36. Adelaide
THIRTY-SIX
ADELAIDE
Being dragged across Starlight’s lobby by my husband wasn’t in the cards for today.
Yet, I didn’t mind it one bit.
The sun was shining.
Christian was here.
I was happy.
Because Christian was here.
Not even fifteen minutes after I texted him, he was in my office with a barely contained smile and a well-needed coffee which wasn’t really coffee. I loved my sugary iced drinks no matter how much doctors told me I needed to cut it out if I wanted to get rid of my PCOS—that had to be a lie because it really didn’t do anything but make me mad and bloat.
Moonshine was a good forty minutes away from my building, so I was shocked when he arrived twenty-five minutes too soon.
Scratch that, I was surprised he even showed up. Not that I didn’t think he would have dropped his work for me—a delusional part of me believed he would have done that.
He didn’t give me time to think, to breathe, to take him in.
Christian threw his coat onto the couch in my office, grabbed me by the wrist, and took me with him.
He told Umaima to cancel all of my meetings, who wasn’t helpful when she made kissy faces at me and then proceeded to drop her coffee all over the console. Christian didn’t let me move to help her, just kept dragging me and I really didn’t mind it.
Arun Klahan, Harry’s intern, smiled at me when he watched Christian manhandle me in front of everyone.
We formed a friendship of sorts. I wanted to make sure all the interns had a boss they knew about and a boss who cared about them.
Arun was someone who understood what it was like to feel outside of everyone’s conversation yet feel like the core of it.
His mom also made the best Hydrabadi food, and I was incessantly in love with it. It was information I chose to keep to myself because the last time I told Christian I was in love with someone else’s food (a couple of days ago when his neighbour brought me peanut butter cookies), he took it upon himself to make every kind of cookie possible.
The kitchen ended up in a disaster and he ended up with decent chocolate chip cookies. I gave him a pat on the arm and told him he did a good job.
Not every chef could be a baker and my husband was proof of that.
I’d be caught dead before I ever told him that though.
“Christian,” there was a smile in my voice. “Everyone’s looking at us.”
He didn’t stop, taking two strides at a time. “Good, let them know that I’m taking my wife out on a date.”
A date?
Butterflies flapped their wings in my stomach. Newly hatched ones tried to fly and fell over and over again.
I braided our fingers together and without hesitation, Christian tightened his hold.
“You never asked me out on a date,” I said once we got outside and away from everyone’s prying eyes. Brooklyn Bridge stood tall and daunting to our right, people buzzed left and right but all I could see was my husband.
His hair whipping around in the wind and his smile so bright and so blinding, I was filled with the sudden need to kiss the daylights out of him. He wasn’t acting like himself—or whatever version of himself he’d created for the world.
Right now, he was Christian.
My Christian.
The one I’d fallen in love with when I was just a girl.
The one who’d fallen in love with me when he was just a boy.
It was stupid to think that when I’d fall in love with every version of Christian—even the one that would never fall for me.
Here and now, I was starting to think that maybe he wanted to.
Maybe he wasn’t lying when he said he wanted to love me.
I’d believe it.
For now.
Because it was better than wallowing in the reminder of whatever this was between us would remain temporary.
His shirt flapped around with his hair. I couldn’t help but smile back at him.
“Will you go out with me, Adelaide Hayes?”
Adelaide Hayes.
Not Mikael.
My heartbeat thrummed in my throat.
“I mean,” I dropped my hand from his. This would be fun. “You brought me out here without asking me and expect me to go out with you?”
Christian’s smile vanished. “I didn’t…”
He stumbled backwards when I wrapped my arms around him. “I’m so in,” I muffled into his chest.
It took him a moment before he reciprocated the hug.
His hugs could replace air.
All warm and soft and manly .
Starting today, I’d hug every single day.
This might be better than kissing him.
When I looked up at him, Christian leaned his head back and well— nope , kissing those juicy lips would always be the best.
His narrowed on my own lips, licking his in the process.
Something hard and prominent bulged between us and I didn’t have to see to know what it was.
I swallowed hard and took a step back. “Date,” I said.
With discreet precision, Christian hid his erection and cleared his throat.
“Date, right .”
He opened the car door for me, tugged my seatbelt on even when I gave him the look that totally said I was an independent woman who could put her own seatbelt on.
Christian reversed the car onto another busy street.
