Married to my Enemy

Chapter 9

I was trying really hard not to do any damage to this girl across the floor with the laser beams that were shooting out of my eyes. Kohl stiffened. Just as he was just about to turn to look over to where I was glaring, I held his shoulders in place.

"No!" I whimpered. "Hold my waist, both hands", he looked confused but let go of my hand and placed it on my waist. "Okay...?" he questioned, I smiled and put both my hands around his neck. I needed to test my theory, so I tip-toed and gave him a peck on the cheek. If he wasn't confused before, he definitely was now.

"Uh, Dara is something going on?", "No, just keeping up appearances hehe" "Okay. I'm pretty sure everyone here knows our situation and did you just say 'hehe' out loud" he shook his head. I rolled my eyes, "I'm getting a drink" I changed the subject. "I'll go and get us some drinks. Meet you back at our table" he offered.

I looked over again to see whether the girl had reacted to my tested theory and it looked like she had seen us in action, well I don't think a peck on the cheek really counts as action but this isn't the point here. The point here is that she had seen us and her dazed expression had been replaced with something familiar, jealousy? She made her exit from the floor too.

As I headed back to our table, Ella, the bride stopped me, "Hi! Dara, right? It's so nice to finally meet you, I'm sorry I couldn't come to your wedding but I'm sure it was great!" she said enthusiastically. "'Great', there's that word again", I mumbled not that I really remember how mine and Kohl's wedding had gone, if anything I willed the memory out of my head. Ella went "hmm?" I shook my head saying it was nothing and we spoke for a while, she seemed really nice. I looked over to the drinks stand to look out for Kohl but couldn't see him there. I excused myself as Ella's mum joined us to talk to her daughter about the lighting. Or complain probably.

I contemplated for a moment about whether or not to go look for Kohl. I decided that I wouldn't want to come across as those wives who had to stick with their husbands every single minute of the day so I sat down at our table. But I couldn't take it anymore, curiosity took over.

"Hey Jay, do you know where Kohl is?" I asked Kohl's cousin who was furiously typing away at his phone. I asked once more and finally got his attention "I think I saw him head towards the lobby." I thanked him and made my way to look for Kohl. There was a huge pole by the lobby of the hotel and I could kind of see the back of his head so I headed towards him "Hey Kohl, did you forget you were getting me a drink?"

He turned around with a guilty look on his face. That was when I regretted looking for him because I saw her. That girl, the one who couldn't keep her eyes off of Kohl when we were dancing. Kohl looked so flustered "Urm Dara, this is May, an old... friend." "Hiya! Oh, Kohl, we were more than that, silly" she said ever so enthusiastically, throwing a wink in there too. Great. He let a low sigh. Just great.

"Ah, I must've interrupted your... catch-up talk, I'll leave you guys to it." "If you must!" said May, with way too much excitement. "No that's okay Dara, we were done anyway," Kohl said to me, but I was already speeding away.

"Hey Dara, wait up!" Kohl called out to me. When we came to a corner where the bathrooms were. "It's not what it looks like!" So, this is what it feels like. It's as if I've walked into a great pile of horse dump, I don't know how to process anything. Stranger girl, that I was making jealous, didn't need to feel jealous at all because this strange girl isn't a stranger?"

Look Kohl, I get it, we're not together, well we are, technically married, lawfully husband and wife and whatnot, but we're not really together. But this, I mean, I don't know how to wrap it around my head, it doesn't feel great? There's that word again hah. But even though we're not really together, cheating, I mean-" "Dara, I gotta cut you there, can you please let me speak woman. I didn't cheat, I'm not cheating, past and present tense. She was an ex-girlfriend." He sighed. "Ex for a reason, I want nothing to do with her."

What did I do to deserve being stuck in a love triangle?

We sat on the steps somewhere quiet as he told me about May. "She's mad Dara, she was only with me for my name, not me. It's been 4 years, she screwed me up pretty bad. I didn't get with anyone since her, when she left me alone I realised everything wrong about us. I got over her but now she's back trying to... I don't know reignite what we had. I can tell you with 100% confidence that she's only back because she knows I'm married." Now it was my turn to sigh "But if she knows you're married, isn't that more reason to back off?" I said smoothly, sounding unaffected.

I didn't know how to process anything that I was hearing. The fact that Kohl wasn't cheating on me, the fact that he hadn't been with anyone since May. Everything was just confusing.

"She heard that our marriage was purely arranged." "Which it was" I agreed. "And that we don't love each other" he continued. "Oh," I said, "so she's trying to sabotage us?" I asked. "Yep," he agreed.

"Wow..." I said aloud, "Shameless, I know" he finished for me. "I was going to say what a bitch but I like yours better, let's go with that," I said, forcing a smile. He raised an eyebrow and smirked. "So, you don't have any feelings for her like that?" I asked. "No, trust me. All feelings lost there, I feel nothing for her at all."

We settled in silence for a few moments when Kohl broke it, with a question "So, earlier I noticed that May was on the dance floor too, the peck on the cheek. Was that for show, for her?" We both blushed simultaneously. I twisted a strand of hair nervously. I was ready to plead the fifth. "I mean if it was, good. Because it got to May. So, this kind of gave me an idea... You don't have to go along with it but if we can somehow, you know convince her...?" "What are you asking me, Kohl?" "Will you fake it with me? Pretend we love each other? So, May can back off?"

As much as I wanted to agree, what would we have to do to convince her?

"Okay, what do we have to do?"

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MTME readers, thank you for still following on if you've been here from the beginning! I'm sorry I took so long :( I hope you enjoy these new chapters! Please vote and comment, it means a lot!