I don’t respond. I scoop my wife up in my arms. She snuggles into my chest, only waking slightly before her soft snores alert me she’s gone back to sleep.
“Goodnight, Evelyn.” Without looking back at her, I carry Tiffany through the house toward our bedroom. The bedroom she’s been adamant I stay clear of.
I place her down on the bed before I pull the covers back on her side.
“Tiff, baby, get under the covers.” I shake her slightly trying to rouse her.
“No,” she grumbles, pushing my hand away.
I chuckle before lifting her up and placing her under the covers.
She rolls to her side, tucking her hand under her cheek the same way our son does. I can’t resist those luscious lips that I’ve been deprived of. I place a kiss on her lips. The one quickly turns into four.
“Nico,” she calls out my name.
“Yeah, Angel. It’s me.”
She doesn’t open her eyes as she speaks. “Are you going to leave us?”
Her questions cause the line between my brows to appear. My face is scrunched up like I smell something rotten. How the fuck could she ever think that?
“Probably because you’ve been avoiding her like a fucking plague for the last five days.”
The thought wrecks me with shame. I’ve made my heartbeat believe I didn’t want her anymore. This woman should never question whether I want her.
“Listen to me,” I say, leaning closer to her. “You will never have to worry about me leaving you. You’ve got me forever, baby.”
She’s silent, and for a moment I think she has slipped back to sleep.
Finally, she speaks. “I love you.”
I shut my eyes as I absorb those words. All the bullshit, all the memories and the disgust I was feeling today washes away with those three words. The heaviness I’ve been carrying the last few days, the roaring in my ears, all seem to dissipate at that admission. I duck my head, fighting back my emotions.
Lifting to look at her, I kiss her again. “I love you so fucking much.”
I’m greeted by her light snore. I have to laugh. She didn’t hear me, but it’s okay. I say it enough when she’s awake.
Like I do most nights, I crawl behind my wife and pull her into me. I’m an early riser, so I don’t have to set an alarm clock to wake me. I’ll be up before Tiffany, like I do every morning I sneak and sleep with her. She will never know I was here.
chapter fifteen
Followed
Tiffany
Three weeks have passed since I tried to stay up late and wait for my husband to come home. I ended up falling asleep while watching highlights of the Knicks game.
That night I wanted to get to the bottom of our problems. I was tired of him staying out late and leaving before I woke up. We could not survive that way. And though I talk a lot of noise about needing him to open up or let me go, I wasn’t ready to stop fighting for my marriage.
I fell asleep, and the conversation never happened. However, I guess it didn’t need to happen because since that night, Nico is always there before I go to work in the morning and he’s home to eat dinner with us every night. It’s like night and day. No, we haven’t spoken about the fight or why he was avoiding me. But we are in a good place right now. At least I’m able to see him.
I took Mira’s advice and used my husband’s connections to get a nice dress. The Aurelia Award for Interior Design and Excellence presentation is next week. Although I appreciated Ezra and his sister’s thoughtful gift, I didn’t feel comfortable wearing the dress. I think he’s kind of felt the rift the gift brought between us.
In the last three weeks, he has been very brief in our correspondence. The few times I’ve had to go to the house tocheck in with the contractors, he has been MIA. Only Lauren is there.
Last week, my husband informed me that he would be out of the country during the week of the award ceremony. I guess it was a good thing I hadn’t planned on asking him to go with me. I think his trip even further proves that he didn’t want to go. The man won’t even let me leave the house without a driver and bodyguard. Yet you expect me to believe he wanted me to ask him to go with me to an event? If he wanted to go somewhere with me, he’d just show up. He wouldn’t ask. That’s been his MO since we met, apparently. As of now, Mira is still my plus one.
“Hey, Jake, do you mind swinging me by the market before we head home? I want to get Ms. Rose some of that honey-flavored tea she likes so much. We’re out at home.”
