THE BLACK MARRIAGE
© Ralph Angel
EPISODE 3
Jessica packed her hair up the way she always did as she stood facing the mirror. The length of her hair always made people envy her even when the only thing she wanted to do recently was to cut the hair off. Combing it was always a burden for her and she had resorted to packing it. She rarely made her hair due to the long waits she was always subjected to at the salon, so she had stuck with retouching and setting which was less expensive and also time saving.
It has been two days after the exhausting wedding and she hadn’t really left the beach house. Andy had practically restricted her to the building, saying that it would be awkward for the bride to be seen outside alone without her husband, immediately after the wedding.
Jessica had asked him to go out with her then but her contract husband had so many things to sort out on net and did not have the time to camouflage with her.
If a prophet had prophesied that Jessica would be married to a j**k like Andy, she would have called him a joker but now that she faced the reality, she really could not believe that she had agreed to this marriage.
After putting on a long blue skirt and a white top, she lay on the bed, feeling the pieces of her shattered world the more. Jessica was someone who loved and loved deeply but that proved to be a very bad thing for her. She had been jilted by three different guys who were practically s*x addicts. Her mother always told her before that abominable day that she should hold on till she was married before opening her legs for any guy. Before the death of her entire family, she did not really give the advice much thought but when her family died; all she wanted to do was to obey everything that her parents ever told her. The first man she had fallen in love with several years back, who was her first love had shattered her world by sleeping with her best friend. When she caught them in the act she almost ran mad.
Trusting another guy again had been almost impossible but due to her nature, she moved on and fell for another guy. He had been descent enough to call it quit with the excuse that he could not do without s*x until marriage, after several attempts to sleep with her. The third guy had been the one that really hurt her. It had taken a long time for her to get over the trauma and even now, the remembrance always moved her to tears and filled her with undiluted anger.
A knock interrupted her thoughts and she stood up from the bed. She opened the door and stared at Andy. He was in a grey suit. “Good morning sir”
Andy muttered under his breath. “Would I have to spend a lifetime explaining why I hate this ‘sir’ you use for me? It makes me look old”.
She stared at him for some seconds then swallowed. “Andrew, Andy, Drew; choose one” she responded with an official look on her face; not smiling and not frowning.
He looked on the verge of laughter, and then raised his brow. “They all sound good but Drew; it sounds very good” He looked surprised.
“Good morning Drew” she responded.
He looked at her with a frown on his face. “Do you ever smile?”
“Do you respond to greetings?” she returned.
He shook his head slowly.
“Then I guess I should not bother greeting again?”
Andy realized that she took the shake of his head as the answer to the question she asked. He thought of explaining but realized that he had wasted a lot of time already. “Today is Monday, I am off to the office” he said.
She blanched. “This is supposed to be our honeymoon, however fake it might be. What would people think when you return to work just two days after the wedding? It is not like you would be sacked if you don’t appear even for a year.” It was after Jessica heard the echo of her voice that she realized that she was shouting.
“Everyone can think whatever they want to think, at least, you did not mind what the maids would think, why should I mind what my employees would think?” he challenged calmly.
“They would think that I don’t have the womanly or feminine erm… expertise to keep you for at least a week on our honeymoon. How would people look at me?”
“I guess that is for you to worry about” Jessica noticed that he was throwing her words back at her and it made her even angrier. “This is the worst marriage ever. No wonder you had me sign a contract to marry you, no woman would marry such a self-centered man”.
Andy’s face transformed before her eyes and she wanted to run but her stubborn nature made her stand where she was, returning his glare with equal measure. He grabbed her hand fiercely and all her courage seeped out of her, leaving her with dread. “I guess that makes us the same. You also accepted this contract because of personal gain so think twice about calling someone else names”
He was gone before she could even blink and she leaned against the door for support………
To be continued…
