Beyond Desire

10-Give me all the damn reasons to judge books by their covers.

Woohoo! We made it to 10 chapters, folks! I'm shocked, my keyboard is shocked... but we did it!

HUGE thanks to my amazing readers for sticking with me on this ride! You're the coffee to my keyboard, the sun to my screen, and the sanity to my writing (most of the time). Here's to many more chapters together! 🍾🍾

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"An absolute good morning to you!

You are great I can tell. Thank you so much for asking after me, I am fine and capable of booking my own flight. How about you deal with your nasty character with the spare time you have rather than bug me?

XX
Jalilah"

I hit send and set the phone aside, wondering if he would respond. He cleared that immediately as my phone beeped to announce an incoming text.

"Flaunt your independence to kids your age. Send your details, now."

Kids my age? Who does he think he is, talking to me like this? He was talented, I would give him that. No one else I know could write a message that cold, diminishing, and condescending all the while making it sound like he barely had the time to type it.

"With all due politeness, may I ask? Who do you think you are?

Yours respectfully,
Jalilah"

Very pleased with myself, I touched the arrow beside the text which delivered it straight to him.

His response came quickly as if he have been waiting for a chance such as this to present itself, so he could give me all the damn reasons to judge books by their covers.

"Not your mate, amongst many other things.

Again, Send me your info. Please for the love of all things good, write them correctly.

And just so we are clear, I am not interested in you being mine, respectfully or otherwise."

Mouth agape, I stared at the text, my head blank for a second there. Is there anything like textlessness, you know to explain when you are digitally dumbstruck? That was just a courteous closing line and nothing else! How would he think........I would never........forget it.

Boiling with rage, I typed.

"Set your expectation a bit lower, and your ego too because I am not sending anything to you.

With lots of undeserved courtesy,
Jalilah.

Again, he responded fast, only this time it wasn't a text. The phone buzzed with an incoming call and his number flashed on my screen.

He was calling me!

I stared at the screen, not sure what to think of that. My heart was literally leaping at the thought of hearing his voice. I caught myself getting........excited until the single rational brain cell I had intervened. Was he expecting me to pick up? And more importantly, why was he calling me in the first place?

I pressed hard on the decline bottom and went back straight to his text.

"Come back down to earth, I am not picking up your call!"

I placed the phone on the bedside drawer and let out a deep sigh. Thanks to that self-absorbed jerk, sleep was no longer an option. I knew the moment I closed my eyes, mama would send Mahir or any of the staff to wake me for breakfast.

The beeping of my phone made me turn toward it. With a scowl, I picked it up and opened the text.

"Don't worry, I will just go ask a mature person who can give rational answers.