His Wife

6

I nervously looked at the clock. 

10 more minutes until it was seven. Or 19:00 as the email read. 

I frowned. Why would the sender write 19:00... it either meant that they were from the army and used to using 24-hour time, or they were from a different country. Or maybe it was just some random thing that all threateners did, like the 'don't tell anyone about this or else' type of thing.

I looked again. There it was... 19:00.

I nervously stood up and walked to the window. How did my secret admirer know everything? He even knew about Alexander's fever and that happened just today. I almost wanted to whimper and cry, but I couldn't. I had to face this.

I stood in front of the window, curiously looking out to see what the show would be. So far, it was silent in the streets below. Nothing was out of place or seemed different about the streets. I waited for a while longer, but there was still nothing. 

Suddenly the door opened, and I whirled around. 

I put my hand to my heart, and let out a sigh of great relief. 

"Alexander. My Lord, you scared me."

"I'm sorry. What were you doing?"

"Oh, you know, just took a little break and wanted to look out at the city. Did you need anything?"

"Yes. I need to go home. Let's go."

I nodded and followed him out the door and into the elevator. He made no efforts to hold my hand or wrap his arm around me, so I simply kept my hands to myself. 

When we got home, I forced Alexander to sit on the couch once more while I made him another cup of tea and brought out the medicine. As soon as he was done, he left the room without a single word uttered. 

I lay down and wrapped myself in the same blanket that Alexander was cuddled into this afternoon. The smell of him filled me, and I brought it closer to my face, and smelt the blanket again and again. A few tears escaped my eyes, but I quickly forced myself to stop crying.

Nothing had happened today, and I stood at that window for at least 10 minutes. This was either some awful prank, or it was just a test, and I was scared. I was scared to see what would happen. The person clearly had information on both me and my husband, and they were watching us very closely. Extremely closely.

A part of me wanted to tell Alexander, but I also wanted to solve this on my own. That was probably the stupidest idea ever of course because I'm sure he would know what to do. 

My eyes watered up again, but this time I was not able to stop and cried for a few moments. 

The secret admirer was right; they knew how to send gifts without ever being noticed or traced. That was scary because if you can deliver several bouquets of flowers, you could definitely send dangerous weapons that could easily be hidden and transported.

I felt a nauseous feeling again and rushed off to the restroom, and again, just in time. I groaned and slid down against the wall. Oh, this was all not good, not good at all.

I walked up the stairs. Alexander stopped me at the top.

"Are you alright, Maria?" He asked, touching my face. 

Suddenly, I felt that little fire tingling in my heart at the touch of his hand. I smiled to myself. That fire was still there. It was just very rare that it would light up.

He wiped away the tears. 

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Turns out you're not the only one who's sick." I said with a sigh.