Page 54 of Queen of Barrakesch
Wasim finished dictating a letter and then deposited the file into the drive for Talibah to retrieve later. As he clicked out of the program, the phone on his desk rang.
“Her Royal Highness Queen Imani is on her way back to the palace and should be here in a few minutes.”
“Thank you. I’ll wrap up and meet her upstairs.”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
He hung up and quickly reviewed a few more files. He’d promised Imani to take a break and have dinner with her tonight. Tomorrow night he had an administrative meeting that would certainly last through dinner, and she left for Zamibia the next day.
He logged off the computer and then exited the office. “Go home, Talibah,” he said on the way out.
His assistant smiled and nodded, but he guessed if he came back down later, she’d still be at her desk.
He took the elevator to the sixth floor, where Imani met him in the large, open entrance wearing a purple abaya with white and lavender detailing on the sleeves, her hair loose and curling in a sexy way beside her cheeks, and a smile on her face.
“How was your day?” She tipped up her head, and he dropped a kiss to her puckered lips.
“Long, busy.” Better now that he saw her.
They seldom saw each other during the day because of their busy schedules filled with meetings and various tasks. Imani also traveled outside of the palace more often than he did. Because of her charitable work and the organizations she supported, she had to remain visible and took lots of photographs because her image was needed to generate publicity.
One of the projects, the Women & Girls Literacy Initiative she had worked on with Yasmin, received the additional funding it needed after they followed his advice and ran a well-thought-out advertising campaign on television and extended their efforts to billboards across the cities and in the countryside.
He’d become better attuned to her moods, as well. He distinctly remembered a conversation they’d had only last week.
Imani’s name popped up on the LCD screen of Wasim’s personal phone.
“Hello? Is everything okay?” he asked. It was unusual for her to call him at work in the middle of the day.
“Yes, yes, I just…”
“You just what…?” Wasim asked.
“Nothing. I’m not even sure why I called.” She let out an embarrassed laugh. “I’ll let you get back to work.”
“Imani.”
“Yes?”
He quickly glanced at his open calendar on the computer. “Have lunch with me today. We’ll go to that Indian restaurant in the old part of town. The one you like and claim you introduced me to, but I seriously doubt.”
“I did introduce you to it.”
“If you say so. Are you free?”
“Are you sure you’re not too busy?” she asked, her voice full of hesitation.
“I’m not too busy for you.”
“If we go, we’ll have to make arrangements now so security can sweep the area before we arrive.”
“I’ll take care of that.”
“Okay. Twelve o’clock?” Her voice became more upbeat.
“Twelve-thirty works better. Meet me downstairs at that time.”
“Okay. I’ll see you then.”
