“Have I ever let you down before?” Audrey asked, her eyes glittering playfully.
“Not yet, but this is the ultimate test,” the Sheikh said. He gave a final wave to Samuel, who was refueling the plane, before passing their suitcases to a man in a golf cart who would transport them to the airport.
Once inside the airport, Audrey stood with her chin high and her pen poised to write as she listened to Jibril flow through foreign conversation with the car rental worker, deciding on a black sports car and accepting the keys with a wink. The man seemed to recognize him, and he shook his hand profusely after the sale was complete, giving them a bottle of wine and thanking them for their service. Audrey peered at Jibril quizzically, conscious that she was with one of the biggest celebrities in all of Ash-Kahlbi.
“Your PR here doesn’t seem to be a problem,” she said with one eyebrow raised. “That would have never happened to you in San Francisco.”
“Yeah, well, I was born and raised here,” the Sheikh said. “When they see me, they see my father—who they love. And they don’t pay attention to the Western consciousness. They don’t know about all the models, the parties…”
“It’s almost a good enough reason to escape here every once in a while,” Audrey said, her voice wistful.
“That, and the weather,” the Sheikh said, giving her a warm look.
When they got in the car, Jibril put all the windows down, offering them a gorgeous view of the surrounding oasis, with the cresting sand dunes and the glittering turquoise water in the distance. As they approached the city, the skyscrapers seemed to come organically from the sand, as if it had been built there by nature itself.
“I can’t believe you were born here,” Audrey said, awe-struck. “It makes my childhood seem so boring.”
“It was paradise sometimes,” Jibril said. “Although, always being under the watchful eyes of my sheikh grandfather and then my sheikh father grew difficult. Couldn’t get into many scrapes without the news of my trouble getting back to my father, as you can imagine. But beyond the skyscrapers, there’s an old part of town, which is basically ancient, nothing like what you find in America. My friends and I would scramble around in it, exploring and finding little nooks and crannies to play hide-and-seek in. When you step into the old town, you feel like you’re stepping into a storybook.”
“Can you show me?” Audrey asked, her voice hopeful.
“I’d love to take you right now,” the Sheikh said, laughing and looking straight ahead, his foot growing more forceful against the gas pedal. “But it seems you haven’t checked our schedule, Miss Personal Assistant.”
“Shoot,” Audrey muttered, glancing down. Sure enough, his first meeting began in just 45 minutes. She read him the address, hunting through a phone with an international plan he’d let her borrow to find good parking nearby. “Not like parking in San Francisco,” she said, pointing toward a parking garage in the direct vicinity of the office building. “It’s almost like you’re allowed to live here.”
“Most people don’t drive their own cars,” Jibril said, peeling into the parking garage. “They walk or ride bicycles or else have drivers. They can’t afford vehicles, and also, they don’t want them. It’s very different from the American perspective.”
“Sounds nice, actually,” Audrey replied.
They bounded from the car, entering the office building and then diving into several hours of fast-paced business meetings. Audrey kept diligent notes, her ears perked up and her fingers constantly scribbling across the page. She was impressed with the way the Sheikh handled himself in meetings, alternating between English and Arabic and convincing several people to buy stock in his San Francisco-based company and to purchase properties in the Bay Area—a place, he said, that was “oozing with opportunity.”
When the final client shook the Sheikh’s hand and left the office, Audrey gazed at him, a smile spreading across her lips. Jibril’s dark eyebrows rose high, questioning.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Just impressed, is all. I don’t think I’ve thought much of you beyond your button-down shirts and ex-girlfriend’s dog in days,” she teased.
“You didn’t think I did much more than boss you around?” he asked, joking.
“It seemed like the only thing you did for a while,” she said.
“Well, your time’s not up yet, missy,” he said, rising from his chair. “Grab your notebook. We have an entire afternoon at our disposal, and we’re not going to waste it. It’s against everything I stand for.”