Filed to story: Once Upon a One Night Mistake Book PDF Free by Simone Shirazi
Noor Bakhtiar, Blair’s? maadar bozorg, was the matriarch of the family. The eighty-year-old grandmother was the reason he gained ten pounds while dating Blair, seeing as how she didn’t seem to understand the phrase “no, thank you, I’m not hungry.” There was no escaping being sat at the table and served at least four plates of whatever she’d spent the entire day preparing. He never complained at first, since her cooking was the best he’d ever tasted, but by the time he was on his third plate and green in the gills, he began to regret ever agreeing to visit Blair’s grandmother.
“I’ll warn you now,” Blair began as she steered the BMW through the gates of Noor’s sprawling Maryland estate. “This? mehmooni is going to be insane. Relatives I’ve never met are going to be here, plus all their friends and friends of their friends. I would warn you about who to stay away from, but I think it’ll be self-explanatory once we get inside.”
Blair obviously wasn’t enthusiastic about this, but he supposed he couldn’t blame her. She’d been going to these things since infancy, and now at seventeen, it was clear she was sick of them. He’d learned in the early years of their friendship that Persian dinner parties-aka? mehmooni
-tended to go on for hours and involved a sickening amount of food. He could honestly say he enjoyed the occasional? mehmooni, but they bored Blair to death.
Sebastian had been to a few of them in the past, but he knew this one would be different, mainly because he wasn’t there to have fun but to help his ex out of a shitty situation. He would’ve given just about anything to be back with Taliana right then, but he was stuck here for however long it took.
Guilt slashed through his stomach as he looked down at his phone, remembering his girlfriend and their broken date. He couldn’t believe he’d forgotten, and even though she’d said she wasn’t mad, Sebastian knew it was a lie. He was going to do everything in his power to make up for it, but right then, he couldn’t focus on what he would have to do to win her forgiveness. For the next however many hours, his attention had to be on Blair whether he liked it or not, because the sooner this was over, the sooner he could return to the girl he loved.
“Are you sure you still want to do this?” Blair asked, pulling in behind a queue of parked cars. “We can always wait until tomorrow night and do this when it’s just my father and Khalid.”
He wasn’t about to say it out loud, but he didn’t have another night to spend like this. He hated the fact that he hadn’t been completely honest with Taliana during the last few weeks, but he hadn’t wanted to hurt her with how much time he’d been spending with Blair.
“And miss out on seeing your wild relatives again?” he said dryly, temporarily swallowing his guilt. “I don’t think so.”
But his joking tone was only a cover for his anxiety. Sebastian wasn’t even sure why he was nervous, since all he had to do was go in, greet a few people, ask Amir for his daughter’s hand in marriage, and eat until he exploded.
Just a normal night.
“I’m going to ask you again,” Blair said slowly, turning to look him dead in the eye. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
If she asked that damn question again, he was positive they wouldn’t make it inside. “Do you think I would be here right now if I didn’t?” he snapped, humor fading as he reached over to turn off the car for her. “We’ve come this far, Blair. We’re in the final stretch, so let’s do this now and get it over with. Okay? I’m ready to be done.”
Before he could draw his hand back, she engulfed it in both of hers. “I won’t blame you if you back out now,” she said, squeezing his hand hard, and he could all but feel her nervousness. “You’ve done so much for me already, and I understand if this is taking it too far. I mean, it’s not even guaranteed to work-“
“Just shut up,” he interrupted, not wanting to hear the speech again. He knew it all came from fear, but if she didn’t get it together, this wasn’t going to work. “You’re not allowed to have cold feet.”
“I do not have cold feet,” she huffed, finally dropping his hand in favor of shoving open the car door. “I just don’t want to go to this stupid party.”
“But you do want to get out of your damn forced marriage, don’t you?”
The glower she shot him was answer enough. “Do you really think I want to go play wifey to some man I don’t know? In a place where said man has a say over everything I do? I’m sorry, but if you think that’s the life I want, you’re an idiot.”
“Then there’s our answer,” he said as he opened his door, joining her in the middle of the gravel drive a moment later.
“Seriously, Seb,” she continued, toying nervously with the pendant at the hollow of her throat. “I really need this to work. I won’t last a day as this guy’s wife.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Sebastian shook his head. “I don’t think you’d last a day as anyone’s wife, let alone his. You’d probably make his life a living hell, and who knows what the consequences of that would be.”
“I don’t want to find out.”
“Which is why we’re here,” he completed, offering her his arm. “So let’s get this over with.”
Without saying a word, she linked her arm with his, and together they covered the short distance to the house. Noor was stationed just inside the screen door, arms open for a hug, and trademark wooden spoon in one hand.
“Finally,” the woman exhaled, her Iranian accent thick as ever despite having been in the US for over thirty years. “You are just like your father. Cannot be anywhere on time.”
“No one in this family is ever on time.” Blair rolled her eyes as she leaned in to kiss her grandmother on each cheek. “We don’t even know the meaning of it.”
Noor didn’t seem pleased with the answer, but she looked like she knew it was the truth. Instead of acknowledging it, she waved her spoon to dismiss the topic.
“Come inside, both of you,” she instructed, taking a step back so they could enter. “Laleh? joon, show our guest to the dining room then join me in the kitchen. I will teach you how to cook so a good Persian boy will want to marry you. Or maybe even this white boy here, yes?”
Noor gave an exaggerated wink and patted Sebastian on the cheek before hobbling off in the direction of the kitchen.
“Where’s your father?” he asked before he could get too distracted. “We need to get on with this.”
Blair scanned the crowd but shook her head a moment later. “I have no idea, but from the looks of it, dinner’s about to start.”
Glancing up, Sebastian saw that most everyone was moving toward either the dining room or the spacious living room, where there was bound to be a spread of food, enough to feed several armies.
“Go sit!” Noor shouted to him as she came out of the kitchen again, carrying a dish of golden, crispy rice.
With that command, he shot Blair a glance and found a seat at the dining room table, knowing they wouldn’t be able to find Amir until dinner was over.
40
Minor Mistruths
Two hours and three massive plates of food later, Sebastian was positive he was either going to explode or throw up all over one of the Mohammeds he’d been talking politics with for the past fifteen minutes. He’d given up on opening his mouth to answer any questions five minutes ago, afraid if he did, it would just end in a flurry of vomit and curse words in Farsi. A nod here and a head shake there was enough to get him through the makeshift debate anyway.
Luckily, he was saved from having to continue the conversation any longer by a tug on his sleeve. A glance to his left revealed nothing, but when he looked down, he found a little girl gazing up at him.
“Laleh wants you,” she said loudly, tugging again in an attempt to get him to follow.
He took a step forward. “Where is she?”
The only answer the little girl gave was another tug before she took off through the crowd. He almost had to jog to keep up, but he eventually found himself in front of Blair.
“Have you seen my father yet?” she asked. “I didn’t see him at dinner.”
Sebastian shook his head and leaned against the wall, struggling to choke back a reflux of baklava. “Can’t say I have.”
Blair nodded and took a deep breath. “If we’re going to find him, we’re going to have to actually look. There are too many people here to just glance around and hope he appears.”