“Iknow, dear.”
“So, you think love is important to marriage?”
His question set off Teymour that time. “Important?! Thereisno marriage without love. What would be the point? Draft up a business agreement if you aren’t in it for love.” Hethunkedhis fist on the table as he spoke.
Ehmet’s gaze bounced back and forth between the older couple.Theywere certainly in love, and passionate about love. He could see it in their unconditional support of one another, in how they teased and called the other out for bad behavior while not tearing them down and making them feel worthless. Their marriage wasbased on love, but he wasn’t sure his could ever be. The king took a deep swallow of his whiskey followed by a frustrated chomp of bread.
“How did you know?” he finally asked, voice so small it was hard to believe it had come from the six-foot-tall beast of a man.
“Know what, my dear?”
“That you were in love.”
“Ahh,” both Gulans sighed together before looking at one another. They ran through the motions of a silent back and forth that Ehmet took to mean, “Should I tell it? No, you do it. No, me? All right.”
“We met thirty-seven years ago,” Tey began. “I was a young merchant then, and she was—”
“I was a barmaid!” Shilan beamed.
“She was. But her father—”
“He was a fisherman. And one day,” Shilan took over the story. “My older brother was sick, so I went out to help with the day’s catch. A squall blew in out of nowhere and I was tossed overboard!”
Ehmet’s eyes popped wide.
“It’s true!” Teymour helped himself to a small pastry and a sip of whiskey and talked through his chewing, “I was out on my ship, heading over to Westenmeer, you know, in Gramenia?”
Ehmet nodded. He knew Gramenia. What sort of king wouldn’t know the neighboring realm’s cities and principalities?
“Well, I saw that little sloop through the drizzle, bouncing up and disappearing behind the waves.” He moved his hand in a wave-like motion, spreading pastry crumbs across the wooden table. “I could see the fishermen standing on the decks, screaming at the fates, and waving at the skies, and I knew someone had gone over.”
“It was me! I went over,” Shilan chimed in, as if Ehmet had already forgotten the start of the tale.
The Gulans went on in this way for some time, and Ehmet was more than happy to sit back and wallow in his fourth or fifth, maybe sixth, large drink while hearing their big tale of tumbling into love. It was more than likely Shilanhadn’tbeen encircled by hungry sharks and pulled from the fathomless depths, precisely when the largest predator was attempting to bite at her ankle, but the key points were there. Teymour rescued Shilan, they fell in love, and they would adventure together for the rest of their lives.
“What made you choose to fall in love?”
“Choose?” Shilan chuckled. “We most certainly did not choose to be in love. Maybe to stay in love and stick it out?”
Teymour nodded. “Yes, that part is the choice, the making it work bit. But the love itself? That justis.”
“So how did youknowwhen you’d found it?”
“We just knew, Ehmet. I am not sure exactly how to explain it. Weknew.”Mrs. Gulan snuggled into her husband’s shoulder.
“That’s not the most helpful,” he grumbled into his glass.
“Let’s see...” Teymour scrunched up his face as he flicked through nearly-forty years of memories with his wife. “I would say we became the best of friends almost instantaneously.”
“Oh, yes. Without a doubt.” Shilan bobbed her head.
“We could—and still can—discuss anything and everything . . .”
“Oh, yes. Without a doubt, from the mundane to the mystical.”
“What of jealousy?” Ehmet posed the question with a grimace.
“What of it? It’s a natural reaction to wanting what someone else has.” Shilan pinched her brows.
