My mother and father had Nour for the night, so I wandered around the living room, waiting for Jade. I checked my watch -- from Projects Watches called Persistent that Jade had given me on our second Christmas together.
"It's colorful and fun and unique," she'd said, pointing to the face. "Not...stuffy doctor."
"Are you saying I'm stuffy?" I'd asked her in mock indignation, snagging her around the waist and pulling her onto my lap.
She'd shrugged, a smile playing around her lips. "If the watch fits..."
Our families had laughed, Nasim harder than anyone else, and I'd worn the watch every day ever since. Persistent seemed fitting given the fact that I'd been officially friend-zoned by my wife.
Since I'd finished getting ready before Jade, I'd been pacing for the last ten minutes. It was nervousness, I'd realized as I shot the cuffs of my tuxedo for maybe the twentieth time, prowling around with energy to spare. Put me in an operating room with a patient and a scalpel, and I was confident, in my element, no display of nerves. The surgical team and I worked together easily and things made sense in the operating room because we all knew our roles. In there, I could open my mouth and what came out made sense.
All that was in complete opposition to what happened when I tried to discuss feelings and emotions. If I'd had to operate by discussing my feelings, my patients would have died on the table.
"Ready?" I heard from behind me.
Turning, I could only stare for a minute at my wife. To say Jade was wearing a red dress would be a bare bones statement of fact, but the full truth was she looked exquisite, like a queen. The gown was an elegant, off-the-shoulder silk dress that accentuated her curves to her waist and then flowed loosely to the floor, slit on one side just past her knee. Her dark hair was loosely twisted and braided, softening her formal appearance, long strands curling slightly at the sides of her face.
In that moment, there was nothing I wanted more than to rip that dress off of her, toss her onto our bed, put my mouth on --
"Malik?"
I swallowed. "You look incredible, Jade. Beautiful. Magnificent."
She was going to refuse to go tonight if I didn't stop rambling and my mouth continued to run away with itself, and I was only hoping it wouldn't spit out the more X-rated thoughts I was having about her. Don't scare her off, Malik. Don't make her regret agreeing to go.
"Thank you. You look very nice, too," she said. "Ready?"
"Malik, are you sure we can't stay home?" she used to tease me before heading out to our formal events. "There's something about you in a tux..."
"There's something about you no matter what you wear," I'd told her, risking her lipstick-wrath and pressing my mouth to hers.
"That's definitely not your color," Jade would laugh at me after she pulled back, using her thumb to wipe her lipstick off my lips.
"Sooner we go, sooner we can get back," I teased her.
Knowing Jade always wore the high heels she despised to give herself some height at these functions, I offered her my arm so she could hold on to something stable as we walked out to the car. She tucked her hand into the crook of my arm, and I allowed myself to cover her hand with my free one for a minute as we left the house. Opening the car door for her, I helped her into the front seat and made sure her dress was tucked into the car before heading around to my side.
"You might get swarmed tonight," I warned her once we were on our way. "Everyone's curious about you."
"Why?"
YOU ARE READING
Malik and Jade
RomanceI thought our arranged marriage had turned into love for both of us. I discovered how wrong I was the day I gave birth to our premature son and found my husband taking comfort from another woman. The woman he loved.