“Why are we going on a date?” I asked instead of spilling out the thoughts in my head. If I let one out then the rest would follow and instead of a date, we’d be having a deep conversation in the car that would most likely lead into an argument—which would definitely lead into an earlier divorce.
Christian was patient with me thus far, but there was no saying when he’d stop. When my excessive overthinking and my random questions would infuriate him, and he’d turn away from me. He might be acting like the old him and the old me somewhat might be resurfacing, but over it was a thick layer of anxiety and negative thoughts I’d spent years trying to get rid of.
Surprise, surprise.
It didn’t work.
Christian gave me a look that forced me to squish my legs together.
“Why do you think, baby?”
I swallowed hard. “You’re sticking with that nickname?”
“I’m sticking with whatever fits you. Sunshine, baby, love, mine, all of the cheesy nicknames in the world.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re my wife.”
“In name only,” I sighed. “Try your best to remember that.”
Christian stopped the car.
In the middle of a busy road.
“Christian,” I gritted out when a bunch of horns started honking at us.
He turned in his seat. “Let’s get one thing straight, Adelaide.”
With his forefinger and thumb, he turned my chin to face him. “You are my wife, and I am doing all of this to show you I love you. You don’t believe me, and I can see it on your face, but if you dig yourself into my heart right now, you’d feel how each rounded corner echoes your name. I’m tired of pretending this is nothing between us. Friends, not friends, whatever the fuck this is, it isn’t fake, and it isn’t generic. You are my wife, and I am your husband. I’ve been a dick and it’s taken me a long fucking time to realize it, but I want to love you, Adelaide. I want to love each overthinking thought you have and make it my own.”
I was going to erupt into a thousand different molten liquids and blind him, because his words were tantalising and hot.
For a year.
The voice interrupted through his confession. I could survive a year with his love, right?
His eyes searched my face. “Nod if you understand.”
I nodded.
“Good,” he turned back and started driving again.
From the side mirror, I noticed a huge line behind us, but he didn’t care.
He drove and drove like he didn’t stop New York traffic to stop my heart with the three most important words in the world.
Instead of focusing on the uncontrollable thump, I started checking out his car. Opening the dashboard, finding nothing but papers. Then I turned to the inner console.
Dumbstruck. Absolutely shocked.
He had pads.
A variety of them.
Maxi pads.
Winged pads.
Non-winged pads.
Small pads.
Diaper pads.
Holy crap. He got me diaper pads.
It would have been embarrassing if I didn’t find it endearing.
“You have to stop,” I closed the console.
“Stop what?” He took a quick peek at me and the console then back at the road.
“Doing things like this and making me feel all weird.”
He smiled. The ass.
“I got you a bunch of pads to make sure you’d always have them if needed and you’re getting mad ?”
“Yes,” I huffed. “Return them.”
“No.”
“Excuse me?” I blinked stupidly. “You didn’t just say no to me.”
“I did, what are you gonna do about it?”
Because I was a mature adult, I pinched his arm and fell back with a pout.
“Real adult-like, Adelaide.”
I jerked my head to the left. “What happened to baby ?”
He barely held in his laughter with tightened lips and shiny eyes.
“Is my girl upset now?”
His girl? Oh, I could get used to that.
Mhm, definitely. It was sweet and nice and…
I badly needed to have sex with Christian.
He acted like he wasn’t sweet but then he went and called me baby and got me pads and ugh. I was beginning to hate him again.
Why did he have to be like this?
No guy would live up to his expectations if this continued.
“Whatever,” I hmphed. “Where are we going?”
“Do you know what it’s like to be patient?”
“No. Tell me where.”
I had to imagine every worst-case scenario of the place we were going. In case there was a fire, or a dog ran loose, or someone’s cat got rabies and was spreading it across the mall.
My brain was a vigilant creature and it needed to eat. “Tell me,” I pushed.
“It’s a surprise,” he chuckled.
“If this is your way of seducing me, consider me seduced. Now tell me.”
He quieted down. A somber expression and a tick in his jaw.
Okay, I shouldn’t have said that. “I didn’t mean to?—”
“Let’s make another thing clear,” He thrummed along the steering wheel, flexing his fingers after each round. “If I was seducing you, my tongue would already be on your pussy, and you’d be a whimpering mess.”
My eyes widened with stunned silence.
Clearly, Christian knew exactly how to arouse a woman and he didn’t need to resort to foreplay.
I was sure there’d be a wet spot on the seat.
“Seems like you’ve thought about that,” I croaked.
