Just Pretend

Chapter Two

Gwen

I'm dreading going into the house. I don't have the energy to deal with Mark tonight.

I love the man to bits but he can be overbearing, pedantic, and controlling. The entire day he's been ordering me around and losing it if whatever I put down is an inch out from where he wants it. He can't seem to lose the habit of fucking the entire day up and then he wants me in his bed.

I've half a mind to sleep in the spare room tonight seeing as he went through so much trouble to set that one up first, even before he insisted we set up our bedroom.

I swing my feet in the pool, feeling the cool water lap at my calves and lean back, bracing my hands on the pavement behind me and staring up at the star-dotted sky.

I'm hoping the cross-world move will sort him and his antics out, but so far it only seems to work him up more. I sigh heavily and turn my head toward the house where my new neighbour's brother was staying. I can see him moving around behind the closed curtains and I bite my lip, remembering what he looks like.

I'm guessing he stands at six-foot-seven or eight, a good foot taller than me, with shaggy dark brown hair flopping over his forehead and into green eyes.

He's physically the type of guy I go for; with broad shoulders and back.

I don't care about the rest of a guy's looks except that.

Broad shoulders and back makes me feel protected and safe, and that's all that matters to me looks-wise.

I sigh and turn my face back to the stars, refusing to look towards my own house. I've been sitting outside for half an hour without Mark with me and I feel more at peace than I have in the last two years of our relationship.

I hadn't been the one who wanted to move; we were forced to move thanks to the number of fights we started having the last year or so, and our neighbours started complaining to the body corporate. The police had been called once on us and Mark arrested for domestic verbal abuse.

I'll give anything to have the same amount of freedom I had that weekend.

I stand up from the poolside and shake my feet off in the pool before starting to walk at a snail's pace to the gate the separated our yard from the pool, dragging my feet to make the trek even slower.

When I reach the gate, the smell of garlic marinera sauce reaches my nose and I tilt my head to the house next to mine, wishing I was joining Clarissa and her handsome Uncle Jason for dinner rather than going back into the house covered in eggshells.

With a huge sigh, I unlock and open the gate before walking in and letting it swing closed behind me.

'You took your time outside,' Mark says when he looks up from the television as I walk into the house, closing the sliding door behind me and I roll my eyes at him, knowing that he's trying to get a rise out of me.

'I told you that I was going to be a while,' he sits up in his recliner and slams it closed, standing and walking toward me. I take a step back, toward the window beside the door, knowing that anyone can see inside, and he steps up to me so that my chest was pressed against his abdomen.

'Uh huh. Whatever. Are you going to make dinner?' he asks and I look up at him in disbelief.

We unpacked the kitchen an hour ago and agreed on getting takeout on our first night. I shake my head and move to walk past him, and he pushes me back with his chest, blocking my path with his hand braced on the wall next to my shoulder.

'You can order whatever you feel like, I'm not hungry. I'm taking a shower and then I'm heading to bed. Join me or not, it's up to you,' I say knowing that he's probably going to play games with his friends rather than coming to bed with me.