Chapter Six.

Chapter Six.

“You should take a bath first though. Freshen up.” Natalia says as she adjusts the blinds, covering them up even more as too much sunlight came in through the windows.

“I will soon. I just have to say— to say that today was a great day.” Noah sighs as he takes some more of the clear liquid he had been served by Natalia earlier.

“Yes, my love. You always have a great day, don’t you?” Natalia shakes her head and smiles as she takes a seat on the couch adjacent to the one Noah sat on, crossing and uncrossing her legs.

“Yes, but today was really wonderful. I just don’t know why. I mean today was a really stressful day for me, clients old and new on my neck and all. But still, I did not seem to mind their whining and it’s the first time this is happening…”

Noah continues to speak and Natalia nods on encouragingly, glad that he is opening up to her. He usually never does. It’s always the usual ‘How was your day?’ and the ‘My day went great, thank you.” that usually marked the beginning and ending to any conversation with Noah whenever he came home from work.

“…and then Mr Fursbrough appears in my office, bearing a fairly sized box in both hands. And so he told me that he had got something wonderful for me. Which had me wondering what in the world it could be, as Mr Fursbrough and I weren’t exactly best of friends.” Noah says and turns his head to look at Natalia.

She smiles at him. “Go on, what was in it?” She urges him to speak.

“Well then, he placed the box on the floor, and what eI had thought was a box filled with paper, and probably legal documents, turned out to be a box with a stray cat and its three kittens inside. You  rshould have seen the horror on my face. I was so disgusted!”

“How did that man even bring a box of flowers to the firm anyway?” Natalia asks, tilting her head.

“Oh honey, you have no idea.” Noah chuckles. “If anyone can do something, no matter what it is without being noticed until they decide to bring themselves out, then that person has to be Mr Fursbrough.”

“Oh, now I remember! He was the one who had brought his little girl to the office too, saying that it was ‘take your daughter to work day’, wasn’t he?” Natalia claps her hands, laughing as she does so.

“Yes, that was him too. Anyway, I almost got annoyed but I calmed myself down first and then called the sanitation workers. They had to clear it up, and Mr Fursbrough went to have a heart to heart talk with the big Boss.”

“Poor guy. Would he be let off for that?” Natalia asks, concern written all over her face.

“My dear wife,” Noah chuckles. “You are too kind for your own good.”

“I’m just hoping that he does not lose his job because he behaved immaturely.” Natalia pouts, and peers at Noah from the corner of her eyes.

“Well, you do not have to worry. Fursbrough can get away with anything. Including bringing a pet to work. For some reason. I think he’s either a best friend, or a brother or some kind of cousin to the Big boss.”

“Oh, so that’s why he does those things, huh?”

“Personally, I think he’s got an underlying medical condition affecting his brain.” Noah says with a shrug.

“But those things aren’t usually declared to the public, so I wouldn’t know for sure.”

“Seems like you had a really eventful day.” Natalia smiles as she looked at the time.

“And the Big boss has invited us out for dinner next week. You should pick out your dress and accessories in advance.”

“Sure honey. We are matching colours, right? Pick one.”

“Wine.” He says curtly and opens his mouth to say something when his phone interrupts, the standard iPhone ringtone blaring out.

“Ah, I’d get it.” Natalia says and walks to get him his phone from the table where it lay.

Noah looks at his phone screen and scowls. “Oh, it’s Mr Taylor. I wonder why he’s calling.”

Natalia face morphs into one of surprise and she gasps. “Oh o forgot to tell you, Noah! Mr Taylor had—”

Noah raises a finger in the air, silently requesting for silence from Natalia as he holds the phone to his left ear.

“Yes, Mr Taylor.” He says curtly. “It is indeed a lovely evening, I agree.”

There is silence on Noah’s part for a while. Noah clenches his jaw visibly. “Yes, my day went well too, thank you.”

More silence on his part. Noah clenches his right hand into a fist this time.

“Oh yeah, I was even going to call on you to thank you specially. It was lovely, thank you. Did you grow them?” Noah asks in an especially kind voice.

“Then, I would love to. Thank you very much for your kindness. If you ever get some more, I would surely love to have one more.” Noah nods as he speaks and Natalia squeezes her two hands into her dress.

“Yes, once again, Mr Taylor, I am grateful for what you had given us. Good evening.” Noah finishes up with a frown and then he cut the call and drops the phone.

Natalia lets out a shaky breath and Noah turns to look at her.

“What is wrong with you, Natalia?” He asks in a gentle tone.

“Actually Noah, I wanted to tell you—” Noah interrupted Natalia mid speech.

