Page 6 of Playing Hardball
This conversation is making zero sense. He’s looking at me like I’m an idiot but I don’t care. As long as he’s talking to me. He places a hand on my knee and that’s when I notice that they had been bouncing up and down. My anxiety is showing.
“That was driving me crazy,” he whispers.
I feel a sort of burning sensation on the part of my leg he touched. It’s enclosed in black leggings but that does nothing to cool the heat. My reaction is totally weird. I hope he doesn’t notice how much a mere touch affected me. Although I’m sure my cheeks are red. He doesn’t comment on it, thankfully. He just goes right back to ignoring me.
“Wesley,” I start. “You can’t keep ignoring me. We’re going to have to pretend to be a married couple. The least we could do is get along.”
“It’s not exactly my favorite thing to do,” he says gruffly. I want to say obviously, but I hold my tongue.
“It’s pretty easy, honestly. The first step is getting to know each other. We could play twenty questions,” I say excitedly.
The look he gives me crumbles the excitement to dust.
“I’m not a child. I’m a full-grown man. I don’t play juvenile games. I’m also not telling you my real name,” he adds.
I smirk, how did he know that was my goal? Why doesn’t he like me anyway?
The thought of the several possible reasons he doesn’t like me makes me think of something. What better way to spend time away with him than to turn this into a game? He tries to keep hating me, and I turn on the charm and see if he breaks. This is more exciting because he’s prudish and churlish but in an adorable kind of way.
I glance at my new husband and just know I’m going to enjoy this. He’s going to be constantly pissed, and the thought of him snarling at me makes me giggle.
“This is going to be fun,” I whisper under my breath.
“What?” he asks, turning to aim a disinterested gaze at me.
“Nothing,” I say, and try my best not to smile.
Chapter 4
(Benton)
______
Kimberly falls silent but it’s a worrying silence. She looks like she’s scheming and I’m afraid to ask what she’s thinking. She seems like the kind of woman who takes things too far and I’m wondering if I’ve pushed her too much. Nevertheless, she does nothing out of the ordinary after the plane lands and right through the drive to Fairfield.
When Thomas described Fairfield as a small, sleepy town, he wasn’t wrong. I notice that the town has a lot of coffee shops and parks. There seems to be one of each on every street. The houses are nice and everywhere looks so clean. The people watch our car as we drive past. I can imagine they don’t see new faces too often. We must be the subject of town gossip with our arrival. I start to feel like maybe I should have listened to Kim. These people are going to be very watchful of us. We’re going to have to try hard to sell it to them that we’re a married couple.
Except, I take one glance at her and the feeling in my gut intensifies. The feeling that tells me not to trust her because she has a lot of secrets. The feeling also tells me not to get close to her because I might end up getting hurt. I’m a big believer in following your gut. When it comes to Kimberly, I’ll stay away. It's the only way I see myself surviving this ordeal.
She’s on her phone, scrolling through and not paying me the littlest bit of attention. I wonder where the energetic, talkative woman went.
“Do you think we should get groceries?” I ask, a little unnerved by her silence.
She shakes her head.
“Your boss said the house would have already been stocked with everything to make life comfortable for us,” she tells me.
I think on the fact that she referred to Thomas as my boss. He is, in a sense, but I realize she only said it like that because she has no idea what his name is. I don’t think any of my friends told her their names. It’s not like we’re not allowed to. But names have power, and like me, they must also think they cannot trust her enough with theirs.
“Alright, good,”I say and we revert back to silence.
Finally, we reach the house. My first thought when I see it is, it’s too big for us. We’re going to draw too much attention living in a house that is clearly not meant for 2 people. It’s a house with two floors and it looks similar to most of the others on the street. Black, pitched pointy roofs and two car garages. Manicured lawns and mailboxes encased in stone. It’s the perfect suburban house, in a small sleepy town. Except it’s clearly meant for a family with kids and not two newlyweds.
“We’re newly-weds by the way,” I tell Kim, realizing we didn’t go over even the most basic thing. It’s my fault though. She definitely tried. She nods before exiting the car.
We carry our minimal luggage into the house and then we separate to browse. Kimberly decides to take a bedroom upstairs and I take one downstairs. Soon we have an arrangement that works. I’m so exhausted and jet-lagged that I fall asleep as soon as my back hits the bed.
Before I went to bed though, I made sure to tell Kimberly the rules. We don’t talk unless we need to. We don’t interact unless we need to. The house is big enough for both of us to go about without stepping on the other’s toes.
