Page 35 of Sheikh's Quarantine Triplet Baby Daughters

"No," she said, shaking her head. "I don't...we agreed. We're not talking about anything serious until we're both out."

"It's not prison, you know," he said with a determinedly amused smile. "But you're probably right."

"Often am," she said. "Tell me instead about that book you're reading."

Diane reflected on how strange it was. Even with all the work that Samyar had to do, they were still spending so much time with each other. They talked about things they had never had time to talk about before, and for better or for worse, they were doing it without the interruption of sex.

Her body longed for him. Sometimes she woke up at night craving him, and sometimes it was so bad she cried a little. Diane knew she could blame some of it on hormones, but certainly not all of it.

"You guys are going to have a great dad," she whispered to them more than once. "You are going to love him. He's fun, he's kind, and he's got so, so much love in his heart."

That was the word she had been avoiding for so long. That was the word she couldn't bear to think about, let alone say.

The problem was that it was constantly on the tip of her tongue when she was around Samyar, and she wasn't ready yet to have it brought out. Whenever she came too close to it, she shied away as if she had been burned, which all right, was probably far too apt a metaphor.

They were going to make sure that their kids were all right. That was what they were sure about, and for now, it was enough. She was all right with that.

In isolation, time started to slide sideways, so she started to set alarms, even though she had nowhere to be. One morning, shortly after her alarm went off, she got a video call from Samyar while she was still in bed. She picked it up without turning on the video.

"What are you calling for?" she asked. "Don't you have to have some kind of press conference in a little while?"

"In an hour, I have plenty of time. I just wanted to call you and to do something specific."

"Something specific," Diane mused. "That sounds interesting. What are you doing?"

"Turn on your webcam first."

"Oh my God, Samyar, I just got up. My hair is a haystack, you do not want to see it."

"Of course I do. May I please see you? I miss your face. I miss all of you."

She thought that for anyone else in the world, she would have said no. She would have run to the bathroom to try to drag a brush through her hair, she would have splashed some water on her face and maybe put some chapstick on at least.

Instead, this was Samyar, and she smiled a little wryly as she hit the video button.

"You know, I hope you know what you're getting into," she said as the picture came into focus. "I look like a horror."

Samyar's face was nothing but tender as he gazed upon her, and her heart beat loudly for him, needed him in ways that she still didn't understand. She thought that she might spend the rest of her life figuring it out, and all right, that sounded sort of wonderful.

"I think that you're gorgeous," he said, and there was such a melting softness in his voice that she had to brush back tears.

"Oh God, you cannot say things like that," she complained. "You can't. You know when you say things like that I turn on the waterworks. It's the hormones; usually I'm not like this!"

"Should I say cruel things instead?" he asked teasingly. "Should I simply tell you how long I have been up at night thinking of you, and how empty my bed is without you?"

"No, no that's worse," she said. Her eyes were watering up, but she was laughing as well. She decided to say that she had broken even, because what else could she want in this world?

"Okay, either way, you have me on video. What's going on?"

It looked as if Samyar went through a few different options before he decided on what he was actually going to say. He had been doing that more often lately, she thought, as if he had had a lot on his mind. She supposed she couldn't blame him. He was in isolation as well, even if his isolation involved a multimedia command center that kept him in contact with the entire country and likely the whole world. She could be patient with him, especially when he was so often patient with her hormones and her unexpected tears.

"Tell me how you are doing this morning," he said at last, and Diane smiled.

"You know I always send you a text when I'm out of the shower, the Diane Update. Couldn't wait this morning?"

"I find that I can't, no."

"This generation… Always has to have everything now. Well, it's another beautiful day in paradise, I guess. The kids let me sleep pretty well last night, no weird dreams. I know that the weird dreams are basically part and parcel of being pregnant, but man, are they not fun. Um, before I went to bed, I was reading that book you sent me, the one about the sheikh and his wife who turned into a parrot. That one turned a little sadder than I thought it was going to."

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