Chapter 17: Thank You.

The next morning Dua tried to move but she felt stuck. She opened her eyes to find herself in Steven's embrace, his hands wrapped tightly around her waist. Seeing him still sleeping, she smiled and stayed still, not wanting to wake him up.

As she watched his peaceful sleeping face, she remembered her meeting with Diane's family the previous day, and she sighed. "What is the reason exactly behind you and Diane's marriage?" She thought.

"Can you not stay quiet?" She heard Steven speak.

"I've been quiet," she argued.

"You weren't, you sighed," he replied, sitting up.

"And that's enough to wake up?" She asked.

He nodded in reply, making her fall speechless. "What kind of weird human is this?" She thought.

"See? I made you fall asleep," she smiled proudly at him, while he scoffed, "it's not like I don't sleep at all."

Even he was surprised at how she effortlessly made him fall asleep, and he slept like a baby for the first time in years, but he wouldn't give in easily to her.

Dua scoffed, "hey, knucklehead, you should thank me."

Steven ignored her and left the bedroom into the kitchen where he met Shane setting breakfast on the table. "Why did you order food when I'm home?" Steven said.

Shane turned to him to find him still in his nightwear and he chuckled, "what did your wife do to you that made you sleep in till this time?"

"That's not the answer to the question I asked you." Steven replied.

"God, I feel like getting married right now." Shane laughed.

Steven sat at the table to eat, and after one taste, he sighed, "you cooked, bro."

Shane gave a nod and Steven shook his head, "you shouldn't have."

"Hey, knucklehead!!" Dua stormed into the kitchen but paused her statement when she saw the breakfast on the table. She quickly sat at the table and picked up her cutlery.

"Don't eat." Steven said, and she scoffed, "Why?"

"Just don't eat the food, I'll cook you something else as a thank you," he said.

"I no longer want the thank you," she replied and took a bite of the food. Her face distorting immediately and she spat it out, quickly rinsing off the taste of the food from her tongue with some water.

"Wherever you ordered this from, never order food from there again. This is the worst food I've ever tasted in my life. Even the worst chef in the world can do better than this. This is just too bad, it's enough to kill someone," she complained bitterly.

"Good," Steven nodded. "You'll be cooking dinner."

"What?" Dua asked.

"The worst chef can do better than this, and you're not the worst chef, are?" He smirked and she swallowed.

"Believe me, you don't want me to cook."

"I do." Steven replied and left the table.

She grimaced at him as he left the kitchen, "I only spoke the truth, and he isn't even the one who cooked, why's he so worked up?"

"I cooked." Shane said and Dua's mouth fell open.

"I'm sorry, I take my words back. The food isn't bad," she said.

"No, it's fine. I'm glad you spoke the truth," he replied and left the kitchen too, leaving Dua cursing at herself for being too forward with the food's review instead of asking the source first but who would believe that he was so bad in cooking.

Shane went to Steven's bedroom where he met Steven who was just about to go into the bathroom. "You shouldn't have quarreled with your wife because of me," he said.

"I didn't quarrel with her, I only asked her to prepare dinner." Steven replied, entering the bathroom.

By the time he came out, Shane was still there. "I already told you, I didn't quarrel with her," he said.

"If she rendered you any sort of help last night, you should thank her." Shane said and left him to dress up.

Shane went to the kitchen to clear up the table and do the dishes, but met Dua already doing them. "Leave it, I'll do it," he spoke.

"No, I'll do it." Dua replied. Even though she wasn't a fan of doing house chores, she was doing it to make up for her bad comment on Shane's food.

But Shane understood quickly, "I'm not mad you, so stop trying to apologize," he said.

"I'm not doing this as an apology," she denied it.

"You are," Shane chuckled as he collected the dishes from her. "I can see through you, you're easy to read."

Dua smiled and gave him an unexpected hug that made him freeze. "Thank you," she said.

"For what exactly?" He gave a quick laugh.

"For everything," she replied.

Having him around, she doesn't feel bored or trapped.

Shane kissed her head since he could hug her back because of his soap-filled hands.

"Alright, that's enough. You don't want your husband to see us like this," he pulled away from her.

"So what if he does?" She scoffed and he chuckled.

Steven all set for the day entered the kitchen to announce his leaving for work. He looked at Dua who hadn't noticed his presence yet, and wondered why he was so attracted to her. "Is it because her hair is black now?" He thought.

"No, it can't be because of some hair color change," he concluded.

Diane's hair color was brown while Dua's was black. What he's yet to understand is that Diane and Dua are two different people.

As he pondered on his thought, Shane turned and made his presence known to Dua, "your husband is here."

Before Dua could look at him, he averted his gaze from her.

"You're going already?" Shane asked and Steven nodded.

"Company or warehouse?" Shane asked.

"Warehouse." Steven replied.

"Alright, I'll meet you there later." Shane said and Steven nodded.

He looked at Dua and muffled a "thank you" out of his mouth.

"What?" She asked but he just left.

"What did he say?" She asked Shane because she didn't seem to hear him properly.

"He said thank you." Shane replied.

Dua shook her head, "that's what he couldn't say clearly, so arrogant," she rolled her eyes and Shane laughed.

"Can you also read knucklehead? That guy is very difficult to read, this minute he's a gentleman, and the next minute he's totally off it," she said and Shane chuckled.

"He's undeniably very difficult to read, but given that I've known him for a very long time, I can read him to an extent," he replied.

"How and why did Diane even agree to marry him?" She unconsciously said.

"You're Diane, you should ask yourself." Shane said and she laughed awkwardly, "yeah, I'm Diane, I should ask myself."

"You know you're easy to read, but sometimes you do and say weird things that gets me wracking my brain really hard," he said and she gave another awkward laugh.

"If only you guys will understand that I'm not Diane but a totally different person." She said quietly to herself.