"Rex, my dear, you're completely loco if you think you can change my mind, I've made my decision and won't budge," Carmen Saadeh said haughtily to the six-foot-three, handsome and well-dressed young black man who stood before her. Rex Toussaint sighed deeply, and looked pleadingly into Carmen's lovely chestnut eyes, but saw nothing but coldness in them. The sinfully sexy Lebanese-born Christian beauty he'd fallen for had become so cold lately, it wasn't even funny.
"Fine, we'll see Captain American: Civil War instead of Batman V. Superman," Rex said, relenting at last, and Carmen smiled smugly and patted his bum. The two of them stood in the main hall of the Silver City movie theater in the east end of Ottawa. The theater was unusually packed, considering it was Tuesday night. Carmen linked her arm with Rex's as he got in line at the box office.
"With you I always get my way," Carmen whispered into Rex's ear, and then she flicked her tongue over his earlobe. Rex grinned and said nothing. Ever since Carmen came into his life, nothing had been the same. Rex first spotted the six-foot-tall, curvaceous Middle-Eastern cutie while walking through the Place D'Orleans Shopping Center. He was looking for the FIDO store to buy a new battery for his ailing iPhone, and got lost.
Rex Toussaint had spent his whole life in the town of Barrhaven, Ontario, where his Haitian parents bought a house shortly after emigrating to Canada from the Republic of Haiti. The brother didn't know Jack about Orleans, the plush suburb which was an hour away from his neck of the woods by bus. On his day off, he decided to go there and check out some sights, while also taking care of some business at the local cell phone store.
Feeling lost inside the vast and trendy Place D'Orleans, Rex asked several passersby for help but most ignored him. They would smile at him after giving him the once-over and refuse to help him. That's life as a visible minority in the City of Ottawa for you. Home of the politely hostile and passive-aggressive creeps. Rex was about to give up and go back the way he came, when a vision of beauty approached him and asked him if he needed help.
"Sure, it's close to where I work, I can show you," said the tall, raven-haired, brown-eyed cutie in the stylish silvery pantsuit. Rex smiled and nodded with gratitude. Thus Rex met Carmen Saadeh, the gorgeous young woman destined to change his life. The two of them hit it off, and began hanging out regularly. A passionate relationship ensued, one which was complicated by the fact that Rex and Carmen came from different worlds.
Rex was born in Quartier Morin, northern Haiti, to Mathieu and Magdalene Toussaint, and moved to Ontario, Canada, with his family during the sixth summer of his life. Political unrest drove his family from their homeland. He considered himself as Canadian as anyone living in the Confederation. Two decades after moving to Canada, Rex was in graduate school at Carleton University, trying to earn his MBA at the Sprott School of Business.
Carmen Saadeh was born in Byblos Port, Republic of Lebanon, to Justin Saadeh, a Lebanese Christian politician and businessman, and his wife Mina Urbano, a Filipina migrant worker. Shortly after Carmen's birth, her parents left Lebanon due to political unrest and moved to the City of Montreal, Quebec. Carmen grew up in Quebec, and considers herself as Canadian as anyone. Since her family's arrival in Canada more than two decades ago, Carmen hasn't left the country.
Growing up as the daughter of an interracial couple in the City of Montreal wasn't easy for Carmen Saadeh, but it made her tough. After a lifetime of being told she wasn't Arab enough, or Filipina enough, Carmen discovered that the only way to fit in was to be her shameless self. Trying to please everyone in the world was a sure fire way to lose one's mind.
