(Free Book): Will You Marry My Groom?

27

“Uhm… I’ll be leaving now.” I said to my boss, Mrs. Anderson.

“Oh, really?” She replied. “Is there any problem?”

“No. I just feel a bit sick.”

“Okay, darling. Who am I to say no to you? I can handle the affairs of this place on my own, and you can return when you feel better.” She patted my shoulder.

I had to stop myself from cringing at her sweetness. She’d have definitely barked at me if I wasn’t married to Tristan. Funny how some people change their attitude towards you because of your new status.

I grabbed my purse and left, calling Mike again as a reminder.

Shortly after, the car pulled over in front of the bakery and Mike came out of it, turning around to open the door to the passenger seat for me. 

I suddenly felt a load of weakness hit me and I almost fell but Mike held me. “Are you okay?” He asked.

“I’m fine. There’s no problem.” I chuckled, holding the side of my head to give it a slight massage due to the ache in my head.

“Get in the car first.” He sounded really concerned as he helped me into the car, wore the seatbelt over me, stared at me for a while then shut the door and got into the driver’s seat to start the car.

He was constantly glancing at me as he drove us home.

“You don’t have to be worried about me.” I chuckled.

“Why wouldn’t I be? You’ve been acting strange for the last few days I’ve come to pick you up from work.”

“I’m really fine. No problem at all. I just need to rest.” I flashed a smile at him.

He didn’t look convinced at all but focused on the drive till he finally pulled over in front of the mansion.

“I’ll help you out.” He offered.

“It’s not—”

“Please.” He held my hand. I sighed in defeat; there was no way I could convince him.

After giving my hand a tight squeeze, he got out of the car, turned to open the car door for me, and gently pulled me out. It suddenly felt like my body was struck with an object that made me lose my balance and almost fall, but Mike held me up once again.

“See? You’re not fine. I’ll walk you in.”

“You’re just being dramatic, Mike.” A chortle escaped my throat.

Of course, because he was the boss of me, he didn’t listen to me but still supported me in walking to the front of the door.

The door was pulled open before us and I was cursed with the sight of Nikita’s face.

“You i***t,” she turned to Mike who let go of me, “you were supposed to drive me, but you ran off to this petty thing immediately she called for you.”

Mike’s fists clenched and he lowered his head to obviously hide his frown. “Hazel is the boss' wife and she comes first before any other person.”

“Hazel?” She scoffed. “So much familiarity between the two of you, uh? I’m definitely not surprised: you’re of the same wretched category. Just be in my car in five if you don’t want to lose your job rather than going around with a woman.” She said and walked away.

“What the—” He was obviously very infuriated, so I held him back.

“Don’t do anything you’ll regret. She’s not worth it.”

“You can’t let her insult you all the time.”

“She’s childish and stupid, ignore her.” I walked away —in order to avoid extra discussion—and got in.

“Hazel, you’re back!” Indy exclaimed.

“Yup.” I sauntered to the dining area where she was sitting.

“I can’t believe you still work at that bakery. Anyway, how was work today?”

“It was pretty great.”

“And you’re back so early?” She grabbed a banana and peeled it.

“Yes. I felt tired and wanted to come home.”

“And that grumpy woman agreed?” She ate from the banana.

“Yes. She’s been really nice to me since my marriage with Tristan. You know, fake people everywhere. Speaking of Tristan, is he home yet?”

“Uh… I don’t know.” She ate from the banana again.

“Okay. I’ll ask a worker.” I turned to leave but she held me back.

After swallowing the banana in her mouth, she spoke, “can’t you stay here a bit longer? Do you miss Tristan that much?”

“Of course, I do.” That rolled out of my mouth without thinking. Although I was dying to see my husband again and give him a hug, I didn’t intend to say it.

“Oh, really? So your… uhm… you and Tristan… uhm… you’re… your relationship is… it’s good now?” Why on Earth was she stuttering?

