“Grab a beer.” I said.
“Er Jude I don’t drink remember?”
I nearly spat my beer out! Who does not drink beer? Ok seriously? Is she for real? However she grabbed a soda can and sat down with us.
“So Natasha, what do you do?” asked Gary. Oh this is interesting I thought. She could hardly say I take money to be someone’s pretend wife!
“Well, I have a degree in life sciences.” I stared at her. Wow and I was only just finding out. What an idiot I am! She continued, “I wanted to be a surgeon but couldn’t afford the tuition so I did the next best thing and graduated in medical microbiology! I wanted to study further but then decided to work a little so I could support myself. So, I was a waitress at a cafe. Right now, I spend so much time with Jude I have time for nothing else.”
I smirked, oh she was good.
Meanwhile Gary nodded appreciatively. The evening went by quickly a few other friends of ours had joined us. Natasha had even called her best friend Joanna who kept looking at me suspiciously all night. I don’t think that she believed the whole story at all. It was really late when they all left. Natasha had managed to charm everyone. Steve a notorious flirt kept hitting on her all evening but she had the situation in control. I swear if I had to hear Steve say one more time why he hadn’t met Natasha before me I would’ve punched him. Soon everyone left except for Joanna who kept giving me suspicious glances as she whispered with Natasha.
“I’ll be watching you. You had better not hurt her!” She said only half-jokingly but her black eyes were serious as she left.
To tell you the truth she did scare me a little and I had no intention of getting on her bad side. She hugged Natasha before leaving. I shut the door and went inside to see Natasha cleaning up. I sighed and pitched in. I was a brat and had never had to do anything for myself ever since I was a child. So naturally I just make the mess and someone else always cleaned up. I looked at Natasha as she got a garbage bag and started filling the trash in it. I collected the beer bottles and put them in the trash can. I went and crashed on my huge bed.
Oh it felt good to finally be able to lie down. I almost fell asleep when I heard a knock. I opened my eyes and saw Natasha standing in the doorway.
“Um I don’t have any night clothes to wear.” She said.
I got off my bed and went to my drawer and gave her my largest T and my boxers. She looked at them doubtfully but went and changed anyway. It was cold I turned the heater on. She entered the room and just stood there.
“What? Come on and sleep here.” I said.
“Wh-what? Wait a minute we are going to sleep on the same bed?” She asked.
“Yes and don’t worry I am not a big bad wolf I won’t eat you up.” I said with a wolfish grin.
She still didn’t make a move.
“Oh come on get used to it. You do realize once we get married we have to sleep in the same bed?”
“Ok but you make a move to kiss me again or even touch me the deal is off” she said giving me a fierce look.
“Whatever” I said yawning.
She marched up to the bed and pulled all my cushions and made a sort of a cushion wall between us. She was such a kid sometimes. I pulled the blanket over us and turned my face away. Well and then my mind wandered. It was cold. It felt weird sleeping in my bed this way with so many cushions. I slowly glanced towards Natasha and got a fright of my life. She was looking at me with her eyes wide open. I thought she must’ve slept but nope. She was keeping an eye on me. Honestly! She made me feel like a molester. I turned around again and tried falling asleep.
Natasha’s POV
I smirked as Jude turned away. He already stole two kisses from me there was no way he was getting anymore. I lay there trying to get some sleep. I reflected over the day and thought about Joey. She was suspicious and I hated lying to her but I also know she would be the first to protest and wouldn’t let me do what I was doing. I tried adjusting to this new bed and after a while I fell asleep….. I woke up next morning to an awful noise when I realized it was a metal song. It was Jude’s ringtone. I felt a weight on my waist and suddenly I found it very difficult to breathe. I looked down and yelled. Jude had his arm around my waist and his head was on my chest. And my top two buttons had come undone. Jude woke up with a start and fell off the bed.
“What? What happened?” He asked trying to rub sleep from his eyes. I threw a pillow square at his face.
“Ow”
“I asked you to stay on your side.” I yelled and stomped out of the room.
I went into the washroom and realized I didn’t even have a tooth brush. I used my finger as a brush and rinsed my mouth. I freshened up quickly and went outside to get my clothes. Just then the doorbell rang and Jude hurried to answer the door. He gave me an apologetic look while I looked daggers at him. A woman stepped in. She had a kind face and hadn’t seen me yet. She entered and stopped in shock.
“Mr. Jude your place is clean!”
Jude looked around sheepishly and said “well Mrs. Bower it’s all thanks to Natasha.” He said pointing at me.
She looked at me from top to bottom and I realized that I was still in Jude’s clothes and the top buttons had come undone. I turned red and my cheeks were flaming with embarrassment.
Mrs. Bower gave me a huge smile and said, “well Mr. Jude I am so glad that you have finally started dating responsible, sensible girls!”
“Well I have done one better Mrs. Bower, I have asked her to marry me!”
Mrs. Bower stared at me absolutely speechless. Then she came forward and hugged me.
“Oh congratulations miss! You have reigned him in.”
Jude looked at us annoyed. When she finally moved back her eyes glistened with tears. I felt guilt rising in my stomach and I turned away before I threw up. I hated lying to this kind woman.
She got about picking up the laundry basket and taking the clothes that had to be washed. She then went about making breakfast. I went to search for my clothes. I found them in Jude’s room. He entered the room and saw me holding my old purple T.
“Why are you wearing that?” He asked.
“Because I don’t have to put up a show for anyone today!” I replied snarkily.
He gave me a funny look then said, “you do actually. You need to put on a show for the next one year. You are going to be my wife and there is no way you are going to be seen in those.”
Ok. I wanted to hit him, I really did. Like pick up my sneaker and throw it at his head. But I couldn’t get that satisfaction. He would fire me of course. God it was so annoying! He was the boss of me! I just rolled my eyes at him and saw that he was staring at my legs. The pervert! I walked out of the room to quickly change into my jeans and a casual pink T. Once I got out of the washroom I could smell the fried sausages and a cheese omlette. Right on cue my stomach growled loudly. Mrs. Bower looked up as I entered the kitchen and gave me a warm smile.
“Come dear. The breakfast is ready,” she said. I sat down and started eating not bothering to wait for Jude.
By the time Jude was out of the bathroom I had finished my breakfast and got up to help Mrs. Bowers with the dishes. She looked at me in surprise.
“Thank you for your help miss. But really you have done almost half my work for me,” she said.
As I protested Jude interrupted me saying, ” drop it babe. Let Mrs. Bower do her job.”
I looked at him shocked, how could he say so in front of her! He was truly a brat! I just went in the living room and switched on the TV. There was nothing to do at all and I was getting terribly bored. I switched my cell phone on. There were around 10 messages and all were from Joey. All the messages were similar. First one read ‘er are you sure he is the one?’ The second was ‘he is a brat!’ And so on and so forth. The last one was ‘if you are happy, I am happy. I don’t trust him though!’
I started giggling to myself and called her up. I frowned as she didn’t answer. Maybe she was still asleep. After all it was a Sunday. After sometime Jude collapsed next to me on the sofa and I ignored him.
” Look Natasha” he said, “look I didn’t mean to hold you or anything. It all happened while we were asleep. I wasn’t trying to cross the line or anything.”
I sighed as I turned to look at him. “Its ok. I guess I over reacted a bit.”
He smiled a little and said “peace?” I smiled back and said “peace.”
I turned back to surfing the TV channels and finally settled on discovery. There was a segment about shark attacks. They were showing how a shark mauled a man who was surfing carefree. I felt Jude shudder next to me. I looked at him quizzically and he shrugged and said, ” A friend of mine was attacked by a shark once.”
I looked at him and as I was about to open my mouth to console him, he said
“ok ok. After Jaws I have been scared of the water. The bloody movie has me so scared that I don’t even like to swim in the deep end of the pool where I can’t see below the surface!”
I tried, I really did try not to laugh at his outburst, I didn’t want to honestly because we were having a moment here! But I failed miserably and collapsed laughing. I had tears rolling down my face and he glared at me. Finally, when I gained control of myself I spoke up.
” I’m sorry. I don’t even know how to swim and I am laughing at you. But I just never had the opportunity to learn.”
And not because I am scared that sharks will grab me, I added to myself. I checked my watch and was surprised to see it was past noon already! I turned to him and saw that he was totally engrossed in watching the shark documentary.
“So Jude” I started, he didn’t even look at me and replied, “yes?”
“I was wondering what are the plans for today?” He switched off the T. V. and turned to me. “Well I was thinking how about we get to know each other better?” he replied with a mischievous glint in his blue eyes.