“What sex life?” He chuckled as he continued to smack on the pasta. I wanted nothing more than to throw it in his face. “You’re not fuckin’ me, baby. You can’t get mad when someone else is.”
Was he right? Yes, but that doesn’t take away from how I feel. He has done nothing to make me feel wanted in this relationship, so why would I give him the most sacred parts of me?
“You don’t make this easy, Chandler.” I grabbed my glass of wine and took a seat across from him. My appetite was gone, and I was ready for him to leave. “Maybe we should just call this whole thing off. I will talk to Rosier and?—”
Crash!
Jumping from my seat, I was startled to see him throw his plate of food against the wall. Pulling my eyes from the food sliding down my wall back to him, I watched as he slowly stood from his seat, his chest heaving up and down.
“You will be my wife, and that’s final. Running to your brother won’t keep you from me, Noemi. We…” He gestured between the two of us, “Are getting married, whether you want to or not.”
“Why, Chandler?” I placed my glass back onto the table. The expression on his face was murderous, but that wasn’t going to deter me from speaking my mind. His little show gave me pause, but I was not scared of this nigga in the slightest. “You don’t want me.”
He smirked as he rounded the island and slowly walked my way. “Oh, but I do. I want you more than you know. Eventually, you will want me too.” He reached out to stroke my cheek, and Istilled at the contact. “You don’t want me fucking other women… give me what’s mine, Noemi.” His eyes dropped to my cleavage spilling from my top. “Until then, I will continue to drop dick off where I please. I admit… I could be a little more subtle about it.”
Shaking my head, I tried to remove myself from his embrace, but he held me tighter. Squinting my eyes, I looked where his hand was located on my arm and brought my eyes back to him.
“Let me go, Chandler,” I spoke slowly as I snatched it from him. This time, he let me go. “You will never grab me like that again, or I can promise you… that hand will be amputated. Are we clear on that?”
Smirking, he licked his lips as his eyes dropped from mine to my body. “I got it, baby. Understand this, though… you’re mine. Your body and everything else belong to me. Rosier has no control over what I do within my marriage. The sooner you two understand that youwillbecome a Gourneau, the better.” Putting space between us, he looked around to where the food landed. “You want to clean that up?”
“I want you to get out of my home.” I pointed to the door. “You’ve clearly lost your mind and need space to find it. I don’t care about the arrangement that you have with my brother. I don’t fear you, and I won’t be disrespected.”
The menacing glare he sent my way caused the hairs on my neck to stand, but I was going to stand my ground. I would not be bullied by this man or anyone else.
His stare never wavered toward me as mine didn’t waver toward him. He needed to know I meant every word that I’d said to him. Finally, he relented.
Pulling me into his embrace, he sighed heavily. “I’m sorry, baby. I know you don’t want this situation, and I’m not making it easier for you. I promise you… I’m going to do better.” He let me go and held me at arm’s length. “The women. My attitude. Everything—I’m going to change.”
“I’m going on vacation for two weeks, and you will sponsor it.” I crossed my arms and mugged him. “Wherever I want. I want a new wardrobe for it too.”
“One week…” He frowned and bargained. “Two weeks is too long to go without seeing the woman I’m going to marry.”
“Yet you went over a week, and I’m sure it was spent with a different woman each day.” I raised my brow knowingly. “Ten days. My final answer.”
He groaned and kissed my forehead. “Fine. I’ll wire the money first thing tomorrow.”
“Great.” I patted his arm and frowned when he walked back through my condo and located my supply cabinet. “What are you doing?” I called out to his back. “I still want you to leave.”
Saying nothing, he walked over to the mess he’d made on my floor and began to clean the shattered plate and food. As I watched him clean, I thought about the empty promises he made.
Would he really stop his ways?I didn’t know, but I had ten days away from him to get my mind wrapped around it all.
I didn’t want this man, but it was my duty to my family to see this union through. A vacation away from all this tension was much needed. The time away from all of the pressure is just what I need to clear my mind. Having a ball on his dime is the least he could do. Money has never been an issue for me, but making his pockets hurt for my troubles may help me feel a little better, even if it’s just for ten days.
“So I assume dinner and a movie would have been out of the question?” Chandler asked with his hand on my lower back aswe navigated the room. “It’s not too late to change your mind, Noemi.”
After the disastrous dinner last night at my condo, Chan told me he wanted to make it up to me. I wanted to tell him to fuck off because being near him was the last place I wanted to be, but I needed to attempt to make this situation a little more bearable for all of us. I may never have the life I want, but this is the one that’s been laid out for me. At the end of the day, I was doing this to stop a potential war for my family. I would do anything to help them, even if it meant sacrificing my happiness.
“You act as if this is terrible.” I held his hand and led him over to our table for the evening. Tonight, I decided we would try something different and attend a paint and sip event. “If we’re going to enter a marriage, wouldn’t you say it’s only fair that we do things I like to do?” I glanced back at him and found him frowning. For some reason, that irritated me. Dropping his hand, I exhaled heavily and stepped around him. “You’re right. We can leave.”
Here I was trying my best to be less combatant, and it was still a problem. Though I didn’t see a happily ever after with this man, I was still trying to put forth the effort to do what was asked of me. However, he wasn’t making it easy for me at all to be near him. It would be so much easier to just tell Rosier I didn’t want to marry him and go on about my life, but I didn’t want the potential fallout to be on my hands.
It was his turn to sigh as he grabbed my wrist. “Noemi, sit down. I apologize for not being more enthused.” Gesturing around us, he frowned. “This isn’t an environment I’m used to. I mean… come on, baby, they have us sitting on the floor. We could have done this shit at home.”
“It’s all about the aesthetic and experience.” I tried my hardest not to roll my eyes. The slow sounds of R&B were being played in the background, and a few more people were filinginside the space. People around us were starting, and I didn’t want the attention tonight. “I thought it would be something fun for us to do instead of sitting around, arguing and hating each other.”
Staring at me intently, the frown on his face began to fade before he pulled me into his arms and kissed my forehead. “You’re right, Mi. My bad. Let’s do this.”
