CHAPTER 17
The next morning, the breakfast table is brimming with people. Nana sits at the head of the table with Gilberto by her side. Cassy sits in the corner, distancing herself from Nate and Audrey who sit at the farthest point. Steven is in the kitchen brewing coffee with Xavier. They seem to be talking about something very intently. Michaela chooses to sit beside Cassy.
“ Good morning Cassy.”
“Enough with the formality. Call me Case.”
“ Okay.”
“ And good morning to you too Mickey. So how it feels to have your husband stolen?”
Michaela scoffs.
“Contract husband. “
“As if it matters.”
Michaela feels dejected looking at Nate chat away with Audrey. Who knew he had it in him. He had never been talking to anyone with such enthusiasm.
“ What are they even talking about? Her dress? The flowers outside? What they’d be doing if I weren't here?”
“I am sure they are talking about the last boy who proposed to her and what all he did to convince her and how she broke his heart.”
Michaela is irritated beyond measure.
But Nate is in a way more worse situation. He feels as though the oxygen is evaporating from the air. And he thought this would be fun. He is cursing himself for what he has taken upon him. The task to make Michaela Nate Walsh jealous.
He has no clue if it’s even working, for every time he attempts to glance at Michaela, Audrey calls for his attention.
“ Where are you looking? Just look at me. Do you even know what he did after that.”
And after each time she speaks this sentence, she goes on to give him a long detailed account of how this man named Roger or Stanley or Morgan, went on his knees with the flowers showering from the sky.
One thing that Nate absolutely hates about Audrey is that she is completely unpredictable. Each time he says or does something, he never knows what to expect from her. Her reaction are unlike anything he thinks it would be.
“I missed you.”
He has heard these words so many times that it tires him even more every time she repeats it.
“ I know. This time I’ll leave a memory of me.”
He sounds so fake to himself that Audrey’s ignorance of it makes him question her intellect.
“ I know what we can do.”
She slips a hand in her purse and pulls out a small camera.
“ I’m going to click you.”
Without even asking for his permission, she starts clocking his pictures and everything else that surrounds him.
The breakfast, the breakfast table, the windows, and Gilberto and Nana. The flash hits Nate’s eyes and he decides he has had enough. He tried to be good to her, even if he had his selfish reasons. But Audrey is so inappropriate with her actions that it displeases him to even entertain the chaotic nuisance.
He stands up to leave Audrey on her own. But before he can act upon his thoughts a hand comes into his view. Michaela's hand. Stealing the camera with unrivalled force from Audrey.
Just like him, Audrey is shell shocked by the sudden change of events.
“What the hell do you thing you’re doing?”
“Don't you know it's unethical to click somebody without their permission.”
“Get out of my face. It's non of your business.”
“It is my business you silly girl. It does not matter how much you flirty with him. You cannot change the fact that he is my freaking husband. And if you do anything that he dose not permit you to do, I am going to break your fucking face. Start being careful, your dumbness is not as pleasant as you think it is. I'm fact it's totally intolerable.”
“Give my camera back to me. Or you won't be left with a mouth to spit your words with.”
“Try me.”
Michaela is so done with this blonde and her shit, she cannot tolerate her sass anymore. She needs to curb get nuisance before, dragging her away is there only option she's left with.
She expects this to be an eye opener for Audrey. But she has been taking for granted the fact that Audrey is considered to be a little crazy in the head. She is a young adult who is so lost in her mills and bonds collection that every thing appears to her, straight out of the novel. And maximum times, she acts not out of her own will but rather from the mind and dense intellect of her character.
It wasn't until now that Michaela realized that Audrey was a tad taller than her. Her boobs almost touched to Michaela’s chest as she raised her arm to, from what Michaela understood, push her. But Nate came her rescue as held Audrey into his arms and dragged her away.
He pulls her towards the backside.
“what are you doing? It's just a camera. Don't be a fool Audrey. “
He says.
“I just wanted to take my camera back. Why is it any of her business? She should not come between me and you. Tell her Jon. Tell her to behave herself.”
“Audrey. You know she is not wrong in asking you to take my permission when you click me. That's basic etiquettes. “
That’s enough to maker Audrey cry or rather wail.
She is inconsolable. And even after Nate’s exhausting efforts, the tears continue to come. She runs outside, with Xavier and Steven yelling for her to come back.
Cassy was right, she was a child. And instances like these made her realize the innocence behind her actions. Michaela felt guilty, and absurd to have acted out of her emotions. But the damage was done.
She goes back to the trailer and leafs through the last edition of Cosmopolitan. Nothing but women decorates it’s pages. Women of all races and ethnicity, from all backgrounds and careers, with different tastes, in different clothing, holding different beliefs. Michaela is sure that if they met each other in person, they wouldn’t share the same liking for one another. She wonders how long would it take for them to figure out, that beneath the charades, they in fact are the same .