Right to Remain
"She's an immigration lawyer fighting for Somali families to stay in the UK. He's the activist who keeps showing up at her office demanding she do more. When they finally stop arguing, they realize they want the same thing—including each other."
"Your firm isn't doing enough."
He storms into my office like he owns it. Tall, angry, beautiful in that exhausting activist way.
"I'm doing everything I can."
"Everything legal." He slams papers on my desk. "The Abdi family is being deported next week. Where's the everything in that?"
His name is Khalid.
Community organizer. Refugee rights. The kind of anger that comes from watching families torn apart while bureaucrats shuffle papers.
"You think I don't care?" I stand. "I've worked eighty-hour weeks for months—"
"And they're still losing."
"Because the system is broken, not because I'm not trying."
We're inches apart now. Both furious. Both right.
"Then try harder," he says quietly.
We work together.
Against my better judgment. Nights at my office, building cases, finding loopholes.
"You're good at this," he admits.
"You sound surprised."
"I thought you were just another suit." He looks at me differently now. "You're not."
"What am I?"
"Someone who cares." He moves closer. "As much as I do."
The Abdi family wins.
Judicial review. Emergency stay. The kind of victory that makes the news.
"We did it," I say.
"You did it." He pulls me into a hug that lasts too long. "I was wrong about you."
"You were right to push."
"I was right about something else too." He pulls back just enough to look at me. "I think I'm falling for you."
Enemies become lovers.
In my office after everyone's gone. On the desk where we built cases.
"Khalid—"
"I've wanted this since you first yelled back at me."
"That was day one."
"I know what I want." He pushes into me. "I want you."
We come together among immigration files.
Two people who fight for families now fighting to become one.
"This is unprofessional—"
"This is perfect." He moves deeper. "You're my right to remain."
We keep working together.
Keep fighting. Keep winning. Keep falling deeper into whatever this is.
"Marry me," he says one day, in the middle of a case review.
"We're working."
"I'm always working with you." He pulls out a ring. "Let's make it permanent."
"That's not how proposals work."
"That's how we work." He grins. "Chaotic but effective."
I say yes.
Best case I've ever won.