“Yes, it’s great.” I replied, squinting my eyes at her. “You still haven’t made a mention of Ian to me. Where is he? Aren’t you together anymore? Does he even know you’re pregnant?” I folded my arms over my chest.

“Of course!” Her face twisted into a frown. “I was already pregnant before we eloped but didn’t know.”

“Okay? So where is he now?”

“Hazel?” She said through her smiling teeth. “Please can you cook for me? We'll cook together; I miss your food so damn much.” She pouted.

“Are you kidding?”

“No, I’m not. I’m suddenly craving any spicy food. Please cook for me.” She held my hands like a child, her sky blue eyes popping out a bit. “You know I’m eating for two now. Please...”

“How are you still such a baby? Sure, let’s head to the kitchen.” I grinned, sending a mental note to myself to ask about Ian later.

“Thanks!” She jumped to her feet and pulled me with her to the kitchen.

I had come home to rest, but I guess it was going to wait until later. Oh God, help me.

I dropped my bag on the kitchen counter and decided to make a quick meal.

We both had a lot of fun over different conversations unrelated to either Tristan or Ian as I tried my best to not let my tiredness ruin the meal I was preparing.

“I can’t wait to eat this. No one cooks better than my awesome chef Hazel!” She said, rubbing her palms together playfully. “Aunt Mandy must really miss your cooking. By the way, have you spoken to her?”

“Spoken to her? Why would I?” My laughter was ruined with a frown.

“Why not?!”

“She only ever calls to demand for money, then when I don’t give it to her, she asks Tristan behind my back and he just gives her money like she deserves any.”

“Well… she raised—”

She was cut off by Tristan bursting into the kitchen, wearing a stern frown on his usual frigid face.

The kitchen suddenly fell silent as he walked to a cup and poured himself a glass of water, gulping it down his throat. Mine and Indy’s eyes were following his every movement like we were being at alert if he wanted to attack us.

“What’s with the staring?” He finally stopped behind me. “You’re cooking again? When did you return home? You didn’t even bother to come to me first.” He wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me closer to his chest.

“I didn’t know you were home.” I smiled, finally feeling calm again from his warm embrace.

“You didn’t bother to ask anyone. I already informed everyone to let you know when you returned that you should come to me and I’d stop working.” He placed his head on my shoulder. “Do you know how much I missed you?”

“Well… I wanted to make lunch for Indy.”

“There are chefs in the house, you know. You should only be cooking for me, your husband, and not anyone else. If a friend of yours is hungry, she can order lunch or ask someone else to cook it for her.” He tucked my hair to the back of my ear.

“No one cooks better than Hazel.” Indy said.

“My wife’s not your maid.” He replied without glancing at her. “Hazel, you straightened your hair today. You know how much I prefer your natural beachy waves, why don’t you ever listen?” He kissed my neck, causing a tingling sensation to run in my body.

I only chuckled, dropping the spatula I was holding so I could hold his strong arms that were around my waist as he planted multiple kisses on my neck and cheek.

“You realize there’s something called a bedroom? For your privacy.” I couldn’t tell if my ears were deceiving me or Indy just sounded jealous. My ears had to be playing a trick here— why would Indy be jealous of Tristan being romantic to me, his wife?

“It’s our house, you seem to be forgetting that, Indy Ricardo.” He still didn’t glance at her, and stopped me from talking by tilting my head to smack his lips against mine, tightening his arms around my waist to pull me even closer.

My phone started ringing from my bag but I was too lost in his kiss to pay attention to it.

“I’ll hang up for you.” He said and wanted to reach for my phone, but I quickly pushed him away from me and grabbed the phone, ended the call, deleted the call history, and threw my phone back into my bag, panting afterwards.

“Hazel,” he turned me to face him, “if you’re still hiding your phone, then it wasn’t because Indy was coming back. What are you hiding? What aren’t you letting me know?” He demanded.

“Are you seriously still keeping things, Hazel? Don’t forget you’re married now.” Indy added.

