My Sister's Fiancé

hurt him

GINA

I wake up very early the next morning, a Sunday morning. I let out a loud groan at the sharp pain in my head. I press my fingers to my forehead, groaning again. It feels like someone is throwing a metal bowl around inside my head. Trying to ignore the pain in my head, I reach out for my phone and switch it on to check the time. 7:32. Ugh, it’s a weekend for goodness sake, why am I waking up this early? I turn my phone off, slumping back to the bed, shutting my eyes and trying to go back to sleep. But the headache intensifies and instead of sleeping, I find myself shutting my eyes, groaning uncontrollably and rolling around in pain on the bed.

Few minutes later, I give up on the idea of sleeping and slowly climb out of bed, my eyes head still hurting. I slip my feet into my slippers, pick up my phone and walk out of the room to the living room.

As soon as I get to the entrance of the living room, I freeze in my tracks. Lucas is seated on the couch, flipping through a paper. I stand still, unable to move, my gaze fixed on him as I try to contemplate my next move. Should I just walk into the living room and ignore him? Should I greet him and make my presence known? Or should I just leave altogether?

I’m still trying to make a decision when I hear him speak, “There you are, I’ve been waiting for you,” he says, dropping the paper on the table and staring at him.

I stare back at him, my eyes wide in shock. He’s talking to me? Lucas is talking to me, or is there someone else in this room he might be talking to? I not-so-subtly take a quick glance around the room. The room is definitely empty asides from the both of us, so, he’s talking to me. When I look back at him, he raises a brow quizzically in my direction. I suck in a deep breath and push my legs forward, forcing myself into the living room. “Good morning.” As I speak, something slams inside my head and I let out a loud wince. I quickly sit on the couch across Lucas.

“I was waiting for you to wake up,” Lucas says and hope blooms in me. Maybe he finally wants to talk about this weird situation we’ve found ourselves in. We can finally reach an agreement in our marriage. “Last night,” he begins, a dark frown appearing on his face, “should never repeat itself again,” He says in a very stern tone and all my hopes crash. He still seems really angry about what happened the previous night.

“I’m sorry,” I say, “I really am. I just think it’s weird that we haven’t spoken about this yet and try to come up with a solution……”

“I don’t want to hear it,” he lashes and I flinch at the tone of his voice, “And I don’t want to talk about it. I’ve made myself very clear, Georgina and it’s in your best interest that you listen and understand.”

Something in me bristles at his tone. Who the hell is this and where is my best friend, Lucas? This isn’t the Lucas I know. And what gives him the right to talk to me in such manner? I open my mouth to reply him and then the image of him sitting on the couch in my house, almost in tears after finding out about Daphne’s disappearance appears in my head and I swallow my words. He is hurting, I remind myself. He is hurting. I can’t just scream at him and add to his pain. Besides, the raging monsters currently in my head are making it difficult for me to shout or even talk normally without groaning or wincing. So, I swallow my words.

He stares at me for a while, his eyes narrowed before he finally continues, “A couple of my friends are coming over this evening. We take turns hosting every Sunday and it’s my turn,” he says and I nod slowly. “They want to meet you. You should prepare,” he adds and I nod again.

“So, I’m meeting your friends?” I ask, dumbly as his words slowly sink in. My brows furrow as I let out a small groan at the pain in my head.

He looks pissed but still replies, “Yes.”

“Okay.” That didn’t sound hard. Host a dinner, entertain a few people, meet new people and talk to them. Not too hard, okay. “I….i could do that,” I say, staring at him.

“Good.”

“There are still a couple of things I think we should talk about though,” I quickly add and I swear, if looks could kill, I’d six feet below the ground right now. I ignore the hard glare he is giving me and continue, “I think we should talk about sleeping arrangements,” I say slowly, wincing in between the words. I raise my hand to massage my forehead slowly with my fingertips. When I raise my head up, I see Lucas watching me with a frown on his face.

“What sleeping arrangement?” he questions harshly.

Okay, so I need to be specific. Fine. “Where am I sleeping as your wife?” I ask bluntly. “Why am I in the guest room? I’m not your guest and, I can’t keep staying there, so, where would I sleep? In your bed?”

A look of surprise crosses his face at my boldness but it quickly disappears and he replaces it with a hard stare. “You’d like that wouldn’t you?” he retorts angrily. “Isn’t that what you’ve been waiting for for years?” he asks and I jerk back in shock as if I’ve just been slapped in the face.

Unable to believe the cruelty in his words, tears fill my eyes. No, no, I won’t cry. I steel myself, swallowing my tears. “Where is my room?” I demand.

He considers my request for a moment. “I’ll ask Liza to fix you up somewhere upstairs,” he answers, referring to ‘Mrs. Miller’ as he rises on his feet.

“Fine by me.” I purposefully wait for him to walk towards the door, bidding my time before dropping the bombshell. “I called Daphne yesterday.”

He freezes in shock. Slowly, he turns around and my heart breaks at the eagerness in his expression. “You did? What did she say?” his voice seems lighter, hopeful and I suddenly regret telling him about it. I wanted to hurt him at first but with that expression on his face, I suddenly wish I had kept my mouth shut.

“She answered at first, then, she hung up immediately,” I explain in a small voice, avoiding his gaze. When I raise my head, he is glaring so hard at me but I can see something akin to tears swimming in his eyelids.

All of a sudden, he whirls around and walks out of the house, slamming the door behind him.