Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Logan.

"Fucking asshole. Go fuck yourself, you stupid son-of-a-bitch!" Emily shouts back at the other driver.

I have to admit, I never thought that the funniest thing on this planet would be watching Emily drive in the city. So far, she almost hit three motorcycles, ran five red lights and pissed off four big men.

I mean, I knew that she was a shitty driver: she drives me to work every morning. But it's barely a ten minutes drive in the middle of nowhere, so it's really hard to mess up, even for Em. But in the city, it's completely different. For instance, there are other cars around.

The funniest part is that she genuinely thinks that she's right and they're wrong. And I obviously abstain from saying anything because she's driving and will literally throw me out without a blink of an eye.

"Fucking assholes. I hate this country. I hate those people. I literally freaking hate everything about the city - I mean for fuck's sake, look at this motherfucking asshole," She points towards the motorcycle who just ran a red light before beeping at him. Side note: running red lights seems to be normal around here.

"Well, maybe if you let me put some music on, you wouldn't be so stressed."

"I need to focus, okay? I can't have you blasting your stupid American rappers right now. One battle at a time."

I bite back an answer, just because the driver before us suddenly stops, causing us to almost bump into him. That, of course, sends Em into yet another war.

As I stare outside the window, I can't help but compare Beirut to New York City. Obviously, NYC is bigger and more cosmopolitan and the list goes on, but weirdly enough, I think they're similar in some ways too. They're both very gentrified and have unbearable traffic. They're both a mix of modern and old and extremely diverse.

I let out a long exhale, checking my GPS again. It looks like we're almost there. By almost there, I mean Adam's clinic. He has this super important meeting and he forgot some papers so we had to come all the way down to the city to bring them to him - I mean, I could have taken Em's car and delivered them to him but Em would never let me drive her car and Adam would never let me go to the city alone.

As for Em, she hates driving alone - which is understandable, I mean if I wasn't with her, she'd probably hit those people on purpose.

But yeah, Beirut is different from any city I've been to before. It's beautiful, but not in the Paris-way of architectural and urban beauty. It's pretty in its resilience: in the random, destroyed and unfinished buildings that are the result of the previous civil war. It's pretty in the small, cozy buildings lined-up next to each other in a frenzied manner. It's pretty in the people: the crazy motorcycles that seem to cut every traffic line and run every red light, the merchants on the streets, and the crowd.

No, the crowd is not NYC's crowd. It's not uniform, individualistic, and dull. People talk to each other, they laugh and shout and fight and curse. Mostly, taxis that keep beeping at pedestrians, asking them if they want a ride. This earns them more beeping from other drivers who just want to beat the traffic.

Beirut seems like a great city for people watching - "Burn in fucking hell, you cunt!"

And of course, we're back to Emily losing her mind over yet another driver. I look at my GPS, ready for this ride to be over. Thankfully, it says that we're five minutes away.

"I think you should look for parking, since we're only five minutes away."

"I'll find parking there."

"Are you sure? It's the city after all -"

"Logan, please stop talking to me. I don't have nice things to say right now."

Christ, someone's panties are in a twist. I turn back to looking at the buildings until we finally get there. True to her word, we immediately found free parking. Yes, free. In NYC, there is no such thing as free parking. In fact, parking costs around 50$ if found. Oh, did I mention that it's literally impossible to find parking?

I fail to voice those observations, just because Em is in such a pissy mood and when she gets in those moods, it's better to just let her be than cheer her up. She's kind of like a cat - you know when your cat hates you and wants you to leave her alone? No matter what treats you give her or how much you try those forehead caresses, she will scratch you and hiss at you. That's Em for you.

We get out of the car and I follow behind her, still taking in the view. The buildings look extremely modern and the streets are super clean - which is the complete opposite of the area that we passed by when we were driving. This looks like a business street. When Em turns right, I find myself facing a gigantic building with security guards and everything. Woah, I had no idea that Adam's job was this legit.

I thought he was just a Neuro-scientist. I make a mental note to ask him.

She pulls out a key card and swipes it for the doors to unlock. I walk behind her into the reception. The receptionist grins at Em before walking out of his seat and giving her a hug. He seems to be in his mid-fifties.

He greets her in Arabic, a.k.a I have no clue what they're saying, but they seem to be close. It's one of those rare moments that I see Em this way: unguarded, and smiling. She looks beautiful. At this moment, her eyes meet mine and I panic because I almost think that I said that out loud. But instead, she just says my name to the old man who smiles at me and offers his hand to shake.

I feel like an asshole because I literally don't even know how to say "hi" in Arabic or "how are you". Thankfully, Emily chats with him for five more minutes before giving him Adam's papers. When she's done, I say goodbye, in English, of course because I'm an idiot.

We walk back out, and the moment Em realizes that she has to drive back, her mood is ruined again.

"I mean, I can drive if you want," I offer.

"Right, over my dead body."

"Come on! This way, you don't have to stress. You can just relax and let me take over." My dirty mind registers another meaning after the words leave my mouth, but Em doesn't comment.

Instead, she looks like she has seen a ghost. I look in the direction that she's staring at and it's a little girl wearing a pink dress. She's playing in the playground next to one of the buildings. It looks like a daycare where rich people would drop their kids before going to work.

Suddenly, the little girl turns around and notices Emily. She shouts eagerly, "Emily!"

"Oh my God. We have to go," Em murmurs before starting to walk away.

"What do you mean? The girl is calling you-"

"Emily! Emily, wait! Wait for me please!" The girl runs towards us and Emily is walking away and I'm standing in the middle like an idiot who has no clue what is happening.

"Make her come back, please!" The little girl shouts.

I quickly grab Emily's hand and the girl is right next to us. I realize that was a dumb thing to do after I see the expression on Em's face: pure horror. She literally looks like she's going to cry. Her face is all red and her lips are shaking and she's breathing way too fast.

The little girl jumps to hug Emily. She reluctantly hugs her back, still looking traumatized. Holy fuck, I'm so fucking confused right now.

"Emily, I'm so glad you 'eard me! I thought I was gonna miss you!"

She fakes a smile and gulps before leaning down to the little girl's height. "I'm glad that I heard you too, sweetie. You're good?"

The girl nods her head before hugging Em again. "I miss you so much. Why don't I see you anymore?"

"I'm sorry. I just have so much work. Like right now, I have work. I need to go. I'm sorry."

"No! But I barely saw you, besides, Mommy is here too! She would want to say hi to you!"

Em gulps, shaking her head uncontrollably. "Oh no, no, no. I need to go right now, Elsie. This guy, my friend, he's sick and I'm taking him to Adam's right now. Okay?"

The girl - Elsie barely glances at me before grabbing Em's hand again. "But -"

"No butts, you should go back to playing with your friends. Okay? And don't tell Mommy that you saw me, because then she'd be upset that I couldn't say hi." Her voice is shaking.

Elsie nods and hugs her again. "When are you coming over?"

"Soon. Now I really need to go. I'm sorry." She literally pushes the girl away before grabbing my hand and walks as fast as possible.

Once we get in the car, I can see her staring at Elsie from her rear view mirror. Holy shit. What the fuck was that?

"Em?"

She gulps, her gaze focused on the mirror.

"Emily," I breathe out, my hand reaches out to hers. When our skins touch, she jumps back to reality, meeting my eyes for a split second. Jesus Christ, she looks so decomposed. I've never seen her this way. I think she's going to cry. "Em, Jesus. Are you okay?"

I realize that this question is very stupid after I say it. I immediately reach my arms out for a hug and to my surprise, she leans in. Her head on my shoulder, my arms around her neck. I'm breathing into her neck, but mostly, I feel her heart breaking and it kills me that I can't do anything.

We stay like this for a couple of minutes before I push away the hair from her face. She gulps, wiping a tear and taking a deep breath. "I'm okay. Don't worry."

"Who was that?"

She gulps, looking away as she starts the car. "That was my sister."