Page 47 of The Mismatch

‘He has a sadness to his eyes. When no one is looking he seemssad. Do you want to live with someone like that?’

Neda was momentarily speechless. Her baba viewed Hossein in a very different way; he saw emotions as a weakness, a flaw, when it was precisely Hossein’s softness that attracted Neda to him.

‘You don’t know him like I do. And you didn’t give any of my siblings this hassle when they got married!’ She blurted the words out and once she began she couldn’t stop. ‘You agreed to this, and now you’re trying to make me doubt myself, and him, and it isn’t fair. He’s just shy, and he’s had a hard life.’ Her eyes were filling; she hoped the tears wouldn’t discredit what she was trying to say.

‘He’s a loser!’ her dad bellowed. ‘Why not marry someone with a job, stability, a good family? Why sell yourself so short?’

She could feel what she most wanted slipping rapidly through her fingers and it made her all the more determined, all the more certain, that she wanted the thing she was tryingto hold on to. But Neda was the type of person who wanted something all the more when it was taken away from her, or even if it was merely suggested.

In all the romances she secretly read, the characters had to face obstacles, but she didn’t want that for her and Hossein. This wasn’tRomeo and Juliet; it should be simple. Two people who like each other enough to marry. To be with each other forever.

Baba looked at her face then rested a heavy hand on her shoulder. ‘Neda, don’t get upset.’

‘If you think I’m smart, believe me when I say I want to marry Hossein and only Hossein.’

He sighed, disappointed but resigned.

‘He’s good, Baba, believe me.’

The glimmer of a smile traced his lips, and she relaxed.

‘You always get what you want in the end, don’t you, azizam?’

CHAPTER 22

Soraya

London, 2014

Magnus let go of the lead and the black Labrador bolted off into the distance, sniffing various leaves and sticks as she went.

Soraya was overwhelmed by the novelty of being with a dog; she was more of a cat person. A fact Magnus was keen to change.

‘I don’t mind cats,’ he had said. ‘But dogs are better, fact.’

‘Dogs are needy, but with cats you have to win them over; it makes their love so much more special.’

Magnus rolled his eyes. ‘You haven’t met the right one yet.’ He winked. She laughed at that.

‘Are you calling yourself a dog?’

He pushed her jokingly, making her laugh even more.

She had never been to Clapham Common before. Magnus’s friend had asked him to look after his pets whilst he was on holiday, and consequently Magnus was housesitting for the week.

The dog came bounding back over to them, jumping up against Soraya’s thighs, almost knocking her over in the process. She pretended to laugh, patted the animal’s head, hoping she would back off.

‘Holly, sit,’ Magnus said. The dog complied. With her legs back on the ground she did look cute. Soraya tentatively patted Holly’s head, finding the fur not quite as soft as it looked.

Magnus waved a plastic toy in the shape of a bone, pretending to throw it multiple times before he launched it off into the distance.

‘How does your friend afford to live round here, and with pets? Who even has their own pets at our age?’ she asked.

Before they went for the walk Soraya had been given a tour of the house and met the quiet resident tabby and white cat, named Tyson, who was rightfully suspicious of her. She was taken aback by how polished the house was; the walls and carpet cream and pristine, except in the kitchen where the floor was grey marble. They even had a Nespresso machine. A symbol, Soraya thought, that you had made it in life.

‘His dad bought it,’ Magnus said, in a tone she knew very well. They had had many conversations criticising those whose parents handed everything to them, especially in London. They knew, however, it was because this was something they would never have; if they could, they were sure their opinion on the matter would be different.

‘I always wanted a dog when I was younger,’ Magnus said, bringing Soraya back to the present.