A Marriage without Love

No freedom...

"What are you cooking?" Ma asked smiling at me.
"Bread pudding" I smiled back at her.
"Let me help." She said taking the bowl from my hand.
"No thanks, ma. You got many households already. Please I can manage."
"Ok fine. If you need anything, just call me." She stated with a sigh while placing the bowl on the table and leaving the kitchen to continue with the households.

I had put all the ingredients in the bowl but there was something missing. Oh yeah the vanilla essence! I tried to grab the bottle from the shelf but it was out of my reach. Why am I so short? I jumped to grab it but it was in vain.

I decided to call ma when someone grabbed the bottle easily from the shelf.
"Alex? What are you doing here?" I asked, turning around to face him.

"What can't I come to meet my Cendrillon?" He replied and sat on the stool.

"I didn't mean that. You were at work with Ethan and you don't usually leave your work to come here." I said while placing the bowl in the oven.

"I didn't know that you know me so well. Nice I like it." He smirked at me.

"So tell me what's wrong?" I asked and sat on another stool next to him.

"Would you like to be my girlfriend?"

"What? I can't. I'm married. I mean I'm already in a relationship." I refused. I was astonished. Why would he asked that all of a sudden? I told him to wait a few months more. What now?

"You are in a fake relationship, Tatiana. You are the only one respecting the relationship whereas your fake husband don't give a damn about it."

"What are you talking about?" I asked confused that why he would say such thing. As long as I know Ethan won't do anything stupid so that our secret will be exposed.

"Your so called husband is having fun with his flings there and you are being the good wife here. Get out of this! He doesn't give a damn!" He said furiously.

"I know but I can't be like him. I feel guilty having some other relationship behind his or our parents back. I feel like cheating. I'm sorry. I can't do this." I said sadly.

"And what if he said you can be with me?" He asked, raising one of his perfect eyebrows.

"How? I mean when did he said that? Does he know about us?" I asked surprised about why Ethan would say this. As far as I know, he doesn't want me to be happy.

"Actually today I ran into him making out with someone and I was angry that he is cheating on you. I mean he is not respecting the relationship and I decided to give him some pieces of mind then he showed me the marriage contract and told me about the deal. I told him about how I feel about you and he told me I can be with you and he won't mind." He explained, giving me a huge smile.

"He really said that? Ok. Fine if it is like this then I would be glad to be your girlfriend." I smiled back at him and gave him a hug.

"So will you go out for lunch with me?" He asked while taking my hand in his large one.

"Yeah sure. I'll get ready." I replied, removing the delicious pudding out of the oven and went to my room to wear something nice.

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"Here we are." I hear Alex's voice. I don't know how during the ride I fell asleep. I opened my eyes with difficulty to see we were at a restaurant.