“I think it’s best if you stay away from this. It’s our marriage, and it’s fine if she doesn’t want me to know now, she’ll let me know later. I trust her. You shouldn’t interfere with our issues.” He stated to her authoritatively, holding my waist again. “You’ll let me know when you’re ready, right Hazel?”

“Y-yeah, right.”

With her faced contorted in deep annoyance, she stormed out of the kitchen, slamming the door hard.

“Okay. What was that for?” I asked him.

“What was what for?”

“Why were you being so mean to her and why—”

“It doesn’t matter, sweetheart.”

“Sweetheart? Aren’t you going to stop now that she left?”

“Stop what?” He raised an eyebrow in perplexity.

I rolled my eyes at him. “You clearly wanted to make her jealous for some reasons, that explains your romantic acts.”

“Why would I do that? You think it was all pretense?” He let go of me. “Do you know how much I was dying all morning because I hadn’t seen you?” He frowned. “You don’t think I can be romantic?”

“No! I just thought—”

“You thought nonsense. So you were only playing along because you thought it was fake?”

“Of course not!”

“It better not be.” He cleared the counter then lifted me to sit on it, standing between my legs with his hands on my waist. “Because I’ll be leaving soon and you’ll definitely miss me.”

“Leaving?”

“Yes. I have to go on a business trip.”

“How long?” My eyebrows creased from the sadness that swept through me.

“Two weeks or a month.”

“A month?!”

“Probably.” He placed my arms around his neck, returning his hands to my waist.

“This isn’t fair.”

“I have to work.” He chuckled.

“Where are you going?”

“Dad has handed his businesses in Africa over to me, so I’ll be traveling to around Africa; who knows, it might take more than a month. I really have a lot of work to do. There are so many billionaires I have to meet there for cooperation, so many more companies I have to plant…” he trailed off, his smile slipping off. “What’s wrong?”

“I heard there are so many hot and curvy ladies in that country.” I pouted.

“Firstly, Africa is a continent, not a country. Secondly, does it matter?”

“Yes. What if you fall head over heels for someone there and forget about me completely?”

“How’s that even possible?” He burst into laughter.

“Of course it is. What if you lose the sparks you have for me? I’m the one in love with you, you’re not in love with me.”

My statement caused absolute silence once again. His face became blank, as his electric blue eyes gazed deeply into my eyes till it was starting to feel really awkward.

“Why do you think I’m not in love with you?” He finally broke the silence, maintaining a serious facial expression.

“Oh, you just have feelings for me, love is such a strong word to define those feelings, blah blah blah.” I replied sarcastically.

He maintained absolute silence once again for a while.

“Listen, Hazel, I’d never cheat on you. It seems like you’re yet to realize how much you mean to me. I can’t just forget you and go on with another woman. You’re the only one I can ever think of and the only person I want to be with.” He held my face and kissed my forehead.

“So you love me?”

He cleared his throat and pulled away. “Love is a strong word.” He repeated in my tone, bursting into laughter.

“It’s not funny, Tristan.” I rolled my eyes at him. “It’s fine. I can’t force you to fall madly in love with me. I just need you to know that I love you so much no matter what.”

He wore a long smile. “When I return, we should create a chart for our goals, our marriage goals.” That was off-topic, but okay…

“Marriage goals?”

“Yes. Everything we want to achieve together. I can assure you that it’ll strengthen our relationship. I’ll miss you so much and will try my absolute best to hurry up with work so I can return to you quickly. I wish I could take you with me, but it’ll be pointless because I’ll either have to leave you alone throughout the trip or not do anything at all but spend time with you.”

“I understand. Can I just make lunch then we can do something together before you leave?”

“Your tone is sad and it makes me feel bad.”

“It’s fine. You have to work, we’ll need the money to take care of our future children.” I said jokingly.

“Of course, we will need it to take care of those cute little Me’s and little You’s” He smirked.