TE16 Turkish Delight

Altay Öktem I couldn’t even think what was about to happen. Maria was going to think I left her, in this strange city, without a word, and she wasn’t ever going to forgive me. On that day, she probably returned to our hotel in Sultanahmet after her shoot and took a shower, then got down to the lobby where shewaited forme.When the clock hit 7:30 P.M., she started toworry. I knew shewould be out by 6:00 and that we had said we would meet at the hotel then. She must have thought that I was carried away by the charm of this city; but she would also know that I wasn’t one to be late, and make her wait. After a while, maybe she asked the boy at the reception. “Oh, the gentleman you came with? He left around 5:00 this evening,” he probably replied since he was wrapped up in all this. He had to lie. The boy was as guilty as that translator.

“What do you mean he left?”

“I mean he checked out and left the hotel. I assumed you’d know.”

“No, I didn’t—uh, did he leave a note or anything?”

How could she know that the boy was lying…? She couldn’t have known… That I was locked up in a cellar somewhere… Oh Maria, you must have run up staircase so fast and cried a river on the bed… Don’t worry… Everything’s going to be alright…

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