It felt like an electric shock hit her. The open-door frame revealed her father, who was enraged. "Don't you know how to knock first?" he inquired sternly. Everyone was looking at her with concern. Everything in her mind vanished at this point. She bit her bottom lip hard, feeling the unusual tension in the room.
"My apologies," she said, clearing her throat and looking at the papers between her delight fingers, "I called our law department, and we worked it out." She handed him the documents.
"How could you let those idiots put me in this situation!" he raged, hurling the papers at her. The papers slammed into her and landed on the ground, leaving everyone gasping.
"I did everything correctly, and they received everything on time," Nadine defended herself. She looked at everyone except her father, who was sitting at his desk in the middle, surrounded by the heads of every department. His office was the largest in the entire organization. Divided into two sections — one with his desk and the other with a large conference room — crowded with managers who all had the same anxious, almost fearful reaction.
"I gave them the designs and the instructions correctly—" she looked at her father, her breath stuck in her lungs yet again, and time was frozen, everything and everyone in their places.
Behind her father's desk was a floor-to-ceiling glass wall with a panoramic view of the Mediterranean Sea. On the other side, a swarm of golden strings shot into the air, gradually transforming into an angelic golden bird. Its almond-shaped eyes and incandescent blue fire gaze astounded her to the core. The bird vanished when Nadine blinked. "—that's not my problem."
"You're in charge of design and implementation; it's your responsibility!" he said, pointing to her. Nadine sighed as she realized she couldn't convince him it wasn't her fault. She returned her gaze to the wall behind him, which was nothing but a glamorous sea view.
He kept blaming Nadine for everything that went wrong with the Sweden project and how she turned out to be a complete failure — Nadine felt a burning sensation in her chest as if her heart were being eaten away. She wished she could pause everything for a moment. It wasn't her father's rage or what had happened two days before. It was something more, something she couldn't put her finger on — he finally ended his lengthy speech by telling her how irresponsible she was.
"I alr—" Her father motioned for her to leave when his phone rang; on the other end was the executive manager of the Sweden company. She was embarrassed, and her cheeks turned a darker pink than usual; she looked around at the other managers, who gave her apologetic looks.
Nadine left his office feeling oppressed, the floor crammed with employees all staring at her like a lost puppy. She despised the way her father treated her, but she couldn't change it. She pressed the elevator buttons, feeling all eyes on her. She walked into her office after reaching her floor and told Lena to arrange a meeting with the project's executive team in half an hour.
She walked away from Lena and headed to the rooftop. She took in the breathtaking scenery that surrounded the company. There was a vast garden on one side of the street and the Mediterranean Sea on the other. She stepped up to the rooftop railing and removed her heels. She cried as soon as she placed her hand on the railing, and a flashback of the previous few days flashed before her eyes.
Alexandria, Egypt, December 15, 2009, 8:30 pm.
It was a lovely evening. Nadine and Adam were at her favorite restaurant for dinner. "How was your day?" Adam asked, smiling. He kissed the back of her left hand. She slid her hand across his smooth, shaved face; she despised it when he shaved his beard. Adam had an uneven, thin beard that gave him the appearance of a teenage boy, but she wanted him to grow it. She never told him that having facial hair was preferable to having none.
She didn't care enough.
Adam was a tall, thin man with fair skin that turned reddish most of the time and silky chestnut-colored hair that he ran his fingers through every two minutes. He didn't entice her; he was the kind of safe, comfortable love that made her smile every now and then but wasn't passionate.
She never admitted to anyone, including herself, that her heart does not belong to him, and it never has. She moved her hand away from him and gazed deeply into his brown eyes. "Long boring day, as usual, and yours?" she asked, her dimples deep on both her cheeks.
The night passed quietly. They got coffee after leaving the restaurant and headed to Adam's car. Adam drove them to their favorite café, which took them ten minutes to reach. While Nadine waited in, Adam got out of the car to order. He left his phone, which kept making noises. Someone was sending him a flood of messages.
Nadine couldn't stand the constant ringing of the phone, so she took it to turn the volume down, only to discover that Adam's sister was the one sending the messages. She knew his sister wouldn't send anything because she was preoccupied with her three-year-old triplets.
Nadine looked around the café. He won't get mad, she thought. When she opened the most recent message, her expression changed; she appeared devastated. Nadine took a deep breath and looked out the café window, where Adam was waiting for his turn.
Adam returned twenty minutes later with two cups of coffee. "God! the whole place is packed," Adam said, not looking at Nadine. She was on the phone, speaking sternly.
"Are you getting close to the house? good, just give them to Camellia, no one else," she said as she hung up the phone, then glared at Adam.
"Are you okay?" he inquired, feeling the tension from her abrupt harsh look.
"Yes," Nadine replied, looking out the window next to her. "I'm fine."
"Okay... are we going home?"
"No, to Camellia's," she said, taking a deep breath.
Adam nodded and began driving. He kept talking all the way to Camellia's house, where her parents were hosting a gathering of family and friends to celebrate the opening of their new hospital. Nadine felt a rush of rage in her body. Every time he held her hand, she glared at it. His gaze fixed on the road. He didn't seem to notice her discomfort.
When her phone rang with Camellia's name on its screen, Nadine was distracted by her thoughts. "Nadine! what happened?" Camellia said it loudly, almost shouting. Adam turned to face Nadine, who forced a smile and turned down the phone volume.
"I'm going to tell you everything, just do what she told you," Nadine stated calmly. Adam fixed his gaze on her. "It's a wonderful surprise."