When the clock struck 9, Vance knocked on the door of the bedroom. Within few minutes, Nicolette woke up and the two had breakfast.
I can cook better than this, Nicolette thought. Soon she felt Vance stare on her and looked up. Her mouth was full was food and she bounced her head a little questioning him.
"How did I cook?" He asked straightforward. "Good enough," Nicolette smiled.
After the breakfast, he finally asked her to help adjusting the study room. What really surprised him was the girl's strength. He would've never believed that she could move the table more than he could alone. Though she has a good height, she looked a little thinner than what would be considered normal. She did not belong to the model size but she looked petite enough for him to think it was awkward to ask her help a strenuous work. He thought he should never give her a chance to know that.
Holding the table one side each, the two moved it so as to make the room accommodating.
"So we are buying a bed to keep in your small cozy home for me?" The sarcasm in Nicolette's voice was very obvious.
Vance was equally obvious with the tight smile he gave her.
"This is my favourite room. I hope you can appreciate my considerateness. I ordered an airbed so it's not going to take up more space." He smiled again with his lips pursed, a little upset. Did she really not like this place? For him, the first time his friend showed him the flat, he was in love with it.
Nicolette remained oddly silent for a while. "Did you really think of getting me an airbed?" Seriously? She thought, she would just feel like she is camping everyday if she is to sleep her night on an airbed. Without a doubt, Nicolette was a much classier woman than she would seem.
"Yeah, it should be arriving by tomorrow."
"If you like this room, why don't you take this and I will sleep in the bedroom?" The AC was being wasted too, she remembered.
"What? Why?"
She wanted to say that she did not like airbeds or that she needed the AC. But the first option seemed rude and the second one seemed pretentious. The weather wasn't exactly hot.
She sighed in the end. But she wasn't looking forward to use that cheap plastic foam to sleep on.
Though Nicolette was an easygoing person with an adjusting attitude, she is stubborn with her beliefs. She was a servile person to outsiders and her parents. She was herself only with her brother. At home, she was given enough freedom and her parents didn't lecture her on her habits.
Somewhere it struck a raw never at the thought of adjusting for the sake or pleasing Vance. She wasn't doing it. She would rather spread sheets over sheets of blankets on the floor.
"You and your barbie house," she muttered under her breath before walking out.
When Vance heard what she said, he was cross. Though she seemed to talk to herself, he knew she intended for him to hear her. He felt insulted.
"Fine, you take the bedroom," he shouted after her for she was already in the living room.
She turned around and said a perfunctory thanks. This was not the Nicolette everyone knew. She knew she was being unreasonable in her heart. Her behaviour with him just then was opposite of what she idealised. But for what odd reason, she did not know.
She went into the bed room and sat down on the double bed. Opening her laptop, she worked for a straight three hours on the graphics of the game she was currently working on. A low rumble of her stomach reminded her that it was past noon. She hesitated before going out of the bedroom.
It was pretty odd that she was on bad terms with someone which almost never happened. She thought she should say sorry and get over with it. Determined, she rose from the bed.
She found Vance just as she came out of the room. He was already setting the table for lunch. The movement caught his attention and he greeted without looking her way. "Lunch is ready," he said.
She thought that she has to cook dinner tonight. "Thank you," she said and joined him. They had lunch silently. But unlike morning, this time, Vance was minding his own business. As though she wasn't sitting across him or more like, he made himself non existent to her.
After the lunch, Nicolette offered to clean up the table. Vance then dropped the work and went into the study without a work or even a look. She knew she was in the wrong this time so she didn't blame him.
Inside the study room, Vance sat in the chair and lied his head down on the table, facing the big window. He did not have the mood to check his files nor do anything work related. His door was left ajar and he hoped to see what he could through the gap once in a while.
What an unproductive day, he thought. He remembered how she called the place a barbie house. What kind of an unreasonable woman did he marry? Her work place was much closer from here than her home.
He didn't want to think about it all the time so he decided to take a stroll in the park. But as he swung the door open, Nicolette stood in the way.
"What's up?"
"I am sorry. I was in a bad mood perhaps." This time Nicolette spoke to him with sincerity.
Vance's gloom came back. Ah, first fight after marriage, he thought. "It's okay, forget it."
Then seeing him holding his phone and jacket, she asked if he was going somewhere.
"The park," he curtly answered.
"Can I come along?" When Nicolette asked, Vance thought it was funny.
"Yeah."
The two of them went out together. However, something did not seem right to the two.
Standing in front of the lift, Vance was the first to crack up and Nicolette didn't hold back either. The two burst out laughing as the doors of the lift opened.