Sold To The Sheikh: His Indecent Proposal (An Interracial Sheikh Romance Novel) (8 page)

“I understand you feel
obligated, but if you can afford it, try and see if you can find
someone else to help her out for a couple of months,” Dr. Farber
suggested. “You need to have as little stress as possible in your
life.” Mia shrugged.

“It’s not—it’s really not
that big of a deal,” Mia said. “It’s not a major stress…and I think
I’d be more stressed if I didn’t take care of her myself.” Dr.
Farber hesitated, before nodding.

“If you think it’ll be
easier for you this way, that’s understandable” she agreed. “In the
mean time, I want you to make sure you’re eating well, and staying
as healthy as possible. IVF can put a lot of stress on the body.”
Mia pressed her lips together and glanced at Rami, he was nodding
along with the doctor’s recommendations.

“Okay,” Mia said,
steadying herself. “Let’s go over what that is going to entail.”
She took a notebook out of her purse and listened as the OB/GYN
began to explain the process, and what Mia would have to do. There
would be more intensive tests, more medications to take—medications
Mia would have to inject. The idea was less than thrilling, but
looking at Rami, remembering how much he was paying her, and how
much he wanted this child, Mia pushed aside her misgivings. She had
already managed to pay off her mother’s medical bills and her
student loan debts in the space of three months.

In another few, she would
hopefully be pregnant and able to pay for her mother’s
treatments—maybe even put a down payment on a house. For that
opportunity, she could handle daily shots, the blood tests and the
ultrasounds.
Imagine if you were
diabetic,
she thought to herself, writing
down the instructions Dr. Farber was giving her.
You’d have to inject yourself and stick yourself
with needles every day and no one would be paying you for it—they
certainly wouldn’t be paying you a hundred thousand dollars a
month.

As they left Dr. Farber’s
office after setting Mia’s next few appointments—appointments she
would mostly be attending alone—Rami turned to her. “You didn’t
think that I was going to just forget about taking you shopping,
did you?” Mia blushed.

“How did you even remember
that after that huge information overload?”

“I’d already researched
the process and kind of knew most of what she was going to say
before she said it,” Rami admitted.

“We really don’t have to
do this,” Mia said, brushing her hands against her skirt
self-consciously.

“Oh but we do,” Rami said,
grinning. “Especially since we just got bad news. A good shopping
trip will take us out of the blues.”

“Are you even serious
right now? Am I the type of woman you think can just spend money
and feel better?” Rami looked at her in disbelief.

“Every type of woman is
that woman,” he said, shaking his head. “And secretly every type of
man is that man, too. Men just usually spend their money on
different things.”

“Like expensive
cars?”

Rami grinned again. “Cars,
stereos, tools…” He shrugged. “And for some, a nice suit here and
there.” Mia sighed as Rami held the door open for her.

“If you’re going to
insist,” she told him, rolling her eyes at the extravagance of it,
“the least I can do is give in gracefully.” Rami
laughed.

“So shall we go to
Nordstrom first, or Saks?” Mia sighed, shaking her head with a
little smile.

“First I kind of want to
eat. Then you can take me to as many department stores as you can
stand.”

Mia followed Rami in her
car, thinking about all of the things that would go along with
receiving IVF treatments. She couldn’t even estimate the cost.
Artificial insemination alone had been so expensive—she couldn’t
imagine how much more the hormone shots, ultrasounds, blood tests
and all the other elements of the more aggressive treatment would
be. “But if he wants to pay for it, then that’s his business,” she
told herself.

Their first stop was at a
tiny boutique restaurant; the kind of place Mia had rarely seen,
let alone visited, before Rami had come into her life, but Rami
always insisted on taking her to lunch after their appointments,
and he was a man of expensive tastes.

Hesitantly, Mia pulled up
to the valet stand. Even after three months of valet parking, she
still couldn’t get used to it. She had her tip money ready, and
handed it with her keys to the gawky young valet, averting her eyes
from the inevitable questioning glance when he spotted what kind of
car she drove.

“You know, lots of rich
guys drive clunkers,” Rami said, as he greeted her by the
restaurant’s entrance. “It’s not like anyone’s going to notice.”
Mia smiled.

“I’m sorry, I still feel
weird handing over a mid-nineties Volvo to a guy in a
suit.”

“Then don’t drive a
mid-nineties Volvo,” Rami suggested.

“Right, because it’s
totally responsible for me to spend money on an expensive car right
now.”

Rami laughed, taking her
arm and leading her towards the entrance. “Once you’ve had the
baby, you can be as irresponsible as you want. And if you need more
money…”

“I am not going to ask for
more money just to buy a car when the one I have is still perfectly
functional,” Mia said flatly.

“I’m just saying, you
could. Especially with this IVF stuff; it sounds like it’s going to
be really tough on you.”

“Rami, stop,” Mia said,
blushing as she started to feel more than a little guilty at his
generosity. “You take me out to lunch after every one of these
appointments, you’re taking me shopping for clothes… I already feel
like you’re being too generous.”

“Lunch is nothing,” Rami
said. The woman at the hostess stand smiled warmly as they
approached, and Mia saw her give Rami a long, appreciative glance.
Rami turned to the woman and smiled. “I believe I have a standing
reservation? Rami al-Hassan.” The woman nodded and keyed Rami’s
name into the tablet in front of her.

“I see that right here,
Mr. al-Hassan,” she said, with a slightly smaller, but still
polite, smile. “Just the two of you?” Rami nodded. “Right this
way.”

Mia could never quite get
used to the feeling of walking into a high-end dining room, even
having followed Rami’s lead into a more than a dozen of them over
the course of their partnership. She tried not to feel too
conspicuous and out of place as the hostess navigated them around
islands of white linen, silver, and glittering crystal.

They sat down, and the
hostess gave each of them a menu—they had a choice of
à la carte
items or a
lunch-sized tasting menu. “How long do you want to be here?” Rami
asked her.

“Considering we were in
Dr. Farber’s office for over an hour and you didn’t forget about
going shopping, I don’t think it matters how long we’re in
here.”

Rami grinned. “You’re
starting to figure me out!”

Mia laughed. “Maybe a
little bit,” she admitted.

“The tasting menu here is
amazing. Seasonal, incredibly fresh—the chef is just a wizard.” Mia
looked over the fine calligraphy on the menu in front of her and
saw a dozen things she barely recognized, names and cooking terms
that she could parse mingled with others that she wasn’t sure she
could pronounce.

“No wine, though,” Mia
said, glancing at the suggestions that accompanied the various
dishes.

Rami shrugged. “Have you
really missed it?”

Mia considered. “Not
really. One of these days though, after this is all over, I’m going
to do one of these tasting menus the way it’s really supposed to be
done.” Rami chuckled.

“You’ll have a million
dollars. You could do all of the tasting menus in the U.S. with
that—wine included.”

The waiter arrived at
their table and both Rami and Mia ordered the tasting menu. Out of
courtesy for Mia, Rami got water with his meal. Mia relaxed as one
perfect, tiny item after another arrived at their table: salads
perfectly dressed with vegetables she must have eaten before, only
they’d never tasted so good; game, meat and fish in three-bite
portions, all cooked to perfection; sauces that danced bright, rich
flavors across her tongue. Over the many courses, she and Rami
discussed which shops they would go to, and their plan once inside
each one.

“At Nordstrom I will have
to make sure my personal shopper is there. She is sure to know
exactly what will be best for you even as you start to
show—although, maybe we’d better go shopping again if you start to
outgrow your clothes.”

“Rami,” Mia said, blushing
as she took a bite of medium rare filet of grass-fed beef, “No. I
will buy my clothes with my own money from a maternity store if I
have to. I am not going to let you take me on another shopping
spree.”

“How are you going to stop
me?” Rami asked with a little grin.

“I’ll refuse to go and by
then I’ll be so heavy you won’t be able to make me.”

Rami laughed. “Fine. Only
this once. But I think we’d better go to Macy’s too, for some
everyday things.”

“This was just supposed to
be for New York! You are not giving me a whole new wardrobe, Rami.
No, you’re not doing it.”

“It’s my money,” Rami
pointed out. “I can spend it how I like.”

“I don’t want you spending
it on me in the first place!” Mia looked around, taking a sip of
her water to cover the embarrassment she felt at raising her voice.
“I just…I’m not used to this, okay? I’ll let you buy me clothes for
New York because you’re insisting on it, but please don’t make me
feel guilty by giving me a lot of clothes I don’t need. No one ever
sees me except you, my mom, Dr. Farber and the people at the
grocery store.”

“Okay Mia, you win,” Rami
said, though a gleam in his dark eyes suggested that he hadn’t
quite given in on the idea of giving her a complete wardrobe. “So
just Nordstrom and Saks, maybe Bloomingdales?” Mia
sighed.

“Fine,” she said. “But I’m
giving you a limit. You’re not spending more than…a thousand
dollars. Okay?” Rami shook his head.

“Not going to agree to
that; what if I find the perfect everyday dress for you and it’s
three hundred? That’s almost a third on just one thing!”

“You are not buying me an
‘everyday dress’ for three hundred dollars!” Mia
insisted.

“Let me use my judgment,”
Rami said firmly. “I won’t buy more than you can wear in New York
for like… a week. That’s how long you’ll be there, right?” Mia
sighed, putting the plate in front of her aside.

“Yes,” she said. “Okay. A
week’s worth of clothes, that’s it.” She still felt weird accepting
extra gifts and attention from Rami, but after three months of
meeting with him on a regular basis, she knew arguing about it
wouldn’t get her anywhere.

SIX

“How are you feeling, baby
girl?” Amie asked. Mia sighed as she sank down onto the couch,
wincing as a pillow pressed up against the injection site on her
buttock.

“I’m tired,” she admitted.
Mia had been prepared for the fact that IVF would be demanding on
her body, what with all the hormones and the monitoring, and Dr.
Farber had given her fair warning. But she hadn’t counted on just
how exhausting it would all be; how much the injections would hurt.
Mia had avoided telling Rami about it in too much detail because
she wasn’t sure he could handle the reality of the process—and she
didn’t want him thinking she wasn’t up to the task.

“How long do you think
this is going to go on for?” Her mother inquired,
hesitantly.

Mia licked her lips and
shrugged, shifting so that her weight was more on her other hip.
“The doctor says it can take multiple cycles. Even with
everything…” she shrugged again. “It’s not perfect. Sometimes the
implanted eggs don’t take, sometimes they can’t get the eggs out in
time.”

“But you’re being
careful.” It was almost a question.

“Oh absolutely. Dr. Farber
said she wants to make sure I’m still able to have babies of my own
after this is done.” Mia laughed bitterly. “Because surely if I’m
resorting to IVF now, I’m going to be able to have babies of my own
later on the natural way, no problem.” Mia’s mom bit her bottom
lip.

“Have you and Rami
considered that?”

Mia blushed. “No, we’re
keeping it strictly business between us. If we did it that way it’d
feel like…” Mia squirmed.