CHAPTER 82

Claire's high pitched scream echoed through Sharon's phone

“You've got to be kidding”

“Trust me, I'm not”

“But he's— I mean he’s—”

“He's what?”

“An asshole, slightly abusive, dark—”

“Well, I thought so too—. I don't know everything about him yet, but he's different from what I thought. He's dark, and cold. But he's also sweet”

Sharon stopped talking. Because at a point she couldn't tell who she was describing anymore. She couldn't give their relationship a name, couldn't define what they were—

Yet she felt an undeniable, almost dark connection to him

“Well—”

“Well what?”

“Is he good?”

“Yeah, he cooks sometimes, and is a surprisingly good painter—”

“I didn't mean it like that Sharon

“Is he good in bed?”

“Oh shut up Claire—”

Sharon's cheeks turned red

“It's complicated— between us. And I'm really scared of getting hurt. Ironically, I feel like he's scared of hurting me, like he's—”

Claire's laughter echoed through. And for a moment, Sharon felt insecure about her feelings

“I've never seen you this delusional about someone before—”

“What are you implying?”

“That you're smitten young lady”

*****************

“Smitten? I'm not smitten”

Sharon said as she pulled out the weeds at the side of her house

Somehow during the phonecall, immediately the conversation moved to Arman, Claire ended the call

Not before screaming that she didn't want talk about it at the top of her voice

It was so like her

“Ugh!”

The weeds Sharon was pulling were stubborn, and she immediately realised that she wasn't cut out for that type of work. Not before she was thrown off balance however, when the roots gave in unexpectedly

But

She didn't fall

Actually she fell on something, someone. Someone awfully familiar

“What are you doing?”

“Fuck!”

Sharon cursed. She had been trying to avoid him.

He stilled her with his large arms, and smothered her hair

“I was weeding, is that a bad thing?”

Sharon pushed him, a little harder than she wanted to.

“You could've asked for help”

“Maybe I wanted to do it myself”

“You're not doing a really good job”

Luca slapped the roots out of her palms, along with the dust and dirt.

“Next time, you use gloves. You could get yourself hurt”

Sharon could only nod. It wasn't like she had a choice. She felt so small, so delicate, so annoyingly fragile. But then it was him making her feel that way. So she felt protected.

“You wanted a garden”

“Uh huh”

He walked her to the tap outside his house, and washed her hands. Like she was a child who had been playing naughtily in dirt all day long. His palms were visibly larger than hers. One of his was almost equivalent to two of hers. His fingers were long and had a sharp contrast to her small delicate ones.

It only made sense that he only needed two fingers—

“Hey”

Luca said, bringing her attention back

“What's on your mind Baby girl”

Sharon heard herself gasp. She couldn't deal with all of that, not when he called her like that—

She looked up at him, and he was staring intently at her. Into her soul. It was like he knew what she was thinking

He was just washing her hands for goodness sake

A wry smile crept to the corner of his lips

Luca turned off the tap, and took his hands to her face

“You— liked it”

Sharon nodded. Her ability to lie left her consciousness at that moment

“But you've been avoiding me”

Sharon covered her eyes with her palms

“I— I don't know how to—”

“Hey, it's okay”

He took her hands away from her eyes slowly

"You can always tell me how you feel”

Luca brushed her lips with his thumb

“I really want to know—

how you feel”

She felt her lips part involuntarily, felt a sudden dryness in her throat

She sucked on his thumb slowly, her eyes were still glued to his. She didn't know why she was doing it, but she knew that she wanted to do it.

Luca's eyes went dark, and he made a low guttural sound

“There's a kid watching”

He said in an even lower voice

“Fuck”

Sharon cursed silently

There was a kid, one of the orphanage kids

He was holding a paper flower, and chewing a piece of candy

He looked from Sharon, to Luca, and back to Sharon

Somehow he knew they didn't understand his language. So he muttered the only English word he knew that could match the situation

“Husband?”

He said questioning in his shrill voice

“No no no”

Sharon said waving her hands in denial. Earnestly trying to correct the impression she made. It probably looked awkward. Imagine seeing a full grown woman sucking a man's thumb in broad daylight

Luca struggled to hold a laugh

“We are married, quite literally”

“Not husband, friend”

Luca watched Sharon's futile attempts to change the lads mind in amusement

Because it was all in vain

The boy ran off, screaming the word at the top of his lungs

“Why do I always get into these kinds of situations?”

Sharon said, defeated

“To be fair, it did look like I was your husband”

“Stop, please”

There was an awkward period of silence

“You could come with me, to my house”

“But—”

“I'll make you something to eat”

“But the kid will just be more convinced that we're—”

“I want you—

Luca grabbed her neck, and whispered the words into her ears

In my house

This afternoon—”