––––––––
UC-Berkeley Campus
Sending their daughter, Leyla, to UC-Berkeley was well within their financial means. The cost aside, the U.S. was a far safer place than Amman, Jordan. Should she meet and marry an American of Jordanian descent, then the Hafnawis would find it easier to visit America for long periods at a time. Given Khaled Hafnawi’s business in military armaments, the U.S. was a good bolt hole.
Leyla adapted to life at UC-Berkeley. Her manner of dress, always western in style, was now unreservedly so. With Dr. Achmed Al Hami’s help, she even managed to lodge a grievance concerning the final grade she received in her Middle Eastern literature course. Back home she would have found it impossible to muster the audacity to challenge the authority of a professor of the classics. The longer she stayed in America, the more like native born students she became.
Her parents presided over her social life in Amman. She had some contact with men—boys actually—but limited to members of her immediate and extended family. Dating strange men was another matter entirely. Yet in Berkeley she spoke often to strange men. She participated in study groups with men. She joined other women in “hanging out” with men at the many bars in Berkeley, although she avoided alcoholic beverages. She was always the designated sober conscience of her female friends when bar hopping was on the agenda.
She even enjoyed the talks she had with Dr. Al Hami’s office mate. Lately, Dr. Todd Adams stayed later and returned earlier when she visited with Dr. Al Hami. Dr. Adams, she was now referring to him as “Todd,” asked in a roundabout way whether she might be interested in joining him for coffee at the Starbucks on Oxford Street. They agreed to meet the next day.
Later that day panic set in. “Did I agree to go on a date? With a strange man? Should I bring a friend along to act as a chaperone?” She approached several of her friends. Would they go along? The emerging consensus was that meeting for coffee wasn’t a date. Starbucks was very public. She should go on her own.
One did promise to call her while the “not a date” was in progress. They agreed on both a “safe” word and a “help me” word Leyla would work into their telephone conversation. If she called for a rescue, her friend would drop over from grocery shopping to bail Leila out.
The “not a date” was officially on.
––––––––
§ § §
––––––––
If Leyla Hafnawi was a bundle of raw nerve endings, Todd Adams was a full meltdown. Achmed Al Hami initially enjoyed Adams’ distress, but as the preparations for Starbucks approached that of a full-scale military invasion, he began to feel remorse for both Leyla and Todd—but especially poor Leyla. And, poor Todd, too, he finally admitted. Ironically, this challenge may have gotten the best of Al Hami.
The meeting at Starbucks took place as planned. True, there was some initial awkwardness on both sides. However, each found the other easy to talk to. She found his story of being a child prodigy, always living at home with his parents, with little or no social life surprisingly like her own upbringing. Mr. and Mrs. Adams had much in common with Mr. and Mrs. Hufnawi’s views of parenting despite their substantial regional and cultural differences. A fact both Adams and Hufnawi found very, very funny.
Starbucks quickly became their place. They even laid claim to their table.
Still, there’s a limit to how much coffee one person can drink. Even when the coffee is served and consumed in a public setting it remains a contrivance to avoid the greater intimacy of an official date. This fact became their elephant in their room. Finally, Leyla, under the influence of her social circle of female friends, decided to raise the issue. It took her almost an hour to gather her sense of purpose to propose a formal date, but she did. He, greatly relieved, immediately accepted. Dinner was officially on the menu. The girlfriends celebrated Leyla’s rite of passage.
––––––––
§ § §
––––––––
Leyla’s visits to Al Hami’s office increased in frequency and duration. With some subtlety, she started referring to the office as belonging to Al Hami and Adams, and then as Adams’ office. Slowly, Al Hami was relegated to the position of third wheel, and he was the one who found a pretense to leave when Ms. Hufnawi visited. He thought the change in his status, and his office mate’s improved morale, cute. He was saddened by the end of the Monday morning crossword puzzle challenge, but Adams had far more important diversions to occupy his time.
Throughout their postdoc period at UC-Berkeley, Adams never extended an invitation to Al Hami to visit his apartment. In fact, Adams never mentioned where he resided. So, the invitation for dinner came as a complete surprise. Wanting to make a positive impression, he asked the owner of the local wine shop to recommend an appropriate wine for the occasion.
Al Hami was pleasantly surprised that Adams lived so well. The directory in the lobby of the apartment building posted names of junior UC-Berkley faculty which made it socially and economically above his own station in life. The real surprise came when he knocked on the door and Leyla answered. They were living together. He didn’t know what to make of it. He believed he was happy for his fellow postdoc. He even thought he was happy for Leyla. For the two sets of parents? Not so certain.
Dinner was a success for both Leyla, the hostess, and Adams, the host. The surprises, however, just didn’t stop coming. Leyla shared in the wine. Adams prepared a pork roast. And over the course of the evening the two young lovers moved physically closer to one another. By the end of the evening they were in constant physical contact.
––––––––
§ § §
Over the next several months, Al Hami had never seen Adams happier or more self-confident. There were now three of them in the office. Hufnawi accompanied Adams to the many socials and activities sponsored by the Physics Department and the Department Chair. Events he had previously avoided. They became a single unit.
Everything was wonderful, until it wasn’t.