Caught Up In You

10- Confessions

Previously: Can: Sanem looks ahead and sees that her parents are in full discussion about something and pulls me in for a kiss. "You aren't still mad that I don't want you to stay for the whole time, are you?" she says caressing my hand. "No, you made some valid points about the agency, and it's not that much time to be apart even though it's going to kill me." I say, bringing her hand to my mouth and placing a soft kiss on her knuckles. We get comfortable for the long trip and soon after we start the movie, Sanem falls asleep.

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Can
"So how long have you been in love with my daughter?" Nihat nonchalantly asks and I almost choke on the delicious Borek that he just offered me.

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Can 
I'm reading a novel and have one hand on my book and one hand on Sanem, lightly caressing her arm under the blanket. She fell fast asleep 10 minutes into the movie and I didn't have the heart to wake her or to continue to watch it without her. I look up and see that Mevkibe is coming towards us and I quickly remove my hand from Sanem's arm. 

"Can, son, I brought borek for the flight, are you hungry?" she says in a very caring and motherly way. I smile thinking about how delicious her food is and how I love that she's always trying to feed me. "Yes, I would love some," I say eagerly. 

"Let's switch seats for a bit and you eat. I want to rest my eyes anyway," she says as she moves so I can get out of my seat. 

I make my way up to Nihat, who is waiting with the borek. My mouth is already watering at the thought of it! A smile appears on my face as I think how lucky I am to have such amazing future in-laws. And then stop dead in my tracks. Did I just say in-laws to myself? Marriage? Me? The Can Divit - the wild man who can't be tamed? The albatross that flies for years, not spending enough time anywhere to settle down? And then I think, of course I'm thinking this way. I've finally found my person. My forever. My Sanem. I breathe out a sigh thinking what a lucky bastard I am to have found her and how I was almost dumb enough to lose her. My thoughts are interrupted by a very cheerful Nihat who hands me over a napkin full of food. 

"Can! We can't thank you enough for everything you're doing for us, for our Sanem," he says with nothing but happiness in his voice. Nihat is such a good hearted man. A man who loves his daughters and his wife so much. You can tell that Sanem is his favorite though just by the way he talks about her. We're chatting about Chicago and how he's excited to try some different foods and see different sights. He offers me more borek and I can't refuse, it's just absolutely delicious. As I'm putting more in my mouth, I almost choke when he asks so subtly, "So how long have you been in love with my daughter?" As I'm coughing, he chuckles and hands me some water. Drinking the cold liquid down to clear my throat, I'm not sure what to even say. I'm well aware that Sanem hasn't mentioned our relationship and that she wants more time to be together before telling them, the good news is, thanks to Osman I know why. 

"Umm, Nihat sir, I'm not sure what you mean?" I say, but it's not even convincing to me so I can't imagine he's buying it either. I'm a terrible liar.  He leans over and says, "son, when I was your age, I fell madly in love with a girl. We couldn't tell anyone because it meant we'd have to get engaged right away. We wanted time, so much more time to really just be. Turns out, we didn't really need that much time because it didn't take long for me to realize she was the one. We've been married for 30 years," he says with the look of a man that is still completely in love. "Plus, I think that you pay a lot of special attention to her- more so than other employees. You are being so generous with your apartment in Chicago, buying her parents plane tickets," he gestures with his hands and continues trying to encourage something out of me. I'm stuck. I want to tell this man that his daughter is the most amazing person I've ever met in my life. That she brought color back in to my world. That I can't remember life before her and I can't imagine life without her. I look at him trying to decide how mad she'll be if she knows I've exposed us - to her baba no less. He continues, "Can, she's special. She's more than special." And before he can go any further I say, "I know." And those two words hold so much meaning. He looks at me and nods. Maybe he knows I can't say anything, maybe he just wanted to gauge my initial reaction and he got what he was looking for, but I know I can trust him because he leans over to offer me more borek and says, "I haven't seen her THIS happy."