Forced by fate – Destined to be his Wife

TangShi walked out of her bedroom and into the open plan living room to finish getting ready before leaving for school. The apartment was eerily quiet and felt empty although she hadn’t heard YuZhi depart for work yet. It was early though, maybe too early for him. The sun was barely up but today she planned on going to breakfast with Linlin before class started.

Dinner last night hadn’t helped her sort out her confusion over YuZhi’s behavior and as he took off after getting home and didn’t return till late, she didn’t see him again. She was feeling all kinds of listless and uptight and unable to relax over this and Linlin was a good mood leveler any day of the week.Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

TangShi padded into the kitchen in her house slippers and outfit of the day to get a bottle of water and froze when the click of his bedroom door echoed, alerting her to the fact he was most definitely still here. Hurrying to get to the refrigerator and turning her back on him so he wouldn’t see how flustered she was.

YuZhi wandered out of his room rubbing his face, still tired as he had only just got up. In long cotton pajama bottoms and a t-shirt, he strolled out in a casual meander and spotted TangShi in the kitchen already. Internally tensing up because he didn’t expect her at this time of the day and had hoped a coffee would get his head sorted before approaching her. Yesterday he knew he wasn’t in the right frame of mind after meeting Rong Sleazy Cai, so had avoided her to get his shit together. Even with school starting this was an early hour for her and he had hoped to delay any interaction until he was more awake.

“Morning.” He faltered, aware how nervous he felt at seeing her. His insides doing a loop de loop. He knew he had to talk things out with her on the drive to school without fail and was not looking forward to having to share his head mess with her. He needed to apologize to her. That was a given.

“Morning.” She returned his greeting with a soft distant tone and didn’t look his way, instead sticking her head into the refrigerator to find some snacks for her bag. Immersed in packing her premade lunch and ignoring him.

“You look pretty. Why are you getting ready so early? Don’t you start class at eighty thirty?” YuZhi walked to the nearest counter and leaned his elbows down on it to give her space in the kitchen, watching her intently, sensing she was closed off and not her usual sunny self. His mood sank lower knowing this was going to be difficult.

“I’m meeting Linlin for an hour before I need to be there. I’ll get out of your hair. Have a good day.” She responded in a polite and tight tone and closed the door before swinging her bag up and moving on.

“Tang, wait.” He stood up as she slid out of the kitchen and headed to the main door without glancing at him once. “I’ll drive you, give me a minute to change.” He pleaded, panicking that he was losing out on the chance to fix things between them, and it would follow him all day until he collected her later. He couldn’t handle another full day of knowing she was mad at him.

“It’s fine. It’s a ten-minute walk, longer by car.” She shrugged and moved to the outer hall to put her shoes on, brushing him off. She was internally all over the place and looking to escape his presence. Nervous, uptight around him, and her face was slowly turning pink.

“Please. I have something to say to you.” He stood firm, lifting his hands, palms out, in a ‘wait for me’ gesture and then turned and hightailed it to his room to get ready.

TangShi sighed heavily and slumped back against the hall wall, looking up to the ceiling in a ‘help me, god’ hopeless gesture. Aware she was not ready for any kind of heart to heart and afraid of what he might say. She had been nervously pensive for days, expecting him to return to the cold and aloof mean guy of their early days. Her gut was telling her that’s what this was.

YuZhi got ready in record time, hauling on a fresh tee over jeans and racing back into the kitchen area with trainers in hand. His heart racing from the exertion and yet aware his palms were clammy because he knew this wasn’t going to be an easy conversation. He wasn’t one to lay things out in the open or ever say sorry in this way, so this was a first.

TangShi stood up quickly, pulled her bag onto her shoulder and walked out before him, making sure to show him no hint of her emotional turmoil. To him, she was a picture of calm and disinterested.

They made their way to the elevator and quietly stood as it came to their floor as if neither knew how to start this conversation. A heavy quiet stretching between them that highlight their awkwardness. Once inside YuZhi exhaled heavily and glanced her way, realizing her bag looked heavy and took it from her automatically.

“Let me. Look…. Tang, I …… I know I have been a total jackass these past few days.” He cleared his throat with a subtle cough, pulling her bag onto his shoulder and hating how she stood staring ahead with an unreadable blank expression. It gave him a hint on how it must feel to be on the other side of it and he didn’t like it at all.

“Hmmm.” She responded with a non-response as they reached their floor. She didn’t give him a chance to carry on and walked out at speed, looking for the usual black four by four, or his sports car.

“Over there.” YuZhi caught her by the elbow and guided her, not letting go, aware of how much he had missed touching her these past days. Her warmth and closeness making his stomach tighten and his heart ache as her familiar perfume and scent invaded his senses and it felt like coming home. TangShi had a unique smell, and it was up there with fresh baked cookies and hot apple pie.

They made their way to the car in silence once more before he opened her door and settled her in, walking around to get in the driver side. Starting the car and moving in a bid to get going fast and be able to feel more at ease at talking to her. He hoped with the road as a focus the words might slide out with less stress.

“I’m sorry, Tang. For the last few days and disappearing on you, being distant. Not communicating.” He blurted it out in a fit of nerves, hoping doing it fast would be like pulling a band aid off and glanced her way for a sign of a facial reaction. He got nothing but her calm and blank gaze out the windscreen. Making his guts tumble around in antsy nerves.

“It’s fine.” She uttered in response. Her tone empty. Not sure what else she should say.

“It’s not fine. You didn’t deserve me treating you that way and you did nothing wrong that warranted me blanking you. Believe me, I’m sorry, and it won’t happen again. I needed headspace to figure some things out.” He rambled on, filling the space and silence with words and hoping it sounded sincere.

“I get it. You don’t have to explain.” TangShi deflected again closing him out and not willing to get involved in a topic that might make her cry.