The Cinderella Bride (NaNoWriMo14)

Chapter Four

CHAPTER FOUR

In my life, there have been very few people that I don’t understand. I love talking to and learning about new people, their very thought processes intrigues me yet confuses me at the same time. Carter was one of the few people I didn't understand.

The first time we met again after six years of not speaking, I deemed him an idiot playboy. Now, I don’t know what I should think of him, because in the few days we’ve been married he hasn’t been acting the way he would usually act when around me.

His every word and move is calculated. It feels like he doesn’t want to let himself go when around me, like he doesn’t even want to form a relationship with me.

We have travelled to Rome, the city that has been deemed the most romantic place on earth, but even now he acts as if this ‘honeymoon’, as Sean put it, is as tiresome as my company. I know this because I asked him to come along with me to visit the Galleria Borghese, and he flat-out rejected my invitation. I thought he was tired, so I left him in the hotel room, got a tour guide, and travelled around Rome for a while.

The Galleria Borghese was absolutely gorgeous, I especially loved the sculptures presented there, they made me wonder of a time before mine. The more I saw, the more I fell in love with Rome.

I then decided to take a walk around the town, occasionally trying different Italian foods. Well, as many types I could afford, after all, I was certain that the money I had was already on the verge of depletion. I caught a cab and went back to the hotel.

My feet were hurting a lot by the time the cab driver dropped me off, I mentally scolded myself for deciding to wear the pinchy heels I had taken from my new wardrobe, the one that apparently fit the conventions of a Richmond bride.

Now, as I step out of the cab after having paid the driver, I proceed to walk to the hotel. I try not to focus on the pain in my throbbing feet, and instead glance at the watch on my right wrist. It read 11 o’clock. Yikes. I’d been gone for a full twelve hours. Let's hope Carter doesn't mind too much.

'What are you even talking about? You know he doesn’t give two shits.' a voice in my head tells me. I sigh, it’s true. If Carter even cared, he would have called me long ago.

I walk into the elevator and press the number 7, I then reach into my handbag, also from the new wardrobe, and grab my phone, making sure I was right about the fact Carter hadn’t called.

The empty screen confirmed what I already knew. No messages, no calls. It hurt me a little that Carter didn’t care to check up on me. Yes, I am aware of the fact that he said he wouldn’t dote on me or treat me like he would a wife, but I feel like I’m nothing but a means to an end.

I shake my head, trying to clear the thoughts in my mind and attempting to tell myself that by the end of this year, I’ll be divorced with him and debt less, and that was a lot more important to me.

The doors of the elevator open and I walk past it, turning a corner to reach my room. What I find in front of the room door is something I didn’t expect to see. It is an unconscious body.

I look at the room and realize the door is half open.

Warning bells start to ring in my head as I kick the guy on the floor, resulting in his hair flopping to the side. “Speak of the devil and he will appear.” I mumble. I then bend down and hit his cheek softly, “Hey, Carter, wake up.”

He groans, “Well, at least you're alive.” I mumble, and pick up his arm, “Cart, get up, you can’t sleep here.” Like a child, he sits up tiredly, and I pick up the strong smell of alcohol. He’s been drinking.