5 ~ Aurora

Our wedding night was a disaster.

 I had waited and waited for Leo in our 'matrimonial' bedroom, draped in a robe covering the scandalous lingerie my mother had picked up for me. 

I sat there, fidgeting the moment he walked in. How was I supposed to seduce a godlike man in such an unattractive body? How was he supposed to even want me when I looked like a sack of potatoes?

Low self esteem you might think but I had to tell myself the truth that this was a futile attempt and there was no point in trying. 

"I'm not going to touch you. Don't even think about it cause it's never going to happen." He said, straight to the point.

"I don't want this either," I said as a tear escaped my right eye. I knew he was going to say that so I did not understand why that tear had to betray me.

"Good."

"But-" I tried to say something but of course, he cut me off.

"There's no discussing this Aurora. Let's not force things." 

"Good night then," I laid on my side, back turned away from him. 

"Night."

Maybe I exaggerated the 'disaster' part, but as far as I know, this was not how wedding nights were supposed to go. 

~~~

The next morning, I was up early as usual. I looked to my left and saw that Leo was still asleep. He slept on the couch and I felt bad for it. His neck would hurt so much when he woke up.

I headed into the kitchen, determined to impress my in-laws and newly wed husband with my culinary skills. 

I saw that their plethora of house staff were already doing cleanups. I went further in as they paused and stared at me.

"Hi good morning," I said to no one in particular. 

"Good morning ma'am. Would you like anything? I'd get it done for you." 

"I'd like to make breakfast this morning."

"You mean the cook should make you an early breakfast?"

"No. I mean I want to cook."

"Oh um, things don't usually work that way here."

"I insist." I shouldn't have. They let me do it. I made toast, bacon, eggs and tried my hands at their favorite beverages as described by the head housekeeper.

They helped me set up the table and I went back to the bedroom to freshen up. 

"Good morning." I said to Leo as soon as I got in and saw him awake.

"Morning." He grunted a response. 

I went into the bathroom and did my thing. Then I went downstairs and saw my in-laws ready to sit at the table. 

"Good morning dad, mom." 

Leo's father responded warmly but his wife was quite the opposite. She did not spare me a glance and barely muttered a response.

I slid into my seat and Leo soon joined us. i watched nervously as they were ready to dig into their meals. It was just then the housekeeper came in to announce that I made the meal, much to their surprise. I wish she had kept shut.

Leo's mother sipped her tea and spat it out out. 

"What do you mean she made my breakfast?" 

"Uh, well, madam...I" She stuttered and I immediately stepped in.

"Mom it's my fault, I insisted on doing it."

"I'm not your mother. You know who your mother is." She spat bitterly at me and I immediately recoiled. 

"I'm sorry." I whispered in remorse as well as embarrassment.

"Don't you ever step into my kitchen. I have a cook for this." She further warned and stormed off while I bit on my lower lip to stop myself from crying.

Leo walked off soon after and I watched him leave without taking as much as a bite.

"I'm off to work dad." He had said and his father nodded as he left, leaving us both at the table.

I watched as he took a bite into the eggs and hummed in delight, "This tastes great. It's their loss, there's more for us."

I laughed amid the tears that were welling up in my eyes. "Thank you sir." 

"And you can call me dad, I'm your father now." He said in such a soft tone that I felt warmth on the inside.

"Thank you." I mouthed in gratitude. 

"Go on, dig in." He urged me to eat and I managed to take a few bites before feeling full mostly because of my lack of appetite after what went down with his wife.

I watched him clear out his plate, complimenting me in between and it made me feel a lot better. 

He soon rushed off to work and I was left alone. 

I went up to the room and decided to unpack my stuff and arrange them in the closet. I took my time, setting up every item one after the other with intentionality. I needed it to be so properly arranged that Leo would not find any reason to complain even as I went over to his side of the closet to set it up as well.

When I was done with that, I decided to dabble into sketching a few designs. I don't know about others but keeping my hands busy with drawing or just random sketches could be so relaxing for me.

My mother called while I was in the middle of that. I picked up after hesitating for a few seconds asking myself if I really wanted to talk to her. 

"Hello mother,"

"Aurora..." She said my name in her usual indifferent drawl that had a tiny tinge of affection.

"How are you?" I asked.

She yawned, "I'm so tired. How are you and how is my son in-law?" 

She talked about him like he was the a new piece of jewelry she wanted to show off.

"We're good." I said, holding back on saying he had hardly said a full sentence to me since we got married.

"I hope his family are nice to you?'' She asked but it sounded like a thrown out statement said out of courtesy and nothing else. It did not matter whether they were nice to me or not, I was after all married.

"Yes they've been lovely." I said anyways.

"Good."

"Mother, did you know that we were going to live with his family?" I don't know why but I felt a need to ask.

"Yes." 

I kept quiet, wondering why I would be kept in the dark on that. But then again there was a lot of things I did not know and was only assured of finding out in the most bizarre ways possible.

"Have you been taking care of him the way I taught you?"

"I've been trying." I said. It was just one day in my marriage and she was already asking such.

"Don't try, do it!"

"Yes mother." I said.

I reminisced on all that she had told me to do. I let out breaths of exhaustion at the thought of it. If I had to do all that to please a man, then he should just have me as a personal maid and not his wife.

I was so relieved when the call ended.