Gwen rolled her eyes as she picked up the stack of envelopes on the kitchen table, sifting through bills, and random spam mail. Nothing was new today.
Pastel pink letters and bright white sheets accented the mahogany wood under them. Gwen found herself staring at the assortment of letters on the table, at a loss on where to start. Her parents had been paying her own bills for the last 3 years. So when she heard that his parents had not paid for his, she smiled. That meant he had a job.
He walked out of the house at like nine in the morning and quickly drove off. She assumed that he was one of Randall's little goons. In the arms of comfort, she took a bag of stale popcorn from the pantry as she sat on the couch. He took her phone while she was asleep. She expected that. He also left a list of chores does her to do in the meantime.
She searched his room, wondering if he had anything she would need to be wary of. Many of the men in Roanoke kept weapons in close vicinity. She found two handguns, a rifle, and a machete. The machete was dull but still looked like it could slice through bone.
Her father always carried a handgun. Being a black man in Roanoke led to a lot of unwanted confrontation. Although, he had become somewhat respected by the community. He was an honest man who didn't bother anyone and took care of his family through a legit business.
But she couldn't exactly say what kind of business that her new self-proclaimed husband was leading. She looked in his study to find practically nothing. He had told her to vacuum all the rooms in the house. This wasn't anything new for her. She lived alone and had practically been forced to clean and do laundry.
She sighed, this wasn't how she planned using her bachelors in engineering. She wished she was actually still in Chicago. She wished that she was still with Brett.
Brett wasn't much compared to Aaron, but he was much better to deal with. She loved touching his hard chest after a night of knocking around. She kissed him every time they went to sleep. She also dressed him up when she spent a night in his place. She knew Aaron wouldn't be as romantic, not that she wanted him to be. He didn't love her and that was that. He just liked her body enough and wanted to keep her in Roanoke.
Well, she would escape, no matter what happened. She would take her things and disappear. Hopefully not pregnant. She looked around the house to find if there was anyone he was still seeing. But after turning up empty-handed, she decided that she had to do a more extensive search to see if there were any girlfriends or secretaries.
She heard the front door swing open and slam behind him. He was home and most likely unhappy. She stuffed her mouth with more bland popcorn. It wasn't her problem if something crawled up his ass.
She saw him stomp into the living room and stand menacingly in the doorway. Blue eyes studying the scene.
"What the hell are you watching?" he asked.
"Oh, some movie on FOX. I think it's about--"
"Didn't I leave chores for you to do?"
She nodded, stuffing her mouth with more popcorn. Something had definitely gotten to him at work.
"I did them," she said with a full mouth.
"Don't talk with your mouth full," he said, taking a seat on the recliner. She saw stress bags under his eyes and wondered how much he did at work.
"Are you ok?" she asked.
"Get me a glass of water," he ordered. "Also get dinner going, we're having an early evening."
Too scared to ask what he meant by an early evening, she slunk to the kitchen and got his water. He stared at the television as he scrolled through his phone.
"So, his name is Brett?"
Gwen felt herself choke on air as he turned around and looked at her.
"What?"
"I saw your text messages. They were...enlightening," he said, half chuckling. "Also, I guess your no longer a virgin."
She frowned, he found her being desperate for him funny. She'd show him what was exactly funny about that. She carried the cup of water into the room, trying her best to not cry.
"You also sent him pictures," he mentioned, as she handed him the glass. "Did he ask you to send him those?"
"...No," she said.
"Why did you send him pictures?" he asked.
"I wanted to...and I was just messing around."
Aaron glared at her.
"You were being a fucking whore, that's why. You were supposed to wait until you got married. But you just had to open your fucking legs for some man who smiled at you. Well, that's not going to be happening anymore." he said, glaring at her.
"You're going to be here, waiting at home for me. And if I find out you went anywhere. And I mean anywhere, you won't like what I'll do."
"Aaron--"
He looked at her, daring her to say something. She clipped her mouth shut and went back into the kitchen. She muttered under her breath as she prepared some potatoes and casserole. She figured he would like it well enough, and prayed that he wasn't expecting some 5-star dish.
She allowed the potatoes to stew in the buttermilk and spices as she put the casserole in the oven. She looked back into the living room to see he had pulled out a laptop and was doing some sort of work. She fought the urge to ask him what he was doing and found it in her to ask the question that had been on her mind all day.
"Aaron, I was wondering if I could get a job soon?"
He looked at her before going back to doing his work. " Absolutely not."
She looked back at the oven. She expected a no but didn't expect him to be that fast. Her mom worked when her dad worked. And she didn't go spend thousands of dollars in college to sit and play homemaker for her ex-crush.
