“Halle, I’d like noodles for dinner tonight.” It turned out he came to pick her up to cook noodles for him in their house rather than taking her out for dinner. “You promised me on the phone just now.”
She nodded and felt the softness inside at the thought of Natalie and her mother Agnes, “We are not having noodles tonight. Let’s go buy some food. I’ll do the cooking, all right?”
“Okay! We also need to buy something for our house,” he said and then drove towards a supermarket nearby.
Halle pushed the shopping cart selecting toothbrushes and tooth mugs while he followed after her like her pet. She loved this cartoon tooth mug and put it in the shopping mug. When she was about to get the cheap toothbrush she just found, she was stopped by Ronan, “Don’t take this one. Take that one.” It was a couple set holding two cute toothbrushes with the image of a cute kitten on the handles.
“I’ll just take this one instead.” She preferred the cheaper one. She was accustomed to it. Otherwise, she would feel it was a waste of money.
“Nope! It would look nice with these.” It was bossy of him to decide the couple set for her and replace the tooth mug that she had selected. But when she saw the things he picked in the shopping cart, she felt they were so cute.
And the slippers which looked comfortable were also in couple sets. She was about to say something when he whispered in her ear, “Hey, you don’t need to save money for me.”
All right. Forget about saving money. Then she picked the expensive ones for stuff like fruits and fish. Soon the shopping cart was filled with various bags of food. She was almost done with the shopping so she whispered to him, “Ronan, wait for me at the checkout.”
“Huh? Where are you going?”
“I… I need to buy something else.” She just remembered her menstruation was around the corner. She should buy some tampons since she was at the supermarket but she was kind of embarrassed with him around.
There were too many options on the shelf. It took her quite some time before she picked the right one. She was worried that he might get impatient waiting for her so she walked quickly to the checkout. When she went across the shelves of fresh meat and vegetables, she saw him take out his phone to answer while looking around. Was he looking for her?
But it didn’t look like he was looking for her as he wasn’t calling her.
Just when she was hesitated, she saw him smile and wave to a lady who came up to him. He let go of the shopping cart in which there were things he and she had just selected together. He paid the bill for the lady and they had quite a chat together before the lady left happily.
Looking at the leaving lady, she felt kind of upset. Maybe that was how her life was gonna be. He had told her that both he and she would have their private space. He told her that because he had got so many women.
There were already three women as far as she knew. Among the three were the one she just saw, the one she encountered at the stairwell and Violet who was the only one she remembered the name. She remembered the night she left last time when he left his phone in Violet’s house. But he told her that he had been busy with his grandpa so he had no time for her. Well, she didn’t need his accompany either as she was accustomed to being all by herself.
Halle didn’t go out until the lady disappeared at the corner. “All right, Ronan. Let’s go.” She pushed the shopping cart which had been left by him on the side. Maybe he bought those things because he was afraid his grandpa might come to check on him and found that they were not actually real couple.
After paying the bill, they left the supermarket. She grabbed the bags ahead of him because she was awkward when he saw the tampons she bought. After all, they had just known each other for a few days. It was natural to feel distant.
They only ordered takeaways when her leg was injured. So this was the first time she cooked with him in the house.
“Would you like me to help you?” He asked in a low voice seeing her carrying all the stuff into the kitchen.
“It’s ok! I’ll do the cooking today. You can just watch TV or surf on the internet.”
He had got everything in his study upstairs. This was his house. The last thing he needed was her arrangement.
“Huh, you look quite like a responsible wife now.”
She smiled at him awkwardly, “Well, since I have signed the deal, I need to take my responsibility.”
He pinched her face and left her alone in the kitchen busy with the cooking.
She was fully occupied in the kitchen. She had learned to cook when she was still a teenager. When Agnes worked as a domestic helper, she had taken Halle with her. So she learned to do the housework seeing her mother doing it. At that time, she had thought of working as a domestic helper to help ease her parents’ financial burden. She didn’t expect to come in handy now.
She washed and chopped while the stove was on stewing food. Suddenly the phone rang in the living room. It kept ringing so she thought she should remind him of it, “Ronan, your phone is ringing.” She got no response so she wiped her hands and rushed out of the kitchen to pick up the phone on the tea table. He was not in his room so she went upstairs. When she was about to open the door of the study, the phone stopped ringing and she heard his voice coming from the unlocked study. She felt it was inappropriate to hear so she turned around. That was when she heard him saying, “I’m still working. I need to work overtime today. I’m very busy. What? You are coming over? All right. But come around midnight. I don’t want to be disturbed at work before midnight. Okay! Remember to bring that thing. I don’t have any here. Don’t come if you don’t bring it.”
She couldn’t bear to hear more of his talking so she ran downstairs and placed the phone where it was pretending she had never heard the phone ring.
What was the bullshit of working overtime! How come he lied about working overtime while he was staying at home. Never mind. It was none of her business.
She got the dinner ready quick and neat and placed the food on the dining table as a payback to him for what he had done for her today. She had suddenly owed him a big favor what he had done for her regarding the incidents of the Hills and Natalie. She wouldn’t be able to pay him the money with her salary in a few years. Regarding his mistresses, she could just turn a blind eye to them. She couldn’t blame anyone on it as it was her own choice. But she was really unhappy to find out that he would let his mistresses come here.
She ran upstairs again and opened the door of the study cautiously to find him sitting in front of the computer checking a document. He was so concentrated that he didn’t even notice her coming in. She covered his eyes with her hands and asked in a rough voice, “Guess who I am?”
“Is it Timber Wolf?”
“Nope.”
“Is it Little Red Riding Hood?”
“Nope.”
She thought he would pay no attention to her. Instead, he placed this childish game with her. She knew it was childish but she just couldn’t help covering his eyes when standing behind him.