Marriage Merger

Chapter 32

The reception ended late, which resulted in Ximena and Adriano postponing their flight to their honeymoon until the next day. It had been a really enjoyable party, save for the predatory looks she received from Humberto and his hollow eyes. He had been acting weird, well, weirder than usual and had flashed smiles at her whenever she looked at him. He was definitely up to something and a feeling in the bottom of her stomach told her it was big and had something to do with him.

Her family and friends had been so elated about the wedding that they kept gushing about how the two looked so good together. Dolores kept winking at her, which caused Ximena to blush profusely because of the confession she had made to her mother earlier that day. Andrea seemed to have cozied up to Omar, which Ximena did not like at all and she made a mental note to talk to her little sister about it.

Much to everyone’s surprise, Salvador had invited his girlfriend as his date. For starters, nobody even knew he had a girlfriend and she was really beautiful and intelligent. He barely paid attention to anyone or anything for that made, keeping his attention trained on his dark-skinned date. Ximena was genuinely happy for him, but sad at the same time because nobody really knew much about Salvador and his mysterious ways. What more could he be hiding?

And who could forget about Santiago and his continuous pursuit of her best friend, Chelsea? By the looks of it, she was barely acknowledging his advances and he was getting more desperate each passing second. Heck, he was even close to begging her for him to take her out at least once. Chelsea was just playing hard to get and really wanted to see how far he was willing to go. She had heard of his womanizing and it left a bitter flavor in her mouth. If he was willing to put up with her constant rejection, then one of these days she might be inclined to say yes to him…at least once.

Laying her head on the couch in the living room of the hotel room they had booked for the night, Ximena closed her eyes and exhaled deeply after reminiscing about the day. Adriano was taking a shower and she had left the bedroom to give him some privacy. Although she had just come to terms with her feelings for him, she wasn’t quite ready to take their relationship to the next level. She still wanted the barriers left in place for the time being Beside her, her phone began to ring and she answered it without even looking at the caller id.

“Hello?”

“Hi Ximena.” It didn’t take long for her to recognize who it was.

“Dom!” she squealed in delight and sat upright. “Hey, you didn’t come to my wedding! Did you not get my invite?” she pouted even though he couldn’t see her.

He sighed loudly. “I did get your invite and I’m sorry…but I couldn’t come. Uh, something came up,” he replied, his voice sounding a bit strained. Was he in pain?

“It’s okay. So, how are you anyway? I can’t wait to get back to the office and work together again.”

He paused. “About that…I was thinking about leaving,” he said lowly and she frowned immediately.

“Leaving? You can’t leave, Dom. You’re like the best assistant I have ever had!”

“I’m the only assistant you have ever had,” he added lightly but she didn’t laugh at his quip.

"I will not let you quit. In fact, you’re not allowed to quit. Dom, you’re my friend and I need you. I can’t imagine going to the office without you! Please don’t do this to me, Dom. I can’t lose you,” she trailed off, sniffling in the process.

Sensing that she was about to cry, he said, “Okay, okay. I won’t quit. Just don’t cry. I never want to make you cry. I can’t live with myself knowing I made you cry.” She then burst out into a fit of giggles. He then tsked. “Should have known you’d trick me. Why do you always do this! You always manipulate and black mail me…”