“Why did I not think about helping him?” Ophelia asked as she got to her room door. She decided to drop off the bag in the room and then get back to the kitchen to help him. She might not be able to tell him that she liked him or be in a relationship with him, but at least they could act like a couple for the public, and they could be friends too.
“Let me help you, sir,” she heard a voice come from the kitchen, and it was unfamiliar to her. She wondered who it was.
“There is no need for that.” Cade’s voice was firm and off-putting.
“But sir, you are doing our work as staff, and we feel bad because since we got here we barely have any work to do,” the girl said. Ophelia wanted to burst into the room and make the flirting girl uncomfortable, but she was also curious as to how Cade was going to handle the situation.
“And shouldn’t you be happy about it?” Cade asked. It made sense that a person would feel okay with receiving pay without working, so why was she complaining? Did she need them to create work for the staff so she was satisfied?
“Well, it is just that it is weird.” The girl’s voice was turning nasal and Ophelai was getting pressed by it. She wondered why she was still so patient to see how this would go.
She was torn with how she wanted this to go. On one hand, if Cade gave in to the advances of this girl and began to flirt with her, she wondered if that would throw him off her radar and the little attraction she had to him would be lost. She wondered if she heard him flirting with the house staff would make her less interested in him. On the other hand, she knew that she would be angry that he was easily attracted to any woman. She would feel hurt by the fact and her mood would swing.
“This is tough,” she mouthed to herself, closing her eyes and listening in to the conversation. Both parties were talking freely because they did not expect that she would be standing outside the closed door listening to them. She wondered why the kitchen door was closed. She had never seen it close since she started living there.
“What is weird?” Ophelia could hear Cade’s voice travel through the kitchen, which meant he was not just standing in a place having this conversation with her but was working to make the meal for her. That touched her as well. ‘Why do these little things appeal to me?’ she asked herself as she massaged the base of her temple gently.
“You and Mrs Vale…” she trailed off and then spoke in a higher pitch. “I guess we were asked not to call her Mrs. Vale but Ms. Frost,” the girl added. One could hear her judgement from a mile away, and surprisingly, Ophelia was sure that she was being judged by this girl who knew nothing about her.
“And what are you trying to say?” Cade asked. It seemed like he had been too lenient with the girl for her to be so free that she was about to crush Ophelia in front of him. He cleared his throat and cased a questioning look her way.
“Well,” she said, shifting from leg to leg uncomfortably. She had thought that since the relationship between the two parties was soured, she might have been able to get through to Cade.
“Well?”
“I mean, it just seemed like you were the best couple, but it is not all it seems.”
“And what does this have to do with you?’ Cade asked.
She cleared her throat and walked to him, putting her hand on his chest. “I was just worried for you.”
“Get your hands off me this instant. Or else you want to lose this job,” Cade said bitterly. Ophelia did not know that words like that could sound as sexy and reassuring as they did at the same time. She smiled to herself and took a step forward, opening the door and walking in.
The girl jumped back on seeing Ophelia because she had not expected her to walk in then. “Hello, Ms. Frost!” the girl practically screamed.
“Ms Frost?” Ophelia asked, taking one of the high stools. “Why would you call me that?” The girl turned to her confused; she had been the one who told them to address her like that. “Cade, don’t you think that is strange?” she asked, and he nodded his head with his back turned to her.
“It is very strange why would you address me like a young single woman when I am married?” she said, and the girl opened her mouth to defend herself. “From now on, you all should address me as Mrs Vale and I do hope that you will spread the word.”
Cade felt a smile creep up his face as he heard Ophelua address herself as Mrs. Vale. “You are dismissed now.”
“But the meal, I can help with preparation.”
“Is it such a wrong thing for a husband to want to cook for his wife?” Ophelia knew that they could not act cute since they hadn’t been acting that way in front of the staff before, so the only thing she could do was use sentences like this.
“No, Ms.,” she trailed off, realizing her mistake. “No, Mrs. Vale,” she said, correcting herself.
“Then that is good; you are dismissed.”
“Why did you do that?” Cade asked his back still to her. “Did you overhear our conversation?”
“What conversation?” she lied. How could she let him know that that was her way of wadding off the girl from trying to flirt with him? She would tell the rest of the staff, and they would begin to walk on eggshells. It would be better for her to go thinking about a staff being interested in her husband.
“Never mind then.”