'Whatever do you mean? I'm not going to seek your hand.' He picked up his water container and took a big swig.
'Of course, you shall seek my hand. Whose hand shall you seek then?' She picked up the linen and covered herself.
The moment Gina had dreaded since she started sneaking around with Richard two years ago was finally unfolding before her.
She was lost for words as she saw the puzzled look on his face. Richard was not joking when he said he was not going to seek her hand and she realized it.
'Whoever said I want a wife? I want my business to flourish. I'm too busy a man to have a wife.' He stood up from the stool and stretched his body.
She watched the man before her rip her heart out and stomp it into pastry.
Gina had felt pain in her life; she felt pain when her mother died, she felt pain when her brother died, and she even felt pain when her father got sick, yet nothing compared to the pain she felt, sitting on that wooden stool, listening to Richard tell her he was not going to marry her.
'I do not understand. Whatever is this for then?' She tucked her hair behind her ears.
She wanted to see what monster had taken over Richard, her man.
'Is this not what you want? Why you looked all over for me?' He stood still.
'I thought you loved me?' She stood up and let go of the linen again.
If her words could not get Richard to fall in love with her, surely her body could do the trick. Her body made him visit the shed and sleep in uncomfortable positions every Friday night.
Her body made him whistle a tune even when he made it clear that he hated whistling. Her body drove him nuts every time she let go of her white worn linen. That was the body she was going to use to get him to love her.
She walked to where he stood and put her hand on his chest. She moved her fingers clockwise slowly and maintained eye contact.
She felt his groin against her stomach, and she was satisfied knowing what she did was working.
'I do not love you, Gina. How could you even think such a thing?' He moved her away from himself.
He understood what she wanted, and he could not let her down without hurting her, so he blurted out his true feelings. He did not want Gina, he wanted Missy, the barkeep.
'You cannot leave me now. I've been with you two years, pushing everyone who came close to me away because I wanted to be loyal to you.' She went back to the stool and sat.
'Gina, I am not leaving you, I am simply telling you that I shall not marry you. You should not send eligible men away because of me for I cannot offer what you want.' He went back to his stool and sat.
He looked at her. He wanted her to stop talking about love and marriage, he just wanted to take her and get ready for another Friday, as he had always done.
Richard kept staring at her, he was not looking at her big brown beautiful eyes or her small, pointed nose.
He was looking at her body. He had endured the torture of not having the woman before him in his arms all week long, so he could barely control himself.
'Why are you here then...? I shall return to my father before I get missed.' She stood up and walked to the left corner of the shed where her clothes laid neatly folded on the ground.
Richard watched her put on her undergarments; he understood that the only way Gina was going to give herself to him was if he assured her that he was going to call at her house.
He sighed.
'Gina, shall I stop paying for this shed henceforth?' He stood up and walked to the small window in the shed.
She turned around to look at him. His face had no expression. She understood that starving him of her body was not going to change his mind.
She said nothing to him. There was no way Richard was going to be hers no matter what she did.
'I am going to be leaving town soon. I need to visit my father. A word about his failing health came to me. I know not when I shall return.'
In a heartbeat, he walked to where she was. His desire for her body was eating him up and if informing her of his absence could let him have a taste of what he wanted, so be it.
He tucked her hair behind her ears and held her face. He looked at the beautiful woman in front of him with pure lust in his eyes.
A small wind blew in from the window and clothed her bare skin with cold creeps. That made her tremble slightly. If she walked out of the shed, she was going to hurt herself more than she could ever hurt Richard.
She knew it was a privilege that he even settled with her because women flocked around him all the time. And if she left him, he could get another woman before dawn.
'Will he be well?' She did not sound as concerned as she was.
'I shall find that out when I set eyes on him.' He moved his hand across her face.
His touch was gentle for a man who did all the work he did.
He tended to the animals on his ranch, he hunted, fell trees and cut wood for his mother, he wrestled and sometimes even went fishing.
His palm was rough like the quills of a porcupine but when he touched a woman, he knew how to retract those quills like a smart little cat.
She moved away from him. Gina was not satisfied knowing she was not going to be his bride. She was not satisfied knowing her children were not going to be from his loins.
They were not going to be strong like him or caring like him, for to her, no man compared to Richard...