Page 50 of Earned Husband

Istared out the floor-to-ceiling windows of my office at White Water Lily, looking out at Cairo shimmering under the afternoon sun. As always, the city was bustling with the familiar rhythm I’d grown up with, bumper-to-bumper traffic snaking down the streets and the sound of horns blaring filtering through the open windows in the corner even up here.

As I raked both hands through my hair, I inhaled a deep breath and glanced back down at the letter I’d rewritten four times. I hadn’t even skimmed through the whole of the first paragraph before I crumbled up this attempt too, tossing it into the wastebasket next to my desk.

It landed on top of a mountain of its predecessors, but Colin was supposed to be here in a week and my time was running out. In all the letters I’d written him over the past month, I’d avoided giving him the one answer he’d actually asked for and I couldn’t stall any longer.

Technically, I still had a week to decide, but practicality dictated I didn’t let him fly all the way out here if I was going to sayno. That would just be cruel.

A knock sounded at my door before it swung open. Rami, my brother, poked his head inside. He was only one yearyounger than me, the E-Commerce executive for GlobalStar who, ironically, didn’t have a serious or boring bone in his body.

“Is your fiancé here yet?” he asked cheerfully.

I reached down, slipped one of my heels off, and threw it at him. He caught it in one hand without even flinching. “Your reflexes are getting better, sister dear.”

I sighed. “Give that back.”

He tossed the shoe neatly onto the sofa before stepping inside and shutting the door behind him. Despite still being absolutely capable of wreaking havoc when the mood took him, Rami had also accidentally matured over the last few years.

Compared to our younger brothers, at least.

As he strode into my office, he turned his attention to my computer monitors. “You filed three IT tickets in two days, so I decided to come in person before you burn down my entire department.”

“I filed one.”

“Three times,” he said.

I rolled my eyes. “That’s only because they kept closing it. What kind of lazy operation are you running over there anyway?”

“They’re not lazy.” He pulled out his tablet and read aloud from the screen. “They kept closing it because you described the problem as,Computer possessed by gremlins. Please advise steps for exorcism.”

I folded my arms and leaned back in my chair, my chin held high. “Well, what was I supposed to say? That’s the problem. I described it accurately.”

“Gremlinsis not a technical term.” He sat down behind my desk after I stood up. “Alright, show me what’s going on.”

“If I knew, I wouldn’t need you,” I said. “My computer is simply not cooperating.”

Rami tapped a few keys, frowned thoughtfully, and looked up at me. “Have you tried turning it off and on again?”

“If that’s the best advice you’ve got, I’m throwing my other shoe. Or firing you.”

He arched a steep eyebrow. “Oh, okay. Sure. Except, you can’t fire me.”

“No, but I can ask Dad to it.”

“You could, but he’ll side with me. He has to. No one else is allowed to touch any of his devices.” He grinned, opened another official IT ticket with such flourish it was like he was about to reboot the entire universe, then typed several lines and my computer shut down. “Okay, let’s see if that works.”

The monitor went black, but a few seconds later, it restarted and everything appeared exactly as it should. I blew out a heavy breath through my nostrils as I glared at the stupid machine. “I’m going to pretend that didn’t just happen.”

“It happens every day.” He updated his ticket, pushed the chair out, and stood up again. “People neglect to turn their computers off for years at a time, then act all surprised when things don’t work like they should.”

“I hate technology.”

“Don’t worry, it hates you too.” He laughed, but before he moved out from behind my desk, he shut the computer down again. “There, it’s fixed, but you should go home. Blame it on me. Tell whoever asks I’m still working on it.”

I frowned. “What?”

“You’re not even supposed to be here, Deja.”

My eyebrows swept up. “That’s funny. I could’ve sworn that I work here. I have a contract and everything.”