"Can we talk?" Darius said as he found Astrid alone in the garden. It was some minutes past midnight. She had found it hard to sleep, so she decided to watch the stars while enjoying the fireflies in the garden.
"Sure." She replied, her concentration still on the moon. He cleared his throat, and she turned to look at him. "You wanted to talk?" She reminded him.
"Yes. About what happened today. We can't let this cause a misunderstanding between us." He started.
"I believe it already has." She replied, surprisingly calm.
"Well we have to clear it up. I can't keep living in a house where I have issues with someone, and we can't hash it out like the two adults we are." He spoke sternly, almost taking his tone to his business meeting level.
"What's there to talk about, exactly? We already cleared this up. What's left is for us to carry on with the act and break it off as soon as we can." She shrugged.
"I was thinking about telling my mother the truth." He spilled.
"The truth? As in... the whole truth? Why?" She asked, her interest piqued.
"What is the use? This will only hurt her severely. She's getting too excited about this, don't you think? She wants to take you dress-shopping, for Christ's sake!" He stated.
"She'll be moving back in here next month. You'll just make things worse for yourself." Astrid said.
"How am I making things better by lying to her?" He asked, staring at her.
"You have a point." She gave up on arguing about it.
"I know. I still need some time to think about how to tell her, though. She's not doing so good right now." He rubbed the back of his neck with a fatigued sigh.
"What's wrong with her, by the way?" Astrid asked.
"She... She has leukaemia." He blurted it out after a moment of hesitation. Astrid gasped, stunned at the news.
"For how long?" She drilled.
"For as long as I can remember. She finally agreed to undergo radiography when I talked to her two hours ago, which is a good thing. The illness pisses me off! How can I not be able to take care of my mother enough for her sickness to go away? And you know what? She wants us to get married because she thinks she'll die soon." He shook his head at the ridiculous idea.
"Don't say that. She won't die." Astrid placed her hands on his and squeezed it gently.
"It's possible." He told her, trying his hardest to keep it together and not break down in front of her.
"I understand why you want to tell her the truth." Astrid smiled at him.
"I do have another option." He seemed to be battling internally with telling her what the other option was.
"What's that?" She questioned.
"Marry me."
"You can't be serious. We can't possibly get married. That's going to tie us together for life. I know you don't want that." Astrid protested.
"We could get a divorce later." He suggested.
"That's even worse. I can't get married to you, Darius. We're too different, we're not in love. It's never going to work." She shook her head.
"What if we don't need love to make it work? We just have to act like a married couple." He shrugged.
"Why do you think married couples act the way they do? Because they're in love!" She groaned, covering her face with her hand.
"I know a handful of people who got married for reasons far away from love." He still tried to argue his way into making her agree.
"Darius, I know you think I don't have much dignity left," she smiled, patting his shoulder, "but I do. I won't get married to you."
Darius watched her stand up and walk into the house. She had broken the record which she had set. Rejecting him twice in one day.
Astrid didn't know what to do about that man. He clearly had no respect for her and he never hesitated to show it.
She wondered what that split-second decision which she had made in her mind was. Why did she want to agree to his proposal? Why did she want to give him a chance to rectify his mistakes, even when she knew that it was nearly impossible?
.
The next morning, Astrid was in a simple floral print dress with her dark brown hair like a nest on her head. She didn't want it brushed yet, as it would be painful, so she decided to walk around with it in a bed hair state.
She found Joaquin, one of Darius's business partners and best friends, in the dining room with a mug of plain black coffee in front of him. "Oh, hey!" He waved at her as he saw her.
"Good morning, Joaquin." She smiled, sitting beside him.
"What would you like for breakfast, ma'am?" Sky asked her.
"Just toast. And yoghurt." She answered.
Sky nodded, leaving. "Don't have much of an appetite today, huh? Me, too." Joaquin started a casual conversation.
"Yeah." Astrid nodded, yawning tiredly. She started to wonder if it was obvious that she had close to no sleep last night.
"What's wrong?" He closed his laptop, raising his eyebrow at her. She sighed, shaking her head to show him that nothing was wrong.
"Was it Darius? He's out on a short business trip, although I bet you already know that. You miss him already, don't you?" Joaquin teased, grinning at her.
It was obvious that Joaquin had no idea what was going on. Astrid didn't know that Darius would be out on a business trip. She wasn't sure if she missed him or not, but she didn't want to think about it.
"Hello?" Joaquin snapped his fingers in front of her face. Sky returned, placing her plate of toast and a porcelain cup filled with creamy yoghurt and strawberries on top.
Astrid didn't like strawberries, but she decided against talking about it. "Thanks." She smiled at Sky.
"You're welcome." Sky grinned, leaving.
"I'll let you eat." Joaquin nodded, returning to the large pile of files in front of him. Astrid knew that Joaquin was a good friend, but she didn't know if he would take sides with Darius because of their friendship.
She finally made up her mind to talk to him about something she had been bottling up.