?Arranged Marriage?♀️
To
a
?complete ?
? stranger?♀️?
By: worthy stories
Chapter 26
Hailey’s pov ?
But as soon as that guilty thought crossed my mind, it was replaced by another thought. Hailey was in that dress store, trying on those beautiful, revealing dresses.
What if there were other men in that store? What if they were checking her out?
I could barely take my eyes off her pictures how could men look away when she looks so much more pretty in person. What if they made a pass at her?6
That was enough for me to grab my car keys and bolt out of my office.
I asked my secretary to clear off my schedule and text me the address of the store my grandmothers and wife were shopping at. I had to go and find my wife before another man does.
—————————-
I took Hailey to a nearby restaurant to have lunch despite her protests. Right now she was sitting in front of me eating hungrily while still managing to carry her herself like a lady.
It was amazing how gracefully she carried herself all the time while still having the aura of a strong and confident woman.
She could be kind and soft and charming at one moment and sly, intimidating and bossy in the next.
“Why’d you chose the second dress?” She asked me suddenly.
“It looked beautiful,” I told her. “Besides the other two were too revealing. Couldn’t have other men staring-”
Oh $h|t, what was I saying? I couldn’t believe I just let that slip out of my mouth. She raised an eyebrow at what I had almost said, expecting me to finish my sentence.
What would she be thinking about me?
“Um..did you like the dress?” I asked trying to change the topic.
“Yes, very much,” she said happily. “It was the only one of the 22 dresses that I tried on that I actually liked.”
“You tried on 22 dresses?” I asked in disbelief.
“Yes out of the 38 dresses I checked out,” she grumbled.
“Wow, that’s got to be tiring,”
“It is,” she complained. “Which is why I rarely pick my own dresses.
Josh does that for me. He knows my size and what I like and always gets me the best dresses.”
The hell? Who the heck is this Josh and why is another man picking up dresses for my wife? And he knows her likes?
That’s creepy! And he even knows her size! Double creepy! Just imagining another man shopping for my wife and she happily wearing what he chooses was driving me crazy.
“Whose Josh?” My voice came out more grumpier than I intended but if she noticed this change, she didn’t say anything.
“He’s my PA,” she said while eating. “And he’s really good with fashion.”
“Oh so he’s gay?” I asked hopefully, remembering that guy who would sometime come to the mansion to see my wife.
I always h@ťěd how easy they were around each other.
“A man doesn’t have to be gay to like fashion,” Hailey scolded. “That’s stereotypical.”
“Of course, I didn’t mean like that,” I said quickly. “But is he? I mean he always gave off that vibes.”
“No!” Hailey exclaimed. “I mean, yea I agree that with those glasses and pants it may seem that way, but he’s not gay! He’s just high on fashion, but very much a ladies man.”
A ladies man, well that’s a relief. Note the sarcasm. Why is it that all the men around my wife are ‘ladies man’?
They are all vultures surrounding her and it makes me insecure and possessive and I don’t even understand why.
I know that I can’t say anything because it will only lead to a fight and the last thing I wanted was to be on her bad side.
Heck I still remembered how she slapped me the last time we had a conversation in this line. Yea that hurt and I’m never going to talk to her about the men in her life again.
————————————-
Hailey POV
We pulled up at an Italian cake shop that belonged to Michael Russo. I had chosen the place and gave Nathan the directions.
Surprisingly he still wanted to accompany me even when I assured him his grandparents wouldn’t know if he left.
“A Russo bakery? Why am I not surprised,” Nathan grumbled. He seemed a little off ever since we left the restaurant, I don’t know why.
“It’s a really good bakery,” I told him. “The cakes here are really awesome. Michael sent me some pastries a while back and they were so delicious. You’ll like it.”
His expression only darkened when I mentioned Michael and I wanted to kick myself for over sharing when I remembered that he didn’t like me associating with Michael.
I found it odd that Nathan wanted to do business with Michael but yet disliked the man.
I understood that business not always involved liking the other person, but still, Nathan’s blatant disapproval of Michael had me confused because from what I had gathered, Nathan had really been trying to bag a deal with Michael’s company for a long time.
“How’s your deal with Michael coming around?” I asked.
“I put forward the deal to Mr Russo, and he seemed interested,” Nathan said, stressing on the Russo part.
“But it’s only words right now, the deal is yet to be put on paper and signed.”
That made sense. Michael was still just starting out his business in America and it was imperative that he be very careful whom he does business with and where he puts his name.
