I focused on work the rest of the day, knowing I had plenty to catch up on after my trip. First things first, I got the contracts discreetly drawn up by my lawyer so we actually had something on paper for her to sign. I had him sign a nondisclosure agreement and that was that. We were off on the right foot. She could sign them as soon as she arrived home, and we would be locked down for good. As though meeting my family hadn’t been enough to ensure that already.
I was surprised at how quickly the day went by, but then that was always the case when you were dreading what the next day would bring. I could imagine my father and his new wife barreling toward me over the ocean, the plane probably running on his barely-contained rage. It would have been funny if I weren’t dreading it so much. Damn, I really needed to get Cleo in hand and remind her I was the one running the business now and she should value my privacy first and foremost.
I stopped working at five. The best thing about working for yourself was you didn’t have to stick late around the office if you weren’t feeling it, so I headed home. I had sent Amaya out with my driver this morning, so he wasn’t there to pick me up, but that was fine. I had driven myself in, and I actually enjoyed taking myself home, spending the time trying to clear my head and take out whatever anger I had on the pedal and the brake instead of myself.
I wasn’t looking forward to seeing my father, and there was some part of me urging me to make a break for it. He couldn’t confront me if I wasn’t here. But hadn’t I done this in the first place because I was so determined to prove to him and my family in general that I was settled down and didn’t need their help finding anyone? I would undercut that if I hit the bricks as soon as they got pissed about it. Besides, Nonna liked her. Maybe my father would come around on her quickly, as well. Fuck, she even bore a passing resemblance to his last wife, and maybe some of those old memories invoked would work in my favor. Either way, I knew I had to face up to him. They might have been crazy, but they were my family, and what was I keeping Amaya around for but to please them?
I arrived home to an empty apartment, and I found myself a little disappointed. What was the point of having a wife around if she wasn’t there to greet you with a kiss when you came through the door? Well, that was what I got for marrying a career woman, I supposed. Oh, and for engaging in a sham marriage to fool my family. That too.
I realized my stomach was growling, and it suddenly hit me that I hadn’t had anything to eat all day. I had been too lost in thought in how to deal with my family to focus on food, work filling my head where a meal perhaps should have instead. I was too tired to cook, so I rooted through the takeout menus in my drawer until I came across something that caught my fancy, a pizza place not far from here that would probably deliver quickly enough to sate my hunger before it got too bad. I laid down the contracts for Amaya carefully on the table, called the pizza place, and ordered a selection, enough for the two of us. I almost forgot she would need something to eat when she arrived home as well. It was so strange, considering someone else’s needs as well as my own, and it would take a while to get my head around. I supposed she'd had to do that for years already, since her parents passed away, when she had stepped up to take care of her sister. I respected her so much for that, especially because her sister had such a strong personality and sense of herself. It couldn’t have been easy taking care of her on top of studying on top of providing for both of them too.
The pizza arrived twenty minutes later, and I grabbed the couple of steaming boxes from the delivery guy and handed him a generous tip. Heading back to the counter, I started to flick through the contracts as I pulled out a slice and started to tuck in. It was weird to think I would be getting my wife to sign these papers, the woman I was supposed to love, but I had no choice. No matter what odd connection I felt with her, she needed to sign these papers and make this relationship even more official than it already was.
A year, though. A whole year together. That was a long time. And I liked what I had learned already about her, so why not actually try to get to know her a little more? I took another bite of my pizza as I scanned over the contracts one last time. It might sound crazy, but I guessed I should get to know my wife.