“I hope you two figure things out soon.” She squeezed my arm, slipping back into the kindly sister role she had played so many times with me. “You two need anything, you just let me know, all right?”
“I will, Cleo,” I replied.
“You’re just saying that to get rid of me,” she shot back, and even though I knew she was playing around, there was an edge to her voice.
“I’ll see you soon,” I tried once more, and she rolled her eyes and made for the door. Even trying to be kind and compassionate, she still had that hard edge to her, that no-bullshit approach.
“Bye.” She slammed the door behind her, and I pressed it locked shut and leaned against it. Damn, thank God she had been out of here before Amaya got back. Last thing I needed was my sister poking her nose around the two of us, figuring out something was wrong. I didn’t know how Amaya would respond to that kind of pressure. What if she had blurted out about the contract? I would never live it down. My family would tear me apart for it.
Fuck, where was Amaya? She was supposed to be back by now, and I had arrived home early from the office to make sure everything was in place for her. I even had the screen set up in the spare bedroom, a movie picked out—something scary, like last time so the two of us could snuggle up and hold each other close like we had done at the movies. Maybe a little more. I wanted to be with her again, physically and emotionally, and this was the only way I knew how, by retracing our steps, the ones we had taken together that had led us this far.
Finally, I heard her familiar footsteps on the stairs and went to pull the door open for her as she got home.
“Hey.” I grinned as I laid eyes on her for the first time that day. She had slipped into the shower early and then out the door before I had gotten up. I’d thought she had been avoiding me, but she must have just had something early to take care of at work. I wanted to greet her with a kiss, but that could wait till later. When I had her in the mood.
“Hi.” She brushed past me, her face pale.
“Are you all right?” I asked, frowning. This wasn’t how I expected this to go.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” She waved her hand. “I just need to get some rest. I don’t feel well.”
“I have some ice cream and a movie waiting for us, if you want,” I suggested with a smile, but she shook her head, mouth set into a hard line. Fuck me, what was with the women in this house today? It seemed I couldn’t do anything right for them.
“No, I just want to be by myself,” she shot back firmly. I felt another flicker of annoyance move through me, even though I knew that she couldn’t possibly realize that my sister had turned up to piss me all the way off earlier in the day. That wasn’t her fault.
“What’s wrong? Why aren’t you feeling well?” I asked, following her to her room. She paused in the door and sighed heavily, her back to me, shoulders rising and falling dramatically as she did so.
“Look, I just don’t feel well,” she snapped back. “My stomach doesn’t feel so good. I just need to lie down. It’s been a long day.”
“You want me to get you some water and crackers or something?” I suggested, and she shook her head. She finally shot a look in my direction. If I didn’t know better, I would have said it was pity in her eyes like she felt sorry for me that I was having a hard time taking in what she was trying to get across to me.
“I just want to be left alone,” she finally replied, sounding defeated. My heart sank, but instead of just walking away like I knew I should, I found myself bristling with anger at the way she was speaking to me.
“Right, fine,” I shot back angrily. “I’ll just leave you by yourself, then, if that’s what you want.”
“It is,” she fired in my direction. “Thank you.”
She kicked the door shut behind her, right into my face, and I stood there fuming for a good few seconds before I turned and walked away. I couldn’t believe this. First my sister and now Amaya? What had I done to piss off the women in my life so much?
I sat down on the couch, and I looked over at the door, remembering that silly argument we’d had the week before that had ended when she’d started hanging my art up all over the place. I willed her silently to come out and do the same thing, to bring some of that peace back to this place, but she stayed in her room, the door resolutely shut behind her. I couldn’t even hear her moving around in there. Maybe she was feeling ill, but I had a feeling it was something more than that. The way she had stormed past me as though I had personally done something to piss her off—had I pulled something without even knowing it?
I turned back to face forward on the couch and sighed heavily. I wasn’t going to let this bother me. If she didn’t want to spend time with me, if she wanted to pretend she hadn’t seduced me right here in this living room just a few days before, then so be it. She could play it that way. But she couldn’t strip away the memories I finally had of my body against hers, of me inside her while she had clung on to me for dear life, and for now, those memories were way better than what she was pulling.
Fuck it. I was going to go out. No point hanging out here waiting for her to come around if she wasn’t going to treat me like an adult and actually tell me what the hell was going on. Without further ado, I got to my feet and headed to the bedroom I’d been using, pulling out some clothes and preparing to hit the town. Just because I was married didn’t mean I couldn’t have a little fun, right?