Eleven
1591 Words
I couldn't lean into the couch I was seated on, cause I couldn't trust it. What if there was a scorpion in it? It was made of an old, soft cotton, looking quite wretched. Rae's mom grinned at me, sitting on the couch opposite me. I knew she was trying to observe whether or not I was comfortable, so I was trying as much as possible to seem fine.
"Do you mind drinking tea?" she asked.
I shook my head. "No, no. I'm fine. I'm okay."
"Oh, okay." She grinned even more.
Leaning my elbows on my knees, I intertwined my fingers in each other, scrolling my eyes around the room, literally scrutinizing the place. To me, this place seemed like a container, not a house. Fine, it was neat, the interior design was simple and quite old, but… how did they even find a place like this? My entire room was surely bigger than this apartment. After coming here, it made sense that Rae wanted to get married to me. This place was not good and conducive to live in.
I glimpsed at my wristwatch, wondering why she hadn't stepped out of her room since I had come in here. What was going on?
"She's on her way." The oldie with a white hair, wearing baggy khaki pants and an old white shirt which was now looking cream in color, walked into the living room. He was obviously Rae's dad. He sat beside his wife, smiling like her. "I hope you're having a good time? Nice meeting you, my dear."
I nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks."
"I see that you're in a hurry. Don't worry, she'll be here soon," her mom said.
I nodded. Why were they being this nice and cautious? That was awkward.
Once again, I glimpsed at my wristwatch. Raising my head, my eyes caught Rae. She walked slowly into the living room, walking like a shy person.
She looked beautiful, though she was wearing casual denim jean pants and a dark sweatshirt. She wore white sneakers, her hair tied in a ponytail. She glimpsed at me, and turned to her parents. For the first time since I had met her, she smiled. A genuine smile that didn't seem like a smirk.
"Mom, thanks for keeping his company," she said. She dropped a kiss on their cheeks, grabbing a small pink bag from the small wooden, center table. "The shopping is gonna be huge, so I might get home late. You can both share the leftover spaghetti in the fridge, for your lunch. And, um, eat pancakes for dinner. If the flour isn't enough for the pancakes, don't worry about it. I'll try to buy hamburgers or maybe a box of pizza."
Her mom smiled. "The pancake is a better option. We shouldn't spend so much money on unnecessary things like pizza. Besides, we're only a family of three. The flour will be enough. We'll be fine. Just make sure to eat lunch."
Rae smiled and nodded. As she arranged her bag, I kept staring at her in surprise. I tried as much as possible to resist the urge to shake my head at them. Indeed, they were so poor. Eating leftover foods? Managing flours? Not eating enough just to save some money? That was ridiculous!
"You're ready to leave?" She turned to me, still keeping a pretty smile.
"Uh, yeah."
"Let's go."
I greeted her parents one more time, and made my way out of the apartment. Soon, we got to the parking lot of the building, hopped into my SUV jeep, and buckled our seat belts. I asked my driver to start driving, and in a short while, we were on the road.
This was awkward, but yeah, she was still smiling. She looked out at the view from the window, staring at the sky, particularly.
"I love nature." Randomly, she said that.
I wiggled an eyebrow at her. "Hm?"
"Yes, I love nature." She turned to me. She wiggled her eyebrows as well, and grinned. Okay, that smile was weird. It had to be a cunning smile. "I know you're wondering what I'm thinking, so that's it. I'm appreciating nature. I'm not thinking of how to harm you, so, stay calm."
I looked away. "Whatever. Not my business."
"Very soon, you'll care about it. Once I become your wife," she added.
I frowned a bit, swiftly moving my gaze to her. She just turned away. "Your fantasy," I said.
She remained silent, same as me. The entire journey to the store was silent. Yes, that was so uncomfortable, but I guessed I would have to get used to it. After all, this was just the beginning of the relationship we were yet to create.
***
The whole shopping thing was so tiresome. We had managed to find the perfect wedding gown and jewelries for Rae, but finding a nice shoe was the problem. The ones we had seen were really low in class, which wasn't something I wanted for my bride. A couple of very important people would be coming over to our wedding, so I had to make sure she looked very beautiful and expensive.
One thing that confused me was the fact that she didn't seem very excited about this shopping. She didn't look upset or weary, but I just couldn't find any form of enthusiasm in her eyes. She wasn't even selecting very expensive jewelry, which kind of surprised me. Her aim was to enjoy my wealth, but her apathetic behavior toward the expensive outfits made it seem like she had no interest in tasting my money. Well, she was probably trying to be careful so I wouldn't call off the wedding. Ladies like her were always the crazy ones.
"Do you like that one?" I pointed at a white pump shoe with a silver bow, which was placed on a display.
"Yeah, it's…" She leaned close to it, and gasped. "Damn, that's too expensive. Twelve thousand dollars? I'm only gonna wear it for a day."
I scorned. "Do you like it? That's what I asked."
She rolled her eyes. "You've spent so much already. It doesn't make sense for you to buy something that costs this much. It's just… crazy."
"I'll take it." In order to avoid her unnecessary drama, I grabbed the shoes, and asked Anna, the store owner, to help me pack it. It was so annoying to see Rae pretend this much.
Soon, Anna helped us package the shopping bags. She handed them over to me, smiling widely. "Thanks for shopping with us, Mr. Kurt. It's a great pleasure. I mean, you could've easily gone to any other store, but you chose to come here. It's amusing."
"You're welcome. You've got great customer service, I must say."
"Have a nice day," she added before walking away.
I glanced at Rae, gestured to her that we should get going, and walked behind her as she made her way to the huge glass door which was the exit. Like the gentleman I was, I helped her open the door, and let her step out first. Unfortunately, letting her step out first became a bad idea.
Someone threw something against her forehead, which made her trip backwards. It was a small ball. She almost fell, but I managed to grip her arm. Gasping, she stared at me with widened eyes.
"Who did that?" she asked.
We pulled away from each other. Turning to where the ball had come from, I almost dropped my jaw when I spotted a couple of people standing in front of the store. We were on the stoop of the store, while they were on the ground. They looked furious and violent. Who were they?
"Hey, who threw that?!" I asked, glaring at them.
"How dare you break the bond between Tanya and Ivan?!" Someone screamed from the crowd.
I narrowed my eyes in confusion. "What?" That word came out in a whisper.
"Is this thing the reason Ivan abandoned Tanya?"
"She's obviously a gold digger!"
"Ivan, you're blind and stupid! How can you ditch Tanya for this wretched thing?!"
"She's probably his mistress!"
"She used a charm on him!"
I stared blankly. A bit nervous, I turned to Rae. She had tears in her eyes. She looked terrified, upset and shaken. It was as if she was praying to fly away from here. How in the world had these people come here? Who had informed them that Rae and I were shopping here?
When my phone beeped, I got an answer to my question. Tanya sent a text message to me.
"Just getting started," she texted.
Flustered, my nostrils flared like a thousand rocks were gushing out of them, my entire body dashing in fury. I should have known she would go this far.
"Teach her a lesson, people!" A female's voice hollered from the crowd. In a blink of an eye, they all began throwing things at Rae. They threw tomatoes, balls, and even eggs.
I was speechless for a moment. How would I deal with all of them? Pablo and Drake were the only ones who had come here with me. And, unfortunately, I had sent them on an errand a few minutes ago, and had told them that they should meet me at home.
Rae yelped, screamed, and stepped backwards, using her hands to block her face, trying to dodge the attack.
This time around, Tanya had taken things too far. There was no way I would forgive her for it.
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- Writer
