Nayir half imagined that he would be upset, or bored, or dead of heat stroke, but he was sitting in the car, leisurely reading the Quran. The Toyota was running. The air conditioning must have been at full blast, because when Nayir opened the door to let Miss Hijazi in, a cold burst of air blew over his chest. It gave him a moment's chill. She didn't climb into the car right away. She seemed reluctant to say goodbye, and it surprised him to realize that his perceptions of her had altered slightly. She was not exactly modest, but not brazen either. She was something in between, shifting like a mirage. Remembering that this was Othman's fiancée, a wall went up in his mind, and he motioned her into the car. "There's one more thing I wanted to do before heading back to work," she said. "My driver has another appointment, so he's going to drop me off, and I don't think I can do this alone." "What is it?" "Um Tahsin told me that she received a phone call from an optometrist. Nouf ordered a pair of glasses before she ran away.