"I really want to work. Please?" she begged him. Staying in the house would be like being a prison, constantly under his surveillance. It wasn't as she could necessarily escape Roanoke easily without a car or anyone willing to let her out.
"I said no." he reprimanded. "You don't need to worry about money or anything. We'll be great."
His reassurance didn't do much other than raising other questions. What exactly was his job? Why did he not want her to work so bad?
She waited to take the casserole out of the oven and quickly mashed the softened potatoes and added last minute spices to give them the homestyle kick that her father always put on his potatoes.
"I'm done." she croaked.
He rose from the recliner and sat at the table, watching her as she put all of the plates on the table. She felt his gaze tracing over her body, especially since she was still in the khaki colored nightgown and the white lingerie. She remembered that he hadn't exactly let her go home and pick up some of her clothes.
After pouring a pitcher of iced tea and lemon, she finished setting everything up on the table and sat at the opposite end of the table.
"It's good," he said, prodding the casserole with his fork.
She nodded, happy that he hadn't been angry at her style of cooking. He probably didn't make his own food though, so eating a home cooked meal for the first time in a while was probably his fantasy.
"So what do you do at work?" she asked casually.
"I have an office. Just some town business." he vaguely described.
She nodded and turned back to her food. He clearly wasn't in the mood to talk about it, and to be honest, she wasn't really enthusiastic about hearing about it either.
"What about some dessert?" he asked, finishing his food. "Get the small cake at the bottom of the freezer."
She nodded and pulled out a small vanilla cake with some fancy frosting that read Aaron on it. She wondered who gave it to him. Aaron didn't seem much like a sweets kind of guy. She put the cake on the table and went to go get a few dishes.
"My mom got it a few days ago for my birthday. It was like two days before I went to go get you."
She nodded, taking off the plastic dome that covered it. Everything seemed as if they were really a young couple of newlyweds enjoying a nice dinner. Too bad that it was not like that at all.
"Did you ever invite him to your house for dinner? Did you cook for him?" he asked.
Gwen arched a brow, not understanding what could possibly be wrong with cooking for her boyfriend.
"I did."
"What did you make him?" he asked, cutting into the cake. "Did you make him food like this?"
"We usually either had pizza or just made a light dinner of mac and cheese. Not anything huge."
"Good." he chirped, taking a bite of the cake. She wondered why he would ask, did he take pride in being the only one she had ever really cooked for? That was sort of a weird type of pathetic. Like he was searching for things he could say he took from her first.
"I'd like to see my parents tomorrow," she said. "I can walk there myself."
"No," he said. "We could invite them over next week when my parents come too."
"I didn't know your parents were going to come," she responded.
"Well, now you do."
She frowned, Aaron definitely was holding out a lot of info on her. She sighed.
"Can I have my phone back?"
"Why? You want to talk to some random man and send him pictures?" he asked, eyes narrowed.
"No. I just have business to talk with my old job. I have to tell them I'm not coming back before they file a missing person report."
"Ok, we'll call them when I get home tomorrow, and explain that you had to leave the state."
She nodded. He seemed to be rational about one thing. Maybe, this would be the best time to bring up her job situation again.
"Can I just like, work at a school, or a bakery or even like a store?" she asked.
"If my wife is working, then everyone will think I'm poor. We aren't poor Gwen, so you don't need to work. And I don't want you to. Drop it now or else I'm going to show you what I'm like angry."
"But I just want to get out of here! Please, I want to go shopping. I want to be able to move around without you breathing down my fucking neck."
"You're definitely not going anywhere for a while," he stated. "Now clear the table and meet me upstairs, we're going to sleep early."
Gwen frowned, not knowing why he would want to go to sleep so fast.
(3.0)
Sleek silver curtains covered the dark night sky, the only other light in the room coming from the dim lamps at the end of the room. She sat in the lingerie as he came out of the bathroom, in grey pajamas.
She covered herself in the thick black blanket, turning away from him. She definitely didn't want to know what this early evening was about. It was about 7:30 and she was still very much awake. He sat down, pulling the blanket over himself as well. Gwen kept herself on the edge of the bed, staring at her new roomie.
He glared at her. "Come closer."
"No."
"I won't repeat myself." he scowled.
She scooted into his half of the bed, inches away from his body. She struggled once he settled his hand on her waist. She moved away, but he instantly bought her back. She flinched when he touched her ass, bringing his hand over the full cheeks.
"What are you doing?"
"Touching my wife. It's not a crime," he said, peeved.
"Well, I don't want you to."
"I didn't ask." he bit. His hands reached the straps on her back. He began taking off his bottoms, and she was instantly scared. He had intended to fuck her.
"Please don't." she pleaded. "I'm begging you."