To sleep with her would be treasonous at best. On the other hand, a real Egyptian doesn’t work either. Self-loathing bleeds out beyond his self until the idea of taking a compatriot lover feels paradoxically beneath him, a waste of his potential—he’d be selling short. With me, he gets the cream of both worlds. I am Egyptian—recognizable but also improved by Western inflection, carrying in my fashion sense and orthodontically straight teeth the whiff of opportunity, opulence, and pride.