For fifteen minutes now we were just going through different cake designs in the pamphlet handed to us. We were yet to decide flavour or even taste the cake.
Nathan looked bored but still insisted on remaining here yet offered no help.
When I showed him any design he said it looked good and went back to idly turning pages. That’s when I heard a familiar voice call out my name.
“Signorina Hailey,” Michael’s voice called from behind me. I stood up from the couch where we were seated and turned to greet him.
“Michael! What a pleasure,” I said as he gave me a formal hug and placed a kiss on my cheek.
The pleasure is all mine,” he said in response.
“Mr Rodriguez,” he shook hands with Nathan who had also stood up. “It’s good to see you here in my humble abode.”
“Mr Russo,” Nathan said. “It’s good to see you too. Though I wouldn’t really call this humble, it’s elegant and lavish. You’ve done a fine job at this place.”
“Well I’m glad you liked it,” Michael replied while beaming. “What brings you here? Are you two here together?”
“Well yeah we were looking for cakes for an event,” I told him.
“And Hailey here has such a high opinion of your place,” Nathan added and I thought I might have heard some bitterness in his voice but I must have imagined it.
“That’s good to know, though I was wondering when you would be taking me up on my offer,” he said to me.+
“Oh I’ve been busy these past few weeks,” I told him remembering his offer to show me around various Italian delicacies. “But one of these days I’ll definitely be bothering you for it.”
“You could never bother me signorina,” he claimed. “Now this event you were saying, is it the Rodriguez-Anderson gala?”
“Yes, how’d you know?” I asked worriedly.
“I received an invitation earlier this week,” he confessed. “And there is a lot of buzz in the media about some grand announcement. I wonder what that’s about?”
“You’ll know when you attend the party,” I told him, not falling for his trick.
“I’m sure,” he said with a smile. “So you’ll decided on any cake yet?”
“No nothing till now,” I said glancing at Nathan who was standing there, business mode.
“What flavour would you prefer?” He asked looking at the both of us.
“Red velvet” I said.
“Vanilla” Nathan said at the same time.
“Ew, I h@ťě vanilla,” I said making a face. Both men looked at me with a weird amused yet shocked look on their face. Had I said something wrong, why were they smiling at me.1
“Well vanilla’s a bit plain and I’d like something more flavoured and exciting, you know,” I explained.
“Yes we know,” Michael chuckled. Did I miss something.
“We could have a two tier cake, red velvet down and vanilla on top,” Nathan suggested, much to the two men’s amusement.
Yeah…but the outer frosting of the cake must be white and gold,” I asserted.
We spent another half an hour finalising the cake, it’s design and decorating and tasting a bunch of different cake.
The whole time, Michael was very helpful in helping me pick a cake while Nathan just sat there doing nothing and not assisting me an inch. If I asked for his opinion he told me to just do what I liked the best.
When everything was over with, I thanked Michael for his help and we both left in Nathan’s car.
“Thanks for today,” I told him. “Even though you didn’t help me much with the cake.”
“Oh I thought my help wasn’t needed,” he mocked. “Considering you had all the help you needed from a certain someone.”
Jeez someone is cranky. I didn’t rise to his bait even though I know what he was implying. We were having a good time and everything between us was going so smoothly, I didn’t want it ruined.
So I just let it slide. After some time driving silently, I knew what would cheer him up. I removed my handbag and pulled out the tie I had bought him.
I had stuffed it in the handbag because I didn’t want my grandmothers to know.
“So I got you something from when we were shopping,” I told him. He looked at me from the side of his eyes.
“It’s a tie and it’s gold in colour,” I showed him. “It matches the colour of my dress. Do you like it?”
“Yes,” he said gruffly, but I could see that the sides of his lips were lifted in a faint smile. Success.
“You will wear it for the reception, along with a white tux,” I told him.
“Will? Are you commanding me woman?” He asked playfully.
“You bet your @zz I am,” I said. “We’ve got to get you a nice white tux now.”
“Not my choice of colour,” he complained. “A white tux sounds too much like a wedding suit.”
“You do realise that this is part of our public wedding reception, right?”
“Yeah, you’re right,” he conceded.
“Oh by the way, why were you two laughing about the vanilla thing?” I asked him as I have been dying to know.
He cracked up a huge face splitting grin when I mentioned that.
“That’s for me to know, and for you to never find out,” he said cryptically.
“What? Oh come on, tell me,” I whined.
“No will do,” he said laughing out loud.
TBC ?