“Fuck yeah, I have.” He turned the car into an empty parking lot. “Do you know how hard it is falling asleep with a hard dick every night?”
“I don’t think I need to know that.”
“You do,” he put the car in park and turned to me. “Because I know your pussy is wet every night and your fingers to get off.”
“It’s fucking ironic because right after I hear your muffled moans, I walk in after you and pump my dick to those moans.”
I would like to die now.
How did we go from harmless conversation to my core throbbing with heat?
Sure enough, his face reflected my own. He was just as turned on as me. Maybe even more than I was.
Lips parted.
Nostrils flared.
Jaw clenching.
He had all the signs of a man with a punishing hard on.
He muttered a low fuck before stepping out, slamming the door harder than he should’ve.
I sat there completely stumped.
Because there was no way he looked at me like he was about to kiss me and didn’t do it.
My door swung open, and Christian extended his hand to me.
“Date first,” he roughly pulled me out, forcing me to bump into his chest.
I shivered when he leaned down and his lips brushed against my ear. “We’ll save the rest for later.”
Oh lord have mercy on me.
Or don’t, I think I’ll be fine.
The parking lot led into a gated forest.
“If this is your way of making me disappear, I refuse.”
He didn’t say anything when he opened the gate for me and indicated to head in before him.
Sketchy, if you asked me.
There was an uphill walk with green trees surrounding us. Nothing like a hike, but I was out of breath all the same.
Sparkling lanterns floated in my stomach when we reached the top.
A circular grass field with trees blanketing around it and there were seven different coloured tents set up the round of it.
This was off to the start of an interesting first date.
A couple of workers walked out of the tents. Some waved at Christian, others tipped their heads in goodbye.
“It’s not done yet,” he started walking down the stone steps that led us to the field. “Taking you on a date today wasn’t planned.”
The sparkling sensation increased.
I’d never been an impulsive plan for anyone and oddly, it felt good.
“What is it?” I followed after him.
He looked back with a mischievous glint, “You’ll see.”
Giddy and intrigued with a skip to my step, I stayed behind him while he led us to the first tent.
He whipped around before I could take a peek inside and instinctively pulled me forward by the wrist. “ Before we go in,” he leaned his forehead down against mine. “I want to apologise for how I broke up with you.”
What?
That was sudden.
“You don’t have to?—”
“Back then,” there was urgency to his voice. “There was a reason?—”
I cupped his cheek to calm him down because I was here, in front of him—listening. But I didn’t need to hear about the past when I had him here with me.
“Our breakup was a pitstop for character development, Christian.” I rubbed a thumb back and forth on his stubbled cheek. “Sometimes we need distance from the ones we love to make sure we truly love them.”
His eyes glazed. “Are you saying you love me again?”
I bit back a smile. “Show me what you got up your sleeve and I’ll think about it.”
He kissed the space above my brows before letting go.
That’s when I noticed the small sign in front of the large tent.
Nineteen .
Walking to the sign, I looked back at Christian. “What is this?”
He rubbed his palms over his pants before releasing air. “Come on,” then he headed into the tent.
I’d never seen him this nervous since the day he took me to prom.
Christian was always awkward whenever we were together, but he wasn’t like that anymore. Although, this date had to be huge if he was a nervous wreck, right?
He waited for me with the curtain pulled aside—darkness enveloping the inside.
I blew out the hysterical lanterns floating in all directions at the peak of my gut and followed through.
After a total of five seconds, the lights turned on and in front of me was a full-blown mini carnival.
Smacked down in the middle was a working carousel and around it was games from ring toss to balloon darts.
“Happy nineteenth birthday, Adelaide.” Christian murmured.
“What is this?”
He didn’t seem the least bit shaken by my shock. Instead, bewildering himself into it—smiling at it.
“We’re celebrating your nineteenth birthday?”
“I’m not sure if you know this,” I claimed while my eyes ran over every object to make sure they weren’t deceiving themselves. “But you’re seven years too late.”
“That’s why I’m doing this,” he sobered. “To make up for lost time.”
Then why did you break up with me? I wanted to ask. We were together. We could have stayed together. He broke up with me because he wanted to date around. He wanted to meet new girls.
Then why all of this?
Christian wiped away a tear off my cheek with a kiss. The spot burned and ached and grovelled under his touch.
Instead of expressing all the thoughts in my head, “You obsessed with me or something?”
His eyes softened.“Undeniably.”
If I wasn’t already in love with Christian, this would have been the moment I fell.