Page 88 - James Caan - The Real Deal

The Real Deal

‘I suppose I’m just curious to see whether you’re a Muslim or
not.’
‘Would you like me to be a Muslim?’
‘No, I just want you to tell me!’
‘Of course I am!’ I’d said it quite flippantly and she obviously
thought I was playing with her.
‘You’re not, are you?’
‘Absolutely. And I’ll prove it.’ When I was growing up, my mum
had sent me and my brothers and sisters for religious education to
learn about the faith as well as a bit of Arabic so that we would
be able recite the most important prayers.
‘What’s the most relevant prayer in Arabic that a Muslim would
know?’
She thought about it for a second. ‘Surat Al Fatiha.’
So I recited this prayer in Arabic, and her face just glowed! I
could tell from the look on her face and her body language that it
was quite important to her. I was now sure that there was more
going on here than just shopping around for a boutique.
From then on we started to see a little more of each other, but
always on the pretext of the business. So I would call and say that
I wanted to get together to go over the numbers, or to talk about
the pros and cons of a particular location. Over the next few
months we saw several shops all over London, and then one day
Aisha rang and said there was a unit available in a shopping centre
in Wood Green.
‘Do you want to come with me?’
‘I’ll pick you up at ten!’
It was a really nice shopping centre with all the big brands, so I
instantly said to myself that they wouldn’t take us seriously but
that we’d have a nice lunch somewhere and make a day of it.
Before we left, we met the centre manager and a couple of other
executives and I was quite surprised that they were making
encouraging noises.

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