Fresh

Five

Becky slipped inside the house cautiously avoiding making a sound. It was only eight in the evening but she wasn’t sure if Antonio was around and probably sleeping. It had been a long day tending to work and then the urgent case that had called her to the hospital. Elena was now stable, the doctors had assured her but still needed a lot of care before she could go home. Becky’s heart ached with guilt that a friend rather than her was by Elena’s bedside round the clock. Her stomach growled reminding her that she hadn’t eaten a thing since afternoon. As she stepped towards the kitchen, the foyerwas flooded with lights, Antonio sitting in a chair looking at her intently.

“You didn’t answer or return my calls,” he said.

Becky was aware of that, but fatigue her irritation with him had made her ignore him.

“I was busy in the office.” She wasn’t up for a fight with him.

“Your secretary said you were out with friends,” he insisted.

“Antonio, I don’t know what you want to prove but I am not ready for your questions,” she snapped, disappearing into the kitchen. Antonio followed fast on her heels, and grabbed her arm before she could get a drink.

“You are my wife, and I will expect some honesty from you. I’m not unaware of your distate for our marriage, but we need to make it work,” he growled.

Becky’s eyes flared with anger. “Are you accusing me of having a lover? If anything I should be pointing a finger at you.”

Antonio smirked. “I’m not. And I don’t have secrets to hide.”

Antonio stepped closer to her, but she stepped back until her back was against the fridge. Slowly, a smile crept along his face as he brought his hands along her face. She flinched but didn’t move away.

“If you agreee to work with me, we can have a perfect arrangement that suits both our interests.” He trailed a line with his finger down her face, stopping just in the soft swell of her breast.

“We can have all the things we had together when we were in highschool,” his hands gently brushed down her arms, sending shivers down her spine.

Becky’s breath hitched. “Antonio, what are you doing?” she gasped.

“Reminding your body how much it misses mine.”

Becky flung aside her bag, and grabbed Antonio’s face, pressing her lips against his. He sucked, licked and pulled at her, thrusting his tongue to meet hers. His hands eagerly roamed her shoulders, coming down to remove her jacket and then the buttons on her shirt. Antonio stood back to gaze with admiration at her body.

“I can’t imagine how you have managed to hide this beauty for so long,” he whispered against her flesh, easing of her bra with his hands.

“You said I have always looked beautiful,” she said.

“This is better than when you were in highschool.”He bent down to take a stiff n****e in his mouth and sucked hard on it, before pulling her up against him, her legs wrapped around him.

He walked them out of the kitchen and into the hallway.

“I want to make love to you properly,” he said against the valley between her breasts, leading her up the stairs.

Becky woke up to the warm early morning sunshine spilling into the room to find herself alone on the large massive bed in her room. She wasn’t surprised at Antonio’s absence since she knew that he was quite busy. Her mind was still foggy as she tried to remember the details of last night. Her cheeks flushed pink as she slowly recalled how she and Antonio had made love all through the night, leaving her satiated. Antonio certainly knew his way around a woman’s body and for a little moment, Becky was jealous of the ladies he'd bedded. She smiled as she thought back to the night many years ago when she conceived Elena. Antonio had been a passionate lover back then as well and it wasn’t surpiring that many of the girls in high school had swooned and fainted at the mere mention of his name. He was simply every girl’s fantasy. When she had found out about the pregnancy, she was quite excited about the possibilities of getting to settle down with Antonio even before college. It had only been with Julie’s help that she had had the baby in secret under the guise of a gap year vacation, and then return to continue her college education.

She frowned as she reminded herself that it was all part of a family arrangement. One to benefit others more than herself. Still, she was hooeful that by the end of their make believe marriage, Antonio would realise how much he had lost by letting her go all those years ago. Dominic’s desth was a sad reminder of all that she could have had but lost with the one man who had loved her more than anyone else.

It was already 8 in the morning so Becky headed into the large expansive bathroom for a quick shower. When she was done she sent a message to Julie to meet her for lunch. A message came through her phone from an unknown number.

Your husband’s still a loveboy.

Shocked, Becky pressed on the file attached. It was a picture of Antonio with a lady with blonde hair, coming out of the Oasis Hotel, their hands interlinked in a very intimate manner.

Angry, Becky flung the phone the aside on the bed before picking it up to call Antonio. Her calls went to voicemail.

“He's obviously cheating in you, B,” Julie said, trying to calm her sister down. She had come to see her, and found Becky crying in the kitchen, her eyes and cheeks red.

“But why?” Becky couldn’t realy understand Antonio’s behavior around her. True, they had married for convenience sake but it didn’t entitle him to flount his extramarital affairs in her face. Despite, last night’s affair, she knew that Antonio hadn’t much changed from being callius and insensitive to people’s emotions. And she wanted to get that out of her face.

“Has the person tried to phone you?” Julie asked. Becky shook her head. She wouldn’t have been surprised if there were more women Antonio was seeing, and it certainly helped in a way that she and Julie hadn’t been able to identify the lady in the picture.

“So what are you doing about it?” Julie asked

Becky shrugged. “I need to follow the original plan.” She couldn’t contemplate getting a divorce or even simply raising the issue with Antonio It would only alert him to what she planned to do with him.

“B, maybe you should rethink it. Antonio’s not worth your time or wasting energy on. They are better guys than him. “

“I know. Which is why I want him to pay back for everything he did to me, in full,” Becky said. Julie looked at her expectantly.

“Starting with our little arrangement, he needs to financially compensate me more,” Becky explained.