Marriage of convenience

Chapter 3

It was late in the night when Ray came back home. I was already very sleepy, so I dozed off on the couch watching TV and woke up when I heard the door rattle. He walked in and got a scare when he saw me.

"What are you doing here?" He asked. "Where are the others?"

"They are all asleep," I replied yawning.

"You look tired. Go upstairs and sleep."

"They occupied both the rooms," I sighed. "They wanted me to sleep with you, tonight. Even all my clothes are in your drawers." He looked at me horrified and I sighed. "Don't worry, I wasn't planning on sleeping with you anyway. The couch will do just fine. Also, I'll shift all of the clothes once they leave. You go ahead and sleep."

"Um, it is cold," he frowned.

"Ah, you realized!" I chuckled. "That's okay. Go on and sleep."

He just nodded and went into his room and shut the door behind him. A cold breeze blew in and I shivered a little. Ah, those people thought that I'd sleep with Ray anyway and didn't even give me a blanket! I was gonna freeze to death. I curled up into a fetal position and tried to warm myself when a click of the door was heard and a huge cloth was dumped on my face. Gasping, when I came out, I saw a warm blanket and a pillow on me and heard Ray's door being shut.

Well, praise the lord! I'm not gonna die just yet.

The next day was the day when I was officially going to join the university. All the documents were submitted and my late admission was accepted under special circumstances. Mr. Kingsley had a way of persuading people with his money. I was given a student ID and when I entered the actual campus, it was easily 50 times bigger than my previous college. After walking around the campus and gaping at the infrastructure and the student body, Mr. Kingsley bought me a phone which was way more expensive than the one I had earlier. We spent most of the time outside and with my grandparents. When the evening came, my heart hammered as they all packed their clothing and got into a car. They were going to leave today and I was going to be all alone with Ray. I would no longer have my old friends, old college and my old house. Things took a U turn and left me stranded in a different country with a total stranger because of a whirlpool of incidents.

The airport arrived and unexpectedly, holding in tears became a very difficult task for me. And for the first time in my life, I saw my grandmother giving me a knowing look and shedding tears for me. And also for the first time, my Grandfather looked stronger than my Grandmother. My in laws kissed us both on the cheeks and bade us goodbye.

"Remember, if anything happens and you need any help, call me," Grandma said and I nodded in silence, not trusting my own voice. I didn't want to cry while sending them off. It wasn't as if I was going to be here forever. As Ray said, we would find some loophole to this deal and we would get out of it. And when I do, I would be free again and back with my old things.

They soon left and Ray and I drove back home in absolute silence. I just kept looking out of the window, trying to figure out what my game plan would be starting now. The car stopped in front of the villa which loomed over us like something dark and scary. For the first time, fear kicked in and I realized that it was a scary world once we were all alone.

"What are you waiting for? Come on in,"Ray said and opened the door. When we got in, he shut the door behind us and sat on the couch. "We need to have a talk."

"About freaking time," I mumbled and sat across him.

"First, I am not accepting you as my wife," he said strongly.

"Neither am I," I shrugged.

"Second is that you will be called my relative who is staying at my house for studying if anyone gets to know that we are living together. Otherwise, don't contact me at all while we are in the university. Only in extreme emergency, give me a call. We will basically live our lives as strangers in the university. Okay?"