“I wanted to do this, I wanted to do that. Nobody cares about any of that. What everyone wants to know, what I want to know is what you had done! What did you do, Natalia?” Noah raises his voice a bit.

“I did— I did nothing!” Natalia grits her teeth, already too aware of how everything would end.

“Exactly, dear wife. You did nothing. Tell me about your earlier encounter with Mr Taylor.” Noah laughs humourlessly.

“I was going to tell you, but you were just telling me everything about what happened today and I did not want to interrupt!” Natalia says, flinging her arms in annoyance.

“Mr Taylor brought some fruits here for us and that’s just it.” She says with a shrug of her shoulders.

“What kind of fruit?” Noah asks looking at his wife as he stands up.

“Two watermelons.” She replies and crosses her arms over her chest. Noah’s eyes widen and soon after, he starts to laugh.

“W—what?” He asks, coughing in between his laughter. Natalia’s cheeks start to turn red.

The nerve of this man! She thinks.

“Noah, he only brought some fruits. It’s nothing to be so worked up about.” She says crossly.

“He could have brought papayas or pineapples. But he chose to bring those? And two of them too? And should we also talk about the fact that you tried to hide those facts from me, hmm?” Noah taunts, bending down to look into her eyes.

“Noah, you are still not understanding my point! I did not hide anything from you, I only forgot for a bit. Anyone can do that!” Natalia says.

“Okay my love, I understand now.” Noah sighs and collapses into his seat.

“But is there any other thing that you must have forgotten to tell me too?” Noah says and looks at her innocently. Natalia sits up and looks at him with questions in her eyes.

“I do not understand what you are asking me at the moment.” Natalia shakes her head, knowing that that was not a direct question, but a taunt at something deeper.

“Of course you don’t. Women are not the smartest creatures, are they?” He scoffs.

“I was asking if maybe you had forgotten to tell me what other things you had done with him with the exception of receiving fruits.” He leans towards her direction.

“Maybe you slept with him too and then you forgot to tell me, hey?”

Natalia’s face turns redder than before. “Noah, how dare you? How dare you ask me that?”

Noah does not bat an eye as he still looks at her. “Watch your tone, woman. Learn how to respect your husband while you talk to him.”

“What about the husband doing what he’s supposed to do then?” Natalia retorts.

Noah starts to laugh, clapping his hands. “Women. All the same.” He stands up and begins to pace around.

“I married you, gave you a home, a proper home, not an orphanage. I feed you, I get you the best things to wear and take you out to the best places to see the best things. We have regular intercourse. And you’re telling me to do what I’m supposed to do? As if I’m not doing it already?” He seethes.

“Ungrateful woman! Nothing you ever do would ever be enough to pay me back for giving you the life you have now. So watch your tongue.” He wags a finger at her.

“You should watch your tongue, Noah!” She stands up to him, glaring at him.

“I have never been unfaithful to you, and yet, you think that you can just accuse me of that? That’s just like me accusing you of being filthy! It’s impossible!”

Noah sneers and briskly walks into the kitchen, coming out with some liquid chocolate in a cup. Then to Natalia’s annoyance, he raised the cup and poured the content of it all over his white shirt.

“Whoops!” He smirks.

“Noah, you!”

“Since it’s not impossible for me to be filthy after all, then it is definitely not impossible for you to cheat.” He says smugly.

“That was the most immature action I’ve ever seen, and you are just making a mountain out of a mole hill, calm down.”

The force of Noah’s fist coming down on Natalia’s cheek sends her sprawling to the ground, as she lands painfully on her back, letting out a shriek.

“Next time, watch how you speak to me. I am your god and I deserve all the respect you can give.” Noah says.

He looks down at himself, at his stained and sticky shirt. He feels that he looks like a disgusting child and immediately, he gets the buttons undone and throws the shirt off his person, scrunching up his nose in the process of it.

“Look at what you made me do to prove myself now! Look at how disgusting I am!” Noah touches his now sticky skin.

He goes to his wife who is yet to make from the position she had been in for the past few minutes. He raises her hand and uses her palm to rub at his chest.

“Do you see how sticky I am now?” He asks and she tries to drag her palm away. Noah let’s her go.

“Of course. Maybe it’s Mr Taylor’s flabby body that you like to touch and feel against your hand.” Noah says scornfully, touching his toned abdominal muscles.

He holds Natalia’s neck and squeezes it, revelling in the moment as she scratched against his hands. And then with relish, he joined his lips to hers and held her hands in place with his.

He removes his other hand from her neck and uses it to explore the softness of her body, in spite of her tears.

Natalia stops fighting back as she lies on the ground, as if accepting her punishment for speaking ‘out of turn’ as Noah would say. Noah stands up, suddenly lacking interest