I shook my head. “No, but there have been some weird new developments.” I filled her in on Fake Jake.
Her eyes widened. “That’s so creepy.”
“It’s a good thing I have a security system andBinti,” I said around a generous bite ofkenafa.
“Are you sure you want to stay in the house? I’d be afraid to live alone.”
“This is my home.” I sipped some cold water and tried to sound bolder than I felt. “I’ve already lost enough.”
There was a brief silence while our forks scraped across our plates.
“I don’t want to be a pest,” Julia said, “but have you given any thought to the headstone yet?”
I set my fork down. “Not yet, but I will.”
“When?” she pressed. “It’s been months since Ali passed.Allah yerhamo.”
“Soon.” I’d been so mad at Ali that I hadn’t trusted myself to give him a proper headstone and inscription. Now I needed his epitaph to be a perfect reflection of the man I’d lost. But I couldn’t focus on that until I cleared Ali’s name and found out who was harassing me. “I promise.”
“Baba and Mama say they’re happy to do it. They’ll even pay for the installation.”
I shook my head. “I feel like it’s my final duty to Ali, as his wife, to get his headstone installed. But I promise that I won’t finalize anything until we all agree on a design.”
“I know you’re going through a lot,” Julia said.
“I am.” I sipped from the glass of cold water. “We all are. I’ll get it done soon.”
Our conversation moved on to other topics. Relatives, community gossip, and how our kids were doing. After about an hour, Julia reluctantly got up to leave. I followed her into the foyer, sorry to see her go.
“Please thank your mom for thekenafa,” I said. “I’ll callUm Alitoo. I appreciate your bringing it over.”
“No problem.” After a beat, she asked, “What do you think of Nasser?”
“That’s a weird question.”
“You seem to be spending a lot of time with him.”
“Only when it pertains to legal matters.”
She slipped her shoes on. “You do know that he had a crush on you before you were married.”
I stared at her. “Did everyone know about that except me?”
“Noteveryone. But we knew, my family. Ali told us even before we met you, after he and Nasser saw you at that wedding.”
I handed her coat over. “Seems like someone should have mentioned that to me a long time ago.”
“How did you find out that Nasser was into you?” She watched me closely as she pulled on her coat. “Did he tell you?”
“Not that it matters.” My cheeks burned. “I doubt I’ll ever be able to look at another man in a romantic way.”
“I’m not suggesting that you are doing anything wrong.” She zipped up her coat. “I know you loved Ali.”
“Then whatareyou asking me?”
“Actually, Mama and Baba wanted me to tell you that they’d be OK with it.”
“OK with what? Are you telling me that your parents think something is going on between me and Nasser?” The thought horrified me.
