GERALD
The room fell into a taunting silence, and her heavy gaze fell upon me. The woman I’d just called a Queen, backlit by the spotlight and clad in an exceptionally breathtaking black dress that I’d never thought I’d be blessed with seeing.
At that moment, I couldn’t tell apart pretense from reality. If I had said all those to swerve the deduction of the crowd or if I really meant it. My heart gave chase, trying to tear itself out of its initial position as I approached the bug-eyed woman who was too shocked to keep her mouth closed. Rosaline’s lips fell agape, and her brown eyes, reflecting the fluorescent light, widened in awe as I approached her.
The crowd, affirming my expectations, erupted in rather loud murmurs. Several gossips flew past my ears, but I had my eyes on one person. Rosaline. The spotlight immediately doubled, helping me find my way to her, and helping others burning me with my gazes.
I couldn’t rub the smile off my face or how humourous it was to see her so shocked. The fear that engulfed her when I walked in had faded. Although it was replaced by astonishment, we both agreed that was a far better option. I reached, stepping into her limelight while watching the edges of her thin red lips quiver.
My hands twitched as I was overwhelmed with the urge to rub my finger down her lower lip and taste the gloss on them. It would probably burst with flavors, matching the colors that seemed to burst in my insides. There was something overwhelming about Rosaline being the only one that I could see.
The room was no different from a blurry blob, and their noises were muffled. My anxiety contorted into relief, and my mouth gave up restraint, tugging at its ends into a smile that hurt the insides of my cheeks.
Rosaline didn’t seem to share my sentiment. I mean, she couldn’t. No one could ever see the way they appear from the eyes of others. For me, I stood before a goddess, or was this five, six shots of whiskey talking before I hurried down here?
Let me do a quick recap. Work was amazing until Smith pulled in with an invitation he’d been singing in my ears for the past month. The Birthday of Jonathan Wade, of course. Hadn’t Jonathan had two previous birthdays this year? It was merely a sham supported by his parents.
I declined the invite as I’d always done until he barged in two hours later with photos from the red carpet sessions on his cellphone. Viola, an image of Rosaline, my wife, and a man in jumpy suits. The picture did a number on me. Although I was able to retain my unfazed expression, I was thrown into deep turmoil for hours, wondering who he was or the reason she’d come here.
The thought of coming occurred to me, but I pressed it down with a shot each time I thought about it. On the seventh shot, I gave up, and here I was, standing before a baffled young lady, and I had to keep up the act like I wasn’t here out of mere jealousy. I had no reason to be jealous in the first place.
“Are you still going to deny the stalker accusations after this, Gerald?” Rosaline asked, closing our already thinned distance, and vibration skittered up my thighs. Up. “How did you even find me here?”
“It’s nice to see you too, wife!” I didn’t hesitate. I wrapped my hand around her and tugged her close till her body slammed into mine, and my unsettled arms settled on her lower back and her hip. Her arms reflectively settled on my chest, and she pulled away immediately, realizing it.
“Stay still and smile for the camera,” I pulled her close again. Feeling her small body against mine made my blood boil hotter than it ever had. It made me wonder how better, how much more warm it’d feel if just one fabric from either of us was absent. Would these… butterflies I felt go on a wilder rampage if I could push against her a bit more?
Rosaline yelped, biting into the words and scrunching her nose as she asked. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?”
“Saving my reputation,” I responded, knowing that it ran more profound than that. “Did you think coming to a place like this with a man while you’re married helps anything? The internet is blowing up. Keep your smile intact. I want those cameras to capture pictures of us having a lovely dovey moment, wife…”
Wearing the fakest smile I’d ever seen, Rosaline stroked my collar, and her finger came in slight contact with my bare skin, right below my nape. “Do you think I knew I was coming to a place like this!? Why can’t I get away from you?”
“Maybe you should have run faster. Everyone is so shocked, so let’s keep this beautiful love of ours, then get the hell out of here.”
Rosaline was about to respond when the mic went off again. Jonathan’s voice. Great. I had forgotten he even existed.
“People! The vibe is complete!” He announced in a cheerful tone. “I’m not even going to lie. This is coming as a shock to me because that man in the spotlight, our ice king Gerald Thorne, has always declined all of my invitations; seeing him here today means it’s gonna be a great year! Let’s welcome our IT couple to the stage! We’re going to be doing some fun questions today!”
Did he always have to talk that way? “The stage?” I stuttered. “Why? What’s going on?”
“Great, now you made things worse. I thought you at least knew what you signed up for, Romeo,” Rosaline said in a small voice. Maybe she wasn’t wrong.
I rolled my eyes, grabbing her hand. “Follow my lead.”
She nudged my side as if to snap me back to reality. “We can just say no, you know that, right? I would have said no.”
“I’d handle this, just do as I say, and we’d be fine.” I tightened my grip around her wrist a little, just enough so she couldn’t pull away from me. As we approached the stage and the widely grinning celebrant, my heart thumped in my chest a beat more.
Trust me, I’d been in the limelight before but never with a woman who was my wife. I couldn’t say my life hadn’t been quite dramatic since Rosaline walked into it. Oh, goodness. They gave way for us as I helped Rosaline climb over the steps, immediately following and suddenly dreading everything, including the innocent stairs that did nothing to me.
Like clockwork, we were both handed microphones, and Rosaline threw me a questioning look, to which I immediately responded with a curt nod. I told her I’d handle this.
“So! We have the power couple here with us,” Jonathan’s voice cracked through my smiley facade, pulling my face back into the regular stoic expression that everyone already expected. “No one would have thought we’d have you here, Gerald. Thanks for gracing us with your presence!”
Maybe if he said it two million more times, I’d have a different response. Or maybe not. I cleared my throat, bringing the microphone closer to my mouth, and my eyes momentarily met with Rosaline’s. “My beautiful wife is the reason I’m here in the first place. I had a bit of a hold back, so we couldn’t come at the same time.”
Rosaline scoffed, eyeing me, while Jonathan gasped, pressing his hand to his lips. “Oh my god! This is the nicest thing I’ve ever heard from you, Gerald!”
“Yeah…”
He continued. “To think some of us here were mistaken! I thought there was something going on, you know, perhaps a scandal involving my friend Harry…” Jonathan paused and looked into the crowd. “Harry, are you here?” But there was no response.
Harry must have been the guy Rosaline came with. I clenched my jaw, reliving the photograph. I had a lot of questions to ask her about him. He must have left.
“Harry is just a dear friend of mine, as you can see. And he must have left earlier,” Rosaline declared. “My husband remains the one and only love of my life. I would trade anything to be with him every single minute I spend on earth.”
Oh. She said it so exaggeratingly that I could see how difficult it was for those words to roll off her tongue. She continued. “If that’d be all, we’d like to take our leave now.”
“Aaawww!” – unpleasant murmurings from the trouble-feeding guests. How could people love gossip so much?
Rosaline stepped closer, placing her hands on either side of my shoulders. In a surly tone, she said, inching the tone of her voice a bit higher. “I have unfinished business with my husband, and he’s not a very patient man… especially when it comes to our beautiful time together…”
Then she winked at me, and my resolve turned into water. Rosaline was clearly better at pretense than I ever could be. I gulped hard, unable to tear my gaze away from her.
“One last question!” Jonathan chimed, making a pouty face that I so much wanted to knock off him.
“Go ahead.”
I knew there was trouble the moment his whole body turned to me. Jonathan grinned as he eyed me. “This might sound a bit too personal…”
“Then don’t ask,” Rosaline grumbled, but I was quick to grab her hand to stop her, calm her, or maybe I just needed an excuse to touch her. We were already putting on such a good show.
“Please, go on,” I said with a half-hearted smile. For some reason, this was becoming more of an interview than his birthday.
“This is a fiery question, and I know that I’m not the only curious one.” He smacked his absurdly shiny lips. “So, according to rumors. Julie was the sister who initially caught your interest in the Rivera family. God bless her soul. Which of the sisters would you say was the better sexual partner?”
This lad really was the devil’s mascot. I guffawed dryly. Rosaline’s hand twitched against mine, and I watched her face fall, that fear that once was reigniting and clouding all of her expression, shaping her and making her demeanor out to be smaller, contrary to who she really was.
How do I answer such a tricky question when I haven’t had anything to do with either of them sexually?
In the fit of annoyance, confusion, curiosity, and every other emotion that aided terrible decisions. “For the question,” I muttered under my breath as I reeled her in and lowered my lips to hers, kissing her.
Our lips crashed, and I burned. I couldn’t control the way my hand wrapped around her and settled on her waist, and I pulled her closer; the space between us exploded. There were flashes of light from the camera, bestowing upon us like lightning, but none matched the electricity that we created.
That her touch created, and I tried not to explode with the want to touch her disrespectfully. In a way that’d make her wrap her legs around my waist, and that seemed to be the only thought taking over my mind.
My eyes fluttered shut, and I savored her, tasted her with every brush of her lips against mine. I realized I had been starving. Maybe it lasted a minute. Perhaps it will last an hour; I didn’t care. I just knew that I was hungry for more. I pushed tighter against her, almost lifting her up in the process. Decency was slipping out of my grip and fast. The cheering cloud, clicking cameras, everything had completely blurred out.
Her warm, petite body against mine woke up everything, and blood rushed to my head. Gently, she moved her hands to my nape, her fingers caressing my neck softly enough to send sparkles through me. She was in it, too, just as much as I was. Her lips had parted open, allowing me the pleasure of taking her, tongue-to-tongue as we both spoke a language that neither of us understood.
We should stop now. I should stop now. But I couldn’t seem to until Rosaline pulled away, her face a light shade of pink.
I released a shuddered gasp, still having my hands wrapped around her. I tilted my head in Jonathan’s direction. “Does that answer your question? I suppose you can let us go now.”