Marriage by Law

I opened his messages first, rolling my eyes at the people who he texted. My heart did a somersault upon seeing that there were no females from what I could see. But then I froze upon seeing one contact. James.

I quickly exited, not wanting to pry on his messages. I didn't even want to read what they wrote to each other about business or anything. I should really tell Darius that James is not a man to mess with. Or I can tell my dad to tell him. But then Dad will find out why I broke up with him and then everything will get worse.

I couldn't help clicking on his pictures. I laughed out loud as I saw a photo of documents. Typical Darius. I was even surprised he knew how to use the camera. After a few more, I stifled another laugh as I saw Adrian's face come up. Adrian was taking selfies during a business meeting and they turned into Adrian trying to take photos with Darius who looked angry and annoyed.

Even in the photos, his eyes are so green, so piercing, like he was looking right at me. I quickly moved to the next pictures, which were more of Adrian’s selfies in an event. It looked formal and he took photos with everyone there. It made me wonder, why on earth did Adrian have his phone?

I sighed, a bit frustrated that Darius didn't have many pictures, and those he did were of Adrian. I turned to the last picture and froze. Staring back at me were dark brown eyes, ones that looked black in the picture, with long eyelashes that only made those eyes stand out.

She was smiling, the sun behind her bright and the water around her sparkling. In her hand was a surfboard which she was trying to put up the car. She was me.

When did he take this?

It was the time where he made me pack the car, saying that I shouldn't have made him bring all this if I wasn't going to use it. I quickly exited the photo and lay on my back. I could practically feel my heart racing.

He took a picture of me?

I finally got up after another hour of pondering and sighed as I went to have a shower. The first thing I did after I woke up the first day Darius was gone was take an hour-long shower, but it only made me sick because of the mist everywhere. I had showered at least two times that day to make up for the lack of shower before. I grabbed my towel and clothes, rushing in to get rid of the disgusting feeling in my mouth.

Stepping out of the shower, I sighed in happiness. I felt so fresh and relaxed.

I could hear noises downstairs. Adrian was probably up, too. It was a regular thing the past two days, waking up to see him cooking in the kitchen.

I walked down to see him look up from rummaging through the fridge.

"Good you're up. You sleep more than my cousin, you know?"

"A girl needs her beauty sleep, okay," I replied. I was starving and whatever he was making smelled amazing.

"You don't need any," he muttered as he pulled out eggs. Just because he and his cousin were more than good looking doesn't mean they have to brag.

"I still can't believe you can cook," I said, leaning against the bench.

"And I can't believe you can't." He winked, making me turn a lovely shade of red. It wasn't my fault. I tried cooking but mother would always tell me off because of it, and then when I tried, mishaps would happen.

"I take it you didn't sleep well?"

"Huh?" I was looking at all the ingredients he took out.

He poked my skin just below my eyes. "You have dark circles," he said.

"I do?" I asked. He grabbed some pots and pans, nodding.

"That makes two of you."

"What?"

"I know someone else who would have slept badly." Adrian winked again.

"I am so confused," I said, shaking my head.

"Just cut this up for me.” He chucked a cucumber, which I barely caught. I walked around to the other side of the bench and grabbed the knife.

“You know how to chop, right?” he asked.

I could feel an intense blush coming to my face and turned around to keep him from seeing it. “Of course I do,” I snapped, a bit too defensively, might I add. He nodded and turned around and I stared at the vegetable in front of me.

Of course, I knew how to chop, not that I did it very often, considering my lack of participation in the kitchen. But then again, how hard could chopping be?

I chopped the ends of the cucumber off. It was slippery. Why couldn’t they be more flat? I sliced it down in half, so at least the bottom was flat which made it easier to cut. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was doing but the pieces came in various shapes and slices and I stifled a grin.

“You done?”

“Yep,” I said, turning around to face him. Adrian took a look at my masterpiece and his face contorted into different emotions. Alright, it wasn’t that bad.

“That’s creative.”

“Shut up,” I muttered, putting the knife down.

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