After lunch Fatih offered to take Leyla back home, but she simple refused. She walked down the streets of the downtown area, with a good feeling. As if 'Pretty Woman' was playing in the background. She knew she was nowhere near Julia Roberts even she is now in granny category. It was a really good day, she didn't even have to wait for the bus. She settled herself in the bus and sent a message to Hülya.
"Finished. Going back home."
"How was it?"
"Decided to date. He is a very family-oriented man."
Family oriented was never the adjective Hülya would choose while describing Fatih. He was no family man.
"Family oriented? Where do you get it?"
"Named his daughter himself. Helin means home. Intends to marry. Enough for evidence."
Hülya couldn't bring herself to say that he named his daughter after some socialites since she would have no way to know. And this marriage was a sham. She wanted to shout at her like 'How can you be so stupid!' Then, she realized.
"Have you told Emir?"
"Meet him tonight and tell"
Hülya was about to pull her hair out of anger. Who will meet whom? Does she ask her to tell Emir or will she meet Emir tonight and tell him personally? It was no use to ask her anyway so Hülya let it be.
***
Leyla met Emir in front of his parents' waterside mansion*. She never asked him to wait for her there, but like an instinct she knew. Emir pulled the hem of her sweatshirt. "You know, you don't have to marry that guy at all. Right?" he said.
"I remember you were about to sign an important contract with him."
"He doesn't have the final say about the contract," he said. "His sisters will burn him alive if he does something so careless just for personal reasons."
"Then why the hell have you arranged the blind date in the first place?" she asked. It was a question she knew the answer already, but she wanted to hear his excuse.
"He doesn't have the final say, but he holds the money." He let go of her hand, pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. "Mind to sit there a while?" he pointed the stairs of the poach.
They sat. He lit his cigarettes "I don't want to offend him in any way. If he delays the funds just a little bit, it will be very difficult for me to overpower Uncle."
Leyla flinched when he mentioned his uncle. Emir realized this, yet he wanted to continue. If he didn't explain himself now, he felt that she would misunderstand him; and their relationship would never be the same.
"He is a scumbag, and I never intended to arrange you a blind date with him in the first place. When Hülya mentioned this first, I refused. But he is the only person I know that my uncle wouldn't dare to offend. If you have his backing, uncle cannot pester you with the recording. Grandpa cannot block your academic career. You can go back to university."
Leyla was silent. She just sat there and listened what Emir said. She didn't expect to hear this reasoning. She assumed that he would just say 'I was overly jealous of Hülya's ex boyfriend's asking her to find a blind date for him and offered you since you can swing him in your pants' or something. This was more serious than she thought.
Emir took a deep breath from his cigarette "I am not saying that this marriage wouldn't benefit me at all. Without the burden of the recording I can do whatever I want at last. Also, who wouldn't want to be the successor? This marriage sure is more beneficial to me."
He looked at her cousin sister with complicated eyes. She was still silent. He was still so caught up with the past events that she already forgot. He reached her hands. They were very cold.
"As I said you many times before, do not sacrifice yourself for the rich. I owe you so much, but you owe me nothing, and I can do very well by myself." He paused "…for both of us… It is not that you need a marriage anyway. I know I am the one bringing this out first but…"
She just smiled at the guy who is fiddling with her hand restlessly. "Emir" she said mildly. "I quitted pitying the rich long ago, I've learnt my lesson well." She squeezed his hand. "That person… your uncle… I am very sure he deleted the video long ago. If he leaks it, the one who suffer more will be him, not me."
Emir just scoffed as if not believing her. She said in a reassuring voice. "It is already in the past. I already forgot everything and moved on. That person is now married and has a child. If the video is leaked, his wife will sue his pants off. He couldn't dare." She laughed as if she enjoyed the idea of that man leaving the court room in his pants while all the media broadcasting live. "It is already in the past. I know that bastard blackmailed you so many times. But he just can't. Although I wonder if he is abusing his child sometimes, I still trust that now he has a child, he will not be so reckless to make his dirty past public. You are already married and stabilized yourself." She took a sigh and continued, "I moved on. Of course it would be great if I could go on with my academic career, but I don't regret being a high school teacher at all."
She looked up at Emir and saw the tears near his eyes. "Just how old are you? Come on…"
He moved his tears with the back of his hand while she was mining paper tissues in her bag. "If it is not for this reason, why did you accept just now?" he asked.
"I believe if no one arranges me a marriage I will become a spinster."
"You are already a spinster." He put off the cigarette and flicked it. He was smiling. "Hülya can arrange you a better one. You don't need to meet this guy."
Leyla petted his back as saying "There… There…" and decided to lean on his shoulder. She wanted to give him an excuse that he can believe. "It would be great to go back to university." She said at last. "You always see me as an angel, a selfless person with no personal ambitions. But I have ambitions. When you mentioned the blind date, I was already calculating the proper time for sending the resignation letter and googled the time of ALES**"
They laughed. "There is another reason too" she said. "I am not lying to you when I said I would become a spinster if nobody arranged anything for me."
He nudged her "Hey, don't pull my leg"
"I am not" she said with a coquettishly offending voice. "You know, if I don't render men into genderless Ken dolls, I cannot have a healthy conversation with them." She said, "It is good for me if other party already has marriage in mind."
"The marriage in his mind is a sham," he said solemnly.
"I know. But I am not marrying for a sham. And I am not marrying tomorrow either. We will date first, marriage in mind of course."
Emir's face lightened up with this. "So, you may not ever marry him?"
She laughed at his stupidly happy face, "Of course I will marry him in the end. And stop calling him this man or that man. Be respectful to my husband."
"Fuck your husband!"
Leyla smashed her bag on his head.
***
*waterside mansion(in Turkish yalı) is a kind of mansion resides at the banks of Bosphorus.
**ALES is the name of the graduate admissions test, similar to GMAT