The convenient marriage

Chapter 5. The man she married

'Two little babies jumping on the bed,

One fell off and bumped his head,

Mama called the doctor and the doc...' Joyfully sang Aria as she took a plate of hot pasta from the counter and wanted to sit at a small table near the window. But she froze in place seeing an unfamiliar face by the door. 

Well not really unfamiliar, as it would be unusual to think of your own husband as such, but considering Aria had met the man in front of her eyes two times before, then did not meet him for two weeks, he might as well be a stranger.

The fright she got caused her hand to suddenly flinch, so a little bit of the hot sauce got on her fingers, scalding them.

'Ouch...' she yelped, and quickly placed the plate on the counter, not letting it go until she was certain it was firmly placed on the counter, even though the burn hurt a lot. She was scared she would drop it on herself and scald her belly.

'Did you scald yourself?' Asked Zane entering the kitchen, but still keeping a little bit of distance from her.

'N-no, it was only a little bit warmer. I am alright!' Aria replied, trying to hide her hand. What would be the point to tell him she indeed scalded her hand, it was not like he would care. And anyway, perhaps he had only returned for a little bit, tomorrow she would not see him and he would not know the truth.

'On your right, in the top drawer there should be a small aid kit. It would certainly have a burn cream inside!' Zane said, ignoring her previous words, as he was walking towards the fridge to get a bottle of water.

Aria did not say anything more, there would be no point in arguing. So she did as he instructed and opened the drawer and there indeed was an aid kit, the problem was the top drawer was certainly at the top. Raising her small hand as much as she could muster and standing even on her toes, unfortunately was still not enough, she could not reach it. The huge belly also did not help as it obstructed her from getting a bit closer.

Just as she was about to give up on retrieving the box, her view darkened, as a huge shadow covered her petite figure, and a bigger hand appeared near her smaller one, taking out the box with ease.

She instinctively turned around surprised, but did not take into consideration that for Zane to retrieve the box, he had been standing fairly close to her, so as she faced him, she closed that distance for good.

Feeling his warmth through the clothes at the points were their body touched, seemed to scald her even more than the burn from the hot sauce, as he only wore a t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants, and she also only had on a comfortable maternity dress. So she quickly stepped back, only to bump into the counter.

'Ouch...' She voiced the pain that could not be suppressed, her back was already hurting because of the weight, so the bump hurt much more than it normally would.

Zane looked at the petite clumsy woman that seemed to get hurt each time he was near. Was she always so inattentive and hurt so easily? He should have a talk with the butler so that a servant girl would always be near her. At this rate she could get seriously hurt.

Zane would not know, as he had only been with her a very few times, that in fact the only times she got hurt was near him. His lack of personal distance and mechanical movements, was something Aria could not get used to.

'You are really clumsy!' Zane blurted out. The words slipped out of his mouth unintentionally, which was weird for him as he never said anything without really meaning to before. Not to mention, he had never payed Aria so much attention that he would bother to say anything about her actions, words or anything that had to do with how she was in general for that matter.