CH 05|| Presents for you?

I woke up the next morning to the warmth of my cozy bedroom but my eyes were still feeling lazy to open. The bright light from my window made me squint my eyes to prevent it from entering. I still laid tucked up under my blanket, feeling lazy to even stretch.

Finally I slowly uncovered my blanket and sat up on the bed, trying to get my hair out of my mouth but the strand would not just come out. I stretched my arms and neck then pulled myself lazily out of the bed. At least my head was at rest with all those jumbled loads of thoughts last night.

As I was about to walk further, I accidentally stepped my leg on the bed sheets that clinged down from the bed, landing me on the floor.

"Argh! I hate this! " I exclaimed.

And from then, my heavy eyes got cleared of sleep. It was then I saw the true beauty of the bedroom.

"I've never stepped my feet in such a beautiful bedroom before." I thought to myself.

The room was exquisite and spacious. Almost everything in the room was brilliant white including the large bed. Anyway, I never liked the idea of having my room painted white or white wallpapers or even having everything in my room white. I'm not a hygiene freak but I love my things well organised and clean too, not this excess.

Large curtains fell in orderly fashion which looked like it was made of silk-like material; I know nothing about fabrics, my bad. I just rolled my eyes as I pulled myself up. I shuffled towards the bathroom barefooted, yawning my way down. On opening the door to the bathroom, I softly gasped. It was so big, way bigger and wider than my bedroom back home. I just stared wide-eyed at the super clean bathroom.

"What in the world... This is a total waste of money. " I said while walking into the bathroom.

The bathroom was so clean one could sleep there or even kiss the floor. There was a movable Jacuzzi right in the center of the bathroom.

Gosh!

What would I be using a Jacuzzi for? I don't even need one. Maybe Chris wanted it or maybe it is just part of decoration.

Just then I realized I was in actual life! Worse, in my husband's house. I promised myself I would not let him take over my life.

I went straight to the mirror, and on getting there, I couldn't look at myself.

" I look a mess.. Look at my hair! " I exclaimed

I woke up with a tousled hair and puffy face but thank God, no baggy eyes. At least I was blessed with that and even if there were any dark circles at all, that would be when I've overworked myself throughout the night without sufficient sleep. I'm dark in complexion but not that dark anyway, I'm close to a tanned complexion. That's the problem, everyone in my family is light skinned except me, I hate it because I get compared a lot to my siblings by everyone.

I blew my hair dry even though it was fixed, I just like it. As soon as I opened the wardrobe , I saw marvelous things.

The wardrobe was segmented, each segment serving a purpose.

"How come I never saw this yesterday? " I asked myself. By the way, where are Chris's clothing? If all these clothes were put here before, then where are his?

The clothes really look expensive for my liking and I did not like them because none of them were what I liked, not really. My choice of dressing was a normal casual outfit. I loved sneakers, jackets, trousers and the likes - not that I disliked girly dressing, it's just that normal fits me more -as of what I thought.

I pulled a legging on and wore a turtleneck on top, then I tied my hair into a ponytail using a black ribbon. I made my bed and tidied my room before I left my room to the outside world.

I walked my way down to the sitting room where I saw nobody so I felt relieved. But just as I thought I was alone, I felt a flutter of panic in my stomach as my eyes caught with Chris'.

" Oh my God! " I exclaimed within me. Chris was " Oh my God ".

For the first time I felt his presence so much. He wore a body fitting V-necked T-shirt that showed off his nice looking muscles. He is tall and slim but not thin with fine bone structure which was perfectly symmetrical. He is manly I swear. He's got those dark brown eyes which are crystal clear and lively, making me weak at my knees as he gazed.

He has this really light skin but jet black hair that was thick and lustrous even though it was in a low cut. God knows how I wanted his dark shaped eyebrows which sloped upwards a bit, and those eyelashes growing downwards were surprisingly long for a guy. I couldn't imagine the perfect lips he had press against mine.

When he finally smiled, looking deep into my eyes, I couldn't help but blush. How cliché, "How can someone be so perfect?" I thought.

Oh he's looking at me like I'm awkward, how stupid was I to think he was actually looking into my eyes. Movies!!!!

"Good morning Eddy, how was your night? " his gentle husky voice questioned, cutting off the silence.

"F-f-fine. It was fine." I stuttered.

"Snap out of it, you moron. What kind of temptation is this, oh God. I'm finished." I said under my breath.

He was rearranging some furniture in our sitting room to suit his taste when I bumped in and now, we just stood there not knowing what next to do. But at last I spoke, but he also wanted to say something so we vocally collided.

" I." we said, coincidentally

"Sorry." we hit again

"Ok you go first." he said

"Why not go first?" I asked

"Don't worry. Remember... Ladies first" he said.

"Can I have a serious word with you about us?" I requested.

" 'kay" He immediately said, as if impatiently waiting for this time.

" Um, Chris... you and I know that we were forced into this and this is all my fault so I'm going to fix this. We won't have to be sad about how our life's turned out "

What sort of start is this?

"I get it. All this won't have happened if my father didn't trust your dad. My father had trust in him before which your dad..well..broke. But what are you going to do to fix it? " he said, sounding a bit concerned.

My dad broke his father's trust? What?

"I will pay off all those debts, I want us to.. to.. actually.."

How am I going to say it?

"...pretend in front of our parents that we are actually a happy couple. And after I pay the debts, we can get an annulment. So during our stay together, please.... "

"....let nothing happen between us " he cut me off as if he knew my mind.

"Yes. Don't misunderstand me... It's just that... " I couldn't explain

" I understand, I truly understand. And I can't risk it either, having a kid when we're still in school is going to be so much of a stress if anything funny happens ". He cut in.

I felt embarrassed and popped out words I shouldn't have let out.

"I'm not keeping you in bondage please, you can have a relationship with any woman you want in the world just as long as she will make you happy, I won't bother you." I said.

" You sure? " he asked as if he knew I wasn't sure of what I said.

"Yes I'm sure Chris" I said.

" And one more thing, I will be staying in a place closest to school so I won't have the trouble of going late to school for lectures. Hope that won't be a problem?"

"Sure, I don't see why not, just as long as mum and dad don't find out."

Yikes, I totally forgot about my parents-in-law.

"Okay thanks." I said before I turned around to leave.

"You're welcome, " he replied.

We both heard the doorbell ring so Chris went to open it while I stood behind him. Lo and behold, gifts upon gifts were stacked one by one on top of each other outside the door.

A tanned guy with a face cap greeted us a happy morning and said: "Deliveries for the newly married couple - Mr and Mrs Chris O'Neil." he raised his head after the last statement.

"We are the newly married couple. Is there anything we can do for you?" Chris replied.

"Yes, please sign here." He gave a pen to Chris to sign on a clipboard. I stared as Chris signed.

"And you too madam " he said, referring to me. I signed on the required spot before the man suddenly wished us a happy married life and gave us a huge smile, then after, shook hands with Chris.

"Now what are in those boxes?" I thought to myself.

I know that I didn't want this marriage but I was kind of curious to see what was in the present that I held especially because it was light. Chris and I packed all the presents inside the house and when we were done, we had a moment of silence, wondering what next to do.

I don't know why but I am a really shy person especially around people I am not familiar with. So Chris had no choice but to speak first.

"Let's see what our friends and loved ones got us." he said as he took a seat. I sat opposite him as we started unwrapping the presents one by one.

Fine, I won't lie, I loved those presents because I never was given a wrapped present by my family or anyone before or as far as I remember. Not that my family was poor or hated presents, we were middle class and lived a comfortable life but we didn't see the need to do so.

All the presents were nothing special, just expensive material things which even the look on Chris' face could tell you he disliked the gifts.

Just as we were about to stop, one gift caught our attention. We unwrapped this big present only for us to see a baby walker in it. It embarrassed both of us badly and I could see Chris' face flush red. I was surprised as Chris' eyes turned red too and how he just got up furiously and left without a single world. Huh?

I thought I did something to upset him but soon got over it like nothing happened.

"I need to leave this God forsaken house." I thought to myself as my anger grew because of how things turned out for me. I even began hating fairytales, about living " happily ever after ". It just annoyed me thinking about it. Staying with him was going to languish my poor soul.

In the first place, why would they choose me over all the other girls for Chris? What's behind this and why didn't he object to it?

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