return. No, I’m notreturningyou.”
While the words feel right and his tone is indignant at the notion, I’m not sure that’s reassuring. I’m not who he thought he was getting. I’m not the perfect Indian wife. Is that what he was looking for? And he got me instead?
“Come on,” he says, letting the sign with my name on it drop to his side. “Let’s get your bags.”
I nod. I have questions. The biggest, most pressing is what the hell does this mean? Where do we go from here? All that hope, the dream of having a life that I might not have found in India, suddenly feels even further away.
