My cheeks hurt from smiling too wide since hours ago, my legs start to wobble from standing up and going everywhere since early morning, and my eyes are heavy from the lack of sleep since the past two weeks because of this important event in my life. I can't imagine how tiring it's gonna be when it's the wedding itself considering how exhausted I am right now at the end of our engagement party. "You look like you're about to sleep on this table." Dian comments when I'm thisss close to doze off on my arm that I park on the table. I swear I was only going to close my eyes for one second but urgh, I wish I can have a bed next to me right this second. I wish. "Miss Alya," a voice calls me when I'm about to ask Dian to bring me home so I can get some sleep. "Yeah?" "Here's your key card." My key card? I have a room here? I thought we only rent the hotel ballroom for my engagement party? Wait. When my cousin got married here last year they too were given a free room as their wedding
I wish you'd die in this cold temperature! So I can finally be a divorcee! Die, you asshole! Die! "Come here," he holds out his right hand, face softening along with the tone. I narrow my eyes at the gigantic man, cursing him in my head. Go die. He sits up before standing in his full height, stepping forward to approach me as I go backward, wanting to maintain the distance between us. "Why are you here?" I ask in panic, realising he's getting so much closer now. "I told you, I'm not gonna miss my wife's engagement party." Is he being sarcastic now? Knowing he holds the power that I can never be married to someone else as long as I'm still his wife? "I told you to never call me that!" Suddenly he's already bumping his front to mine, intimidating me with his superior physical. "But you ‘are’ my wife." "I WAS your wife when you treated me like a whore. But I'm not anymore! I'm not anyone's whore anymore! Not yours, not now not ever!" He cups my face with his cold hands, whispe
"Oh wow, is that from Andra?" Before I managed to answer her, she has already snatched the card I'm about to read. " [Remember when you like it fast and] ..." Dian blinks rapidly upon reading it then looks at me with wide eyes, before turning to the card again, " [hard] ...?" She chocked, currently in full shock. I groan knowing who sent this flower bouquet. Goddamnit Calvin Gunn! " [I rent a Lambo. Will pick you up for lunch later.] " She giggles after reading further, as if it's her boyfriend who wrote it. "I almost got it wrong, jeez! Witty Andra! I wonder how naughty can he be after you guys are married!" So it's Andra? Really? But Andra never talked that way. He's all prim and proper, respecting me as a Muslim woman and never make ridiculous demands, not even touching my hand when we go out on a date. He respects me that much. " [Yours, Honey.] Awww." Dian makes that annoying pouty face as she hands me the card again.Honey. I knew it. He's the only man who has ever sent
I haven't received a bouquet today. Every day for the past nine days, there'll be a delivery man coming through that door around 10am, with a bouquet of tulips and a card attached to it. I don't know why he'd always send it to this particular bakery since I have another two in Jakarta but today, when there's no one coming at 10am, or 10.05am, or 10.10am, I got nervous. I actually trembled thinking he somehow sent that bouquet to the other branches that one of my employees would read the card and judge me for whoring with another man when I'm engaged to Andra Hartono. Or, they'd think it's Andra who wrote those sick, disgusting pick up lines. Either way, it's bad news for me. Everybody knows me as the well mannered woman who always dress modestly, never do controversial stuff, but with just that one card, it can destroy my reputation. People would call me a fake, for behaving like an angel in front of others but spread my legs to men behind closed doors.Urgh. This is killing me.
The tulips, the cards, his annoying friendly smiles, his intimidating bulky figure, they never appear again after that fateful afternoon. Turns out that was the last day I ever saw him. Two weeks later I checked with the New York City Clerk's office regarding our marriage status after I received a reply from Cupcake that they indeed stamped the closeout of our contract last year. It was confusing because they didn't mention anything about our marriage since the contract was drawn before we got married, and there was no amendment after we did. The City Clerk mentioned there was no record of our marriage because we never had a civil one hence it was not registered, the Islamic ceremony was not recognised by them therefore my application for divorce was rejected, or rather ‘invalid’.I was stuck. I couldn't get divorced officially, since it was not registered. I also couldn't get divorced by Islamic law, because I need at least 4 years of missing husband if I were going for fasakh;
When I first started the bakery with my sisters, my only goal was to be self-employed while doing the thing I love the most on daily basis. I mean, isn't that everybody's dream? To make money with their hobby? Our business grew beyond my imagination when we opened branches not just in Indonesia, but all over Asia. I feel like this is the way God makes up for my lack in the relationship department, for He grants me this unbelievable success in my career when in just four years, we managed to expand our business in Dubai, Japan, and more Asian countries. Dian is a brilliant when it comes to advertising our products that she managed to attract investors hence the main reason of our rapid growth. She once told me she's going to make us go international in two years, but we did it in just thirteen months. Now she's beating her ass again to achieve her mission to go beyond Asia. It's crazy, yet she made it so easy as if she can reach for the stars as long as we believe we can do it. Th
The calm tone, the smiley face, the non-rushed steps, she obviously has predicted me to be here, to be at this place, at this particular time. Which means, Calvin Gunn also knows I'm gonna be here. "Mrs Gunn?" Dian's confused voice brings me back to the scene as I turn to her, ignoring Anna's greeting. She raises her eyebrows with a look as if asking ‘Who's this?’."Anna," I force myself to smile despite the turbulence in my blood knowing he's here, and we're about to meet again, after four long years, after he walked out that day when I asked him to leave. "She's my colleague in New York," I'm not lying, Anna WAS my colleague because we both worked for that asshole, "We played paintball all the time and you know me, I have bad aims, that's why she called me Misses Gun. Ahahahahahahahha." The laugh starts out as a fake but towards the end I actually laugh for real when Anna joins the charade, perhaps finding it amusing enough for her to laugh too. Dian blinks while watching us la
I've had my fair share of being a contract owner when I was working in the corporate world before I ventured into baking and business. We needed to ensure the contractors are well prepared in the event they are granted the billion dollar contract hence the extensive grilling so yeah, I used to be a piranha myself. It was my job to grill them until I get all the answers.But once we get out of the meeting room, all of us are equal be it a contractor, the contract owner, or just a scriber. We'd sit and talk as if a war didn't occur just moments ago. The same thing is happening right now; I do notice the way they switch from being assholes in the meeting room to pleasant human being, asking questions that are for the sake of getting to know us, not to drain us to death like they did an hour ago. Professionals, are what they are.After the excruciatingly painful-to-watch session, we go to a restaurant for the lunch that follows. We've done this a lot previously, so this lunch is very muc