“You were enjoying the attention, weren’t you?” Ophelia asked. She did not want to make it a big deal, but she could not help herself; she had to know if he was enjoying the attention that came with talking to a girl who was throwing herself at him.
“What?”
“I mean, it must have been so long since a girl wanted you,” she continued, coming down from the stools and turning her back to him so she could fiddle with the tangerines in the bowl in front of her.
“What the hell are you saying?” he asked, walking to her. She heard his steps get louder as they approached her, and she turned to him with a smile on her face.
“I mean, just think about it: since you got married to me and people think we are happily married, you have barely had women throw themselves at you, and I have not had men approach me either. We are both beautifully stunning people, so it must be difficult for them to keep to themselves.”
“And?” he said when she stopped. He was just a few feet away from her. His heart did a weird flip; it was like he was glad to hear that the flirting had bothered her even though he did not enjoy it. Somehow he did not want to hurt her by doing that with someone else.
“And we must have missed it; I mean, it has been a huge part of our lives for so long, and now suddenly we don’t get it anymore. I am just saying that you must have felt nice being at the receiving end,” she said, her hands going round and round so many times. She knew that she was rambling and she needed to stop immediately. She pressed her lips together and dropped her hands gently to her side.
“You know what? Never mind. That was just my thoughts making their way out of my head,” she said, chuckling nervously as she wringled her hands together.
“But if you are thinking about it, does that mean that…”
“It does not mean anything; we can think; we can definitely think about anything; there is nothing much to it at all,” she said in a high tone as she tried to stop him from trying to paint a picture out of the situation.
“Well, just so you know, I did not enjoy it; it was weird, maybe because I have not been in that situation for such a long time, but it was not fun at all,” he said, walking back to the stove. He stopped mid-way and turned to her. “Not fun,” he added.
“You do not have to say it more than once,” she murmured to herself. Hearing him assure her like that made her stomach feel fuzzy. It was sure nice to hear that he was not feeling good about having a random girl flirt with him. “So what are you making?” she asked, feeling a bit more comfortable as she placed herself back on the stool.
“Mac and Cheese,” he said, turning to cut up the vegetables before adding, “With a twist.”
“Well, do you need my help?” she asked. It felt weird for her to sit there and just watch him do all the work.
“I am fine; I got this, and I will be done in a short time. You can just sit there and… rest,” he said, straightening his back and looking down at the chopping board.
“Well, if that is the case, I would go get my phone; maybe we can take a picture together in the kitchen and I can post it,” she said as she got down from the stool again and began walking to the door.
“Well, if that is what you want to do, then no problem.” He had no issues with being in the spotlight; he should be used to it by now, shouldn’t he?
Ophelia walked to her room where she had left her phone, She wondered why she left it but she was grateful she did because now she used it as an excuse to get out of there and calm her ragging nerves. She sat at the edge of her bed as she stared at the wall in front of her.
“Why is my heart beating so fast?” she murmured to herself as she raised her hand slowly to her chest and began patting down her beating heart. “Why does cutting vegetables look hot?” she asked herself. She slid across her phone and opened up a web browser. She searched for videos of chefs cutting up vegetables and began to watch them.
“Has it always been hot?” She asked, tilting her head. “I mean, there is something attractive about the hands gliding up and down the cutting board, but isn’t this a bit too much?” she added as she stared at the video.
“Get it together,” she said, standing up and turning off the video. “You are just bored, and it would be crazy if you did not think he was hot; of course he is. He had always been this way, so this is completely normal. The issue would be if you decide to fall in love with him,” she added before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath to steady herself before she stormed out of the room.
She got back to the kitchen and met him still cooking. “I will take random images and just upload the ones that look good,” she said as she sat down behind him. His back was to her, but it seemed as if he was flexing his muscles for the camera because of the way his back moved. “You can relax,” she said.
“I am relaxed,” he said, and she nodded.
“It just looks like you are tense from the lens of my camera.” She dropped the phone on the table and walked to him. “Here,” she said, touching his shoulder blades. She took her hand almost immediately, like she was burnt with fire. She turned and walked back to her seat and spoke in a low tone.
“Just relax”