“Let us talk about our sleep arrangements” she said and he nodded.
“Okay go on”
“Why are you asking me to go first?” Ophelia asked tilting her head.
“Because looking at your eyes you look like you have a lot to say at the moment,” he said sipping from his cup before adding “A lot”
“Yes, I do have a lot to say, but you might want to say one or two things,” She said. She did not want to seem self-centred and be the one always talking about herself and what she wanted without caring about him.
“I have no conditions no expectations so you can tell me and I will do my best to follow them after all we are in this relationship because I need it so badly” he answered and she nodded.
“You are not expecting us to have sexual relations are you?” she asked and he choked coughing loudly.
When she said sleeping arrangements she did not think he would be talking about sleeping together and now he wondered why he thought so narrow-minded about it.
“Is that a wrong question?” she asked turning her head to the side, “I think it is a very important matter we failed to address before we went ahead to plan a wedding” she added.
The room fell silent and the silence was weird because it drifted from being serious to being playful and then being awkward. Cade cleared his throat wishing to escape the silence he felt. The amount of emotions he had been feeling in the past few weeks were ones he was not quite familiar with.
“I will be honest with you, I have never thought about having children and the reason is that I don’t plan to stay married for long, I do not plan to birth children and throw them into a sea of confusion so I am believing that we won’t have sex” she explained.
“But we are married” Cade found himself saying before any of his thoughts could be processed.
Maybe, he had been believing to get a bit of the fun now that he was married. He had stayed celibate since his last encounter with Tori and maybe he missed it because he was looking forward to it.
“It would not be the first time a married couple goes without…” she trailed off. She was the one who brought about the topic but why was she the one that felt weirded out about it?
“Are we that couple?” he asked.
She looked at him with her eyes wide and her mouth ajar in shock. “We are married because of a contract not because we are trying to get into each other’s pants” she replied.
“Oh well, according to the books you have asked me to read” he began and she knew for sure what he was going to be referencing at that very moment. “Whenever they get married because of a contract or arranged marriage the people still somehow manage to sleep together because they end up having kids” he added before trailing his eyes on everything around them except for her.
“Those are books, fictional, not real” she said crossing her hands in the air.
“But you girls want me to act like them but you girls can’t act like them?” he asked and that struck her because he was right.
She had always fantasised about having a sweet partner who was like a movie or book character. She wanted him to be a perfect gentleman, opening the doors for her, getting her favourite food late at night, renting out an entire park so she could go on rides without having to wait in queues, buying a store just so she could get a limited edition of whatever she wanted.
She was wealthy enough to get these things done for herself but somehow the sound of someone doing it for her sounded better to her. She was big on romance so everyone around her wondered why she hated marriage so much that she never wanted to do it. After seeing what marriage did to her parents she vowed never to do it, but seeing that was no way for her to escape she broke her vow to herself and gave in to avoid unnecessary drama. Her parent had made her believe in love and then gone ahead to trample on it so badly she could not believe she still thought of it as an option.
“I never said you should act like them” Ophelia jumped to defend. Doing those things would create a soft spot for him in her heart and she knew it. The last thing she wanted to do was to create a soft spot for him.
“But you asked me to read those books to know what they are like” he said pressing his lips together.
“When we are out together we want to make people believe that we are in love, you do not need to do those things when we are at home, no need to help me take off my shoes, no need to cook or make my coffee. Let us just live”
“Like strangers?” he asked. She thought about the probability of him being a witch. He completed her statement saying the unsaid words just as she wanted to as well. She gulped and nodded.
“Understood” he said hitting his thigh lightly before standing and turning on his heels. He went into the kitchen and rinsed off his cup before walking towards the stairs he stopped at the base before calling out to her.
“Ophelia?”
She hurriedly followed the sound of his voice and went to stand before him. “Where is my room?” he asked.
“Are you angry?” she asked sensing he was pissed by the conversation they had just had.
“Of course not, why would I be angry? I have understood all you have said and not said” he replied.
“But you stood up midway through our conversation”
“I already know what you are going to say why do we need to have a conversation? You are going to tell us to act like strangers at home, each man to his own business and I am cool with it as long as that is what you want, I don’t have much of an option anyway”
“You are mad” she said nodding and walking to him so she could close the gap left between them.
“I am not,” he said dismissively. “Why would I be? I am just exhausted and need to go to bed. It has been a long day”
“Okay then, go upstairs and turn left, second door on your right,” she said taking a step back. He turned without a word and stepped onto the stairs walking away.
“Good night” she called and was met by the deafening silence of him going away.