The Prince’s Unwilling Lover(31)
“Marriage is not for me and even if it was, she would not be my type,” he said and took a sip from his glass. Fiddah shook her head. For years, she had been trying to convince him to marry but failed.
“So what, you will bury yourself in the company until your death bed?”
“I like my job.”
“Too much! You need a life outside your job. You need a family.”
“I have one.”
“Of your own! I want great grandchildren. Do not deny me that!”
Tariq was never going to win this argument. Fiddah was tenacious. This was not their first time discussing his love life and it was certainly not going to be their last.
“How about you pick a wife for me?” Tariq said and grinned at her.
“Does that even make sense? Is it so hard to court a woman?” Tariq laughed gently.
Sara heard Tariq laugh. So it's capable of laughing, she said to herself. She turned her attention back to her food. It surprised her to hear him laugh. She had never heard it and never thought she would. He was so uptight and mean.
“Can you see me courting a woman?” Tariq asked Fiddah.
“There is no hope for you,” she replied. He grinned at her. “Don't you want love?” she asked.
“No.”
“What?”
“It doesn't exist.” Tariq was determined to stick to his beliefs. In his eyes, love did not exist. It was simply heightened infatuation. As he took a sip from his glass, he noticed Sara attempt to eat an olive but it fell back on the plate. No table manners even? She could not walk like a normal person. She talked too much. She had poor dress sense. And now this! What other weird trait was she going to exhibit? He watched her eat. He could tell that she was really enjoying her food. She sat up and licked her lips, then took a sip of her drink. When she was not eating, she was talking. It's as if she never stops. Tariq shook his head and looked away from her.
Sara was finally done with her delicious lunch. Food made her happy. As they were leaving, she made sure not to make eye contact with Tariq. It was not the case for Keira and Kaleena. They both stared at Tariq as they walked past. Tariq chewed slowly and watched them, watching him.
“Please stop staring at him,” Sara said feeling awkward.
“He's so handsome,” Keira said.
* * * * * *
There was a lot of work that needed to be done to get the new field up and running. Sara's workload tripled faster than she anticipated. Amir told her that they had to pull some long nights. Sara walked into his office to brief him on a report she had been working on. To her surprise, Tariq and Amir were both sitting on the sofa discussing the appropriate barrels to use. They both looked up when she walked in. It was the first time she had seen him since that Saturday at the mall. She bowed to them. Only Amir responded.
“Barrels for gasoline or crude oil?” Sara asked. They both looked at her and she realised that she had jumped into their conversation.
“Both,” Amir replied.
She pointed at one of the pictures and said, “Those carry more oil.” Amir turned his attention to the picture and picked it up. Tariq was still wondering why she had included herself in the conversation.
“Is that so?” Amir asked her. Sara smiled and nodded.
“Oh, I actually came in to brief you on this report,” she said as she handed him a file. She made eye contact with Tariq. He wore an expressionless look as always, which annoyed her. She could never guess what he was thinking. She looked away first, as she was getting uncomfortable in his presence.
“An estimation of 400 gallons of crude oil can be produced in the El-Sultari region,” Sara said.
“That is not a lot of oil,” Amir said. Tariq leaned back in his chair. He was wondering where Sara was taking this. Did she have a point or was she rambling again?
“True, but it's worth looking into. You never know.”
“Actually, we do know. We have been doing this for years,” Tariq interrupted.
“I meant that it's worth learning more about this field. It might prove to be a good investment.”
“Or it might be a fruitless endeavour and we would have wasted a lot of time and resources,” shot back Tariq.
Amir lifted his head from the file and looked at the both of them. They were both making good points but there was nothing friendly about their conversation. He knew that his brother and his assistant would never get along. He simply hoped it wouldn’t get much worse.
“Sara, if you can find more information about the field, then we'll go from there,” Amir told her.
“Do not give her false hope,” Tariq said. Sara bit the inside of her lip. She wanted to hurl curse words at him but she would not do that. Why did he find it so difficult to be nice to her?