"Please drop me at the supermarket instead" she said to the driver deciding to get a few things to make dinner for her husband.
"Your husband?" her subconscious mind mocked her.
"Shut up" she fired back to herself
"Excuse me ma?" the driver asked in confusion
"Sorry, I was not talking to you, I was thinking out loud" she blushed in embarrassment.
"Welcome, I fixed dinner" Alisha welcomed Leonardo as he stepped into the mansion from work.
"Is Mary sick?" he asked surprised that she had cooked dinner instead of the cook.
"I gave her the evening off, I do not know if it is fine by you"
"Hmm, that's okay, let me freshen up and I"d be down in a bit" he said and went up the stairs.
"I have to go on a trip" Leonardo said as he sat to eat
"How long?" Alisha asked glad that he was informing her, so she would not be worried about his sudden absence.
"A week, but there seems to be a problem"
"What is the problem?" she asked with worry written on her face
"You have to be on the trip with me"
"Me? Why?" she asked picking up her glass to drink water.
""There is this new deal I need to close in Hong Kong, but it would not be complete until they are certain I am married and have a family dinner with you and I"
"I don't understand"
"The stakeholders believes a family man is more responsible than a single man, so they want my wife and I to be in their annual family dinner before they proceed to sign the deal"
"When do we leave?"
Alisha asked, she knew she had no choice but to go on the trip with him.
"In two days, don't worry you will get travel allowance, it's part of the contract"
"I think now is the time I properly quit working at the bar, so I don't keep putting my boss in a confused state with my on and off presence."
"Finally you are quitting the bar."
"Maybe I could look at staring a business of mine soon."
"What do you have in mind?" he asked her and she was glad he seemed interested.
"I have not given any thought to it yet, but as soon as I draw a business plan, I will give you to have a look at it"
After dinner, Alisha did the dishes and moved her things to the adjourning room. She then looked up previous family dinner on the internet regarding the family dinner in Hong Kong Leonardo had earlier mentioned, but she found nothing on it.
She was confused on what to pack for the trip; she decided to have a pair of everything, but most importantly a dinner dress.
She was slowly getting tired of packing and making trips, not that she had gone for much, but she likes a routine, she loved a stable place, not travelling to places all the time.
It sounded weird, she was supposed to be travelling the world and enjoying Leonardo's money for the next three years, but she was not.
Leonardo and his wife Alisha arrived at a private island in Hong Kong. was unhappy to find out that it was a private vacation for four couples including herself and Leonardo.
"Why did you not tell me it was a vacation and not just a dinner" Alisha complained immediately they were lead into their own room.
"Do you have a problem with that?" he said like it did not matter.
Alisha rolled her eyes at him; she didn't like the idea of her playing a loving, romantic, newly wedded wife for the next one week.
She unpacked her bags and placed her things in the walk in closet. She then had her shower and went to sleep; she was exhausted from the trip.
Leonardo woke Alisha up later in the evening so she could have something to eat.
"Get up and eat something" he tapped her gently.
"Give me 5 more minutes" she adjusted herself and went back to sleep.
"I've given you an extra 15 minutes, get up, and eat Lisha" he woke her up later
"Two more minutes please" she rolled over and continued her sleep.
"This would be the last time I will wake you up" he sneered and left her alone.
True to his words, Leonardo did not disturb her sleep again, and she was glad, but she regretted it at 2:00am when she woke up and she was very hungry.
"Leo" she tapped him gently
"Hmmm" he snorted and went back to sleep.
"Loe" she said a little louder and hit him a little harder.
"What?" he said still sleeping
"I really need to eat" she said in a teary voice.
"You will do that in the morning" he said and covered his body with the duvet properly
"What if I die from hunger?"
"Then I will get a new wife, and your burial arrangements would be made" he was not asleep anymore, but he still acted as if he was sleeping.
"I hate you, please I need food"
"Breakfast with other couples will be by 10:00am, so you will have to wait a little longer, and don't eat an horse when we sit at the table."
He smiled secretly
"10:00am? I don't think I can hold on that longer." She groaned and held her stomach.
"Alisha, I allowed you sleep, please let me catch some sleep too, there is no way we can get food at this hour"
Alisha kept tossing on the bed, lamenting over the stupid sleep that engulfed her and prevented her from eating when she should have.
She sat on the bed, she ws sure it was around 4:00am by now, but when she looked at the clock, it was just 15 minutes past two.
"I'm surely going to die" she shed fake tears
"Alisha" Leonardo called out to her, still laying on the bed
"What?" she snapped at him.
"Look at the table" he said and went back to sleep
She looked at the table and found a nylon. She looked at the paper bag in it and found Chinese rice in it. It was not hot, but she was glad that she had something good to eat.
"Oh my goodness Leo, thank you so much" she leaped for joy and started devouring her food, not bothering if he paid attention to her or not.
After eating, she stayed up into the night working on her business plan. She wanted to kick off as soon as she was able to raise some funds, she had no idea how she was going to get enough money since she had used all her salary from Leonardo to pay from Anna's surgery, and she had quit her job from the bar.
She hoped the travel allowance Leonardo had told her about would amount to something, and if it was for her business to grow, she was going to hopefully look forward to more trips so she could save up her travel allowance.
Every job had its ups and downs, and this contract marriage was more like a job and she was benefiting financially from it, at least she tried to encourage herself.
Alisha drifted to sleep at around 5 in the morning, and when Leonardo woke her up at 7am, she was grumpy again.
"What is wrong with you Alisha? You sleep like a pregnant woman, how can you sleep all evening, and all night and you still won't get up at this time of the morning?"
Leonardo complained.
"I worked for some part of the night, and besides I don't need to be up yet, I have nothing to do and breakfast as you said is not until 10am, so allow me sleep and don't act like my child asking mummy for breakfast so early" she responded and then covered her head with the duvet.
Leonardo was taking in what she had said, How could she compare him to a child, he was cooking up the response to give to her, when a knock came on the door.
"Good morning Mr Legend, kindly note that breakfast would be served in 30 minutes, we expect you and your wife to be down" a voice said from the other side of the door.
"Thank you, we will be out in a minute" he responded and when he turned around, she saw Alisha sitting on the bed and staring at him with wide eyes.
"30 minutes, how on earth am I supposed to get ready in 30 minutes?" Alisha panicked and jumped up from the bed.
"I'm using the bathroom first" Leonardo announced and left her in her mental mess. She rolled her eyes at him and rushed to decide what she was going to wear. She settled for a yellow floral short dress and a black heel.
"Alisha we do not have time" Leonardo nagged at her looking at his wristwatch as she struggled to put her hair in a presentable look.
"I know that already, stop trying to make me go insane; you could just help and stop nagging me"
"Help you with what?" he did not see himself helping her figure out what to do with her hair.
"Help wear my heels for me, while I finish up with my hair"
"Not me, meet me down the hall" he said and headed towards the door.
"You want to close the deal don't you?" she asked him, pausing her what she was doing to her hair
"Is that even a question?" he sat on the bed
"The answer is yes, you want to close that deal, so trust me and follow my lead" she said and turned back to the mirror.
Leonardo was unsure what she had in mind, he did not know if he could trust her with this deal, he was not willing to lose this deal because he was late to breakfast table. He knew his attitude towards timing would be an added advantage.
"Alisha can you hurry up" he panicked the instant he noticed she was not rushing any longer.
"Shhh, relax husband dear" she smiled and applied her lipstick.
Finally, Alisha was set and they moved out of their room.
Leonardo looked at the time from his wristwatch.
"Fuck Alisha, you will put me in trouble" Leonardo whispered under his breath close to her ears, while he planted a fake smile on his face and held her arms in his.
"Trust me honey" she laughed a little too loudly.
"I'm so sorry I kept you all waiting" Leonardo apologized to the couples at the large table immediately he approached them.
"I take responsibility, you know how it can be with newly wedded, we were ready 15 minutes before time, and while waiting for time to pass, we got hmm, busy, you know what I mean, and we did not realize that time had passed, we are so sorry" Alisha acted so poised and like a woman in love and someone that had just gotton sexual satisfaction"
"Oh, its fine, its great to know that you two are really in love" an elderly man stood said from the table.
They all greeted and exchanged pleasantries and sat to eat.
Alisha was so good in her act that at a point Leonardo himself was almost confused to thinking that what they shared is truly real. He liked that the woman were interested in Alisha, but he was worried that her loving seductive act was turning him on slowly.
He played along the best way he could, feeding her food at intervals and rubbing her hand on the table sometimes.
"You two make me want to feel like I should have the first few years of my marriage back" Candy, one of the woman said as they ate.
"I think we should go for a vacation or better still a honeymoon, so we could hmm, brighten that spark" her husband said and kissed her hand.
Leonardo smiled and moved his mouth close to Alisha's lips, and her heartbeat raced from the closeness they shared.