The Sheikh's Virgin Bride(67)

“What would you like me to say?” she asked.

Jesse nodded to the cameraman next to him, and the man whipped out his camera, preparing to film.

“Just talk about what happened. We can let the audience know that we tried, and your raw emotion right now will really come through. You have a chance to make this terrible situation come to life, and I think this is something a lot of people can relate to. Whenever you’re ready.”

Kaye nodded, wiping the tear streaks from beneath her eyes before she turned to face the camera, which had already turned on.

“Can you tell us a little about what just happened?” Jesse prompted.

Kaye nodded, allowing her tears to flow again for effect.

“Amir and I just tried to break the news of our engagement to my parents,” she said between sniffles. “It didn’t exactly go well.”

Jesse’s gaze was encouraging as she worked up her emotions to get a better shot.

“I just wish that they could understand me a little better, you know?” she asked the camera lens, as though she was talking directly to the millions of people who would be watching. “I grew up in such a small town; their worldview is so closed-off. I wish they could just be happy for me.”

She wept a little, then, reaching into her purse for a tissue and delicately dabbing at her eyes.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Jesse asked.

She shook her head, allowing herself a good, solid cry. Not all of that was an act. The cameraman filmed her breakdown, and she had to wonder if her parents weren’t a little bit right. She was selling her real emotions for a paycheck.

It was a huge paycheck; that was true. But it was still just money, in the end. Was that the kind of actress she wanted to be?

“That’s great, Chuck. Can you load that film onto the shared drive and we’ll do some editing on the plane?”

“Sure, boss,” Chuck said, shutting down the camera and working to load it onto a laptop.

“That’s fast,” Kaye observed, sniffling back her last tears as she watched the high-tech gadgets Chuck used to get the film ready to edit on the fly.

“The speed of business is unreal these days. We have to do what we can to keep up. Usually, that means working as we move. A lot of travel time means we get a lot done. The entire segment for your trip to Al Rayyan is already prepped and ready for finishing when we get back. We’re in good shape.”

“That’s very impressive.”

Jesse shrugged.

“You have to be fast to keep up with Merle’s demands. It’s the only way to really get to that success part that lies underneath all the crap.”

Kaye smiled.

“There certainly is a lot of that when it comes to Merle.”

Jesse chuckled.

“You said it, not me.”

The rest of the car ride was spent in silence as Chuck worked his magic with headphones in, editing video as they pulled into the car rental area of the airport.

There was a somber mood in the group as they made their way back through the terminal they had been in only hours before, everyone looking travel-weary. Kaye realized that they had flown from Al Rayyan to Indiana, driven two hours only to be instantly turned away, and were now getting back on a plane to L.A.

She felt a strong pang of guilt at making everyone’s job that much harder. As Merle grumbled and grouched while he secured another flight for the crew, they spent another few hours waiting in the airport terminal until it was time to board the plane—which was just another cramped, smelly space for them to enjoy for another half a day. Kay found herself dreaming of her bed as she stared forlornly out the window, the plane leveling off at 35,000 feet.

“Hey.”

Kaye turned to see Amir staring down at her, the two seats next to her blissfully empty on their last-minute flight back home. She nodded to him.

“Hey. Sorry about that, back there,” she said.

Amir sat down next to her, tilting his head to look into her eyes, which at that point had to be unforgivably puffy and red from all the crying she’d done.

“I got a glimpse of the footage from your car ride back. Really powerful stuff,” he offered.

Kaye frowned.

“I’m glad you approve.”

Amir put up his hands in a gentle gesture of defense.

“Hey, I’m trying to give you a compliment here. I know that was really tough back there, and I just wanted to commend you for trying, even though you knew that would likely be the response we’d get.”

Kaye sat in silence, without an answer to that. She was filled with regret for so many things, and his comfort in a great job done wasn’t exactly helping.

He placed a gentle hand over hers, and she tensed. Seeing her reaction, he pulled it back.

“I know that family stuff can be difficult. I know it seems all roses and daisies now, but things back in Al Rayyan weren’t always so great. It took a lot of work to get the family to the place it is now. The truth is, my parents made a lot of mistakes along the way. They demanded so much from us, wanted us to behave a certain way, to be people we weren’t. We tell people that we just like to travel, but that was the real reason they drove us away. We were never allowed to be ourselves. We always had to be far more than we wanted.”

Kaye listened to his story intently, trying to place his description with the blissful family life she had seen in Al Rayyan. It didn’t quite compute.