12. Chapter 12
Chapter 12
-Annabella-
I knew what an adult would do. They wouldn’t let their feelings get in the way of healthy communication, but sometimes even adults could act like babies, and I chose to be a baby this time.
“Annabella!” he scolded.
I remained silent. It was early in the morning. I had stumbled upon this room, seeking a different kind of escape, imagining Zac before me as I punched the punching bag.
“Could you just look at me?” Kace asked.
I still said nothing.
“Woman, you’re the most complicated person on this planet.”
I whipped around and glared at him. “And you must be the coldest!”
I got up, grabbed my stuff and walked away, hearing him call out to me, but I didn’t want to talk anymore. I went back to my room, showered and got dressed before I went to eat. Mariam informed me that Kace had gone back to his room to eat and work, so I had the patio to myself. Not lonely at all.
I ate the breakfast slowly, not having much of an appetite, and I spent most of the day alone, not sure what to do with my time. My parents had made me take a few days off from work as I settled in with Kace, but now all I wanted was to go back to my “boring” little architect job and just forget the rest of the world. But it wouldn’t happen until next week.
“You haven’t eaten much,” Mariam pointed out as I kept twirling my fork around the spaghetti before letting it fall off and doing it all again.
“Are you married?” I asked her, making her appear shocked, before smiling. Then she held up her hand and showed me a silver band.
“Yes,” she replied.
“How long?”
“Oh, we are almost twenty years into our marriage.”
“Was it love at first sight?” I asked.
“No, we were friends for many years. We have known each other since we were kids,” she explained, only making my heart ache because I thought my love story would resemble Mariam’s.
“I see…”
“Is the marriage not going the way you wanted?” she inquired.
“We have been married for two days,” I murmured. “What could have gone right so far?”
“It could still have been a good two days.”
“It hasn’t been…” I admitted.
“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked.
“I want a husband who won’t humiliate me…”
Mariam drew back, as if she couldn’t believe that Kace would do something like that.
“Did something happen?” she inquired.
“Not something I shouldn’t have expected,” I sighed, before getting up and walking to my room. I didn’t know what else to do but to retreat and just forget the world.
-Kace-
It was getting ridiculous. Almost three days had gone by, and Annabella had not said a word to me. I was getting frustrated, especially because it wouldn’t even be that long before her family came to visit.
I had talked a little to her father, and we had agreed on what evening they would come, but I needed my wife to speak to me if we were going to survive this dinner!
I decided to go catch her at breakfast, but Mariam told me Annabella wanted to eat in her room like she had done for days. So I went there, on a mission this time.
“Go away, Mariam. I'm fine!” she yelled from inside after I had knocked.
“It’s not Mariam,” I said.
It was silent for a little while, then I heard something knock against the door.
“Then I want you to go away even more!” she shouted.
I groaned, then grabbed the handle and pushed it open. Annabella was sitting further away by a desk, and her food had not even been touched. She glared at me as she heard me enter.
“What if I was naked?” she spat.
“Not like I won’t be seeing that soon enough,” I confidently told her.
She crossed her arms. “Never.”
“We are married,” I pointed out.
“Married people usually stop having sex quite fast once the honeymoon phase is over, and we never even had one,” she retorted.
“I don’t turn you on even a little?” I joked.
“You make me go dry. Like sand.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. My wife had a cruel sense of humor, it seemed, but once we reached that point—if we were ever reaching that point—there would be nothing dry about her.
She would be dripping into my mouth as I licked her, and she would drench us both as I fucked her until she could barely take it anymore. Hmm… was my wife turning me on even more than I thought ? I wondered.
“I love when you talk dirty,” I teased her.
I had never joked around with anyone before. I was an only child and one who had to grow up fast.
“What do you want?” she inquired.
“To talk,” I informed her.
“I told you I don’t want to talk to you,” she snapped.
“Then how do we solve this?”
She turned quiet, watching me.
“What then?” she asked after a little while.
“Married people communicate, right? Isn’t that what is preached to us all the time?” I pointed out.
“Yeah, in theory.”
“Maybe we should try it out, but we can’t communicate if my wife won’t talk to me,” I reminded her.
She turned her body more, throwing her legs over the side of the chair, and the small, crème-colored dress did not do a lot to protect her. She had to only spread her legs a tiny bit more, and I could see up her skirt, but I forced my eyes to remain on hers.
“Talk? You mean to insult me again?” she retorted.
“No insulting. Just talking,” I assured her.
“How am I to believe that when you think I'm a crazy stalker?” she snapped.
I realized then that there couldn’t be much truth to the rumors if she was reacting this strongly.
“I spoke too fast,” I admitted.
She looked intrigued. “What?”
“I spoke too fast. Please let me hear your version. We don’t know each other, and I can only rely on what I have heard.”
“But it’s rumors,” she reminded me, her voice breaking a little.
“Then explain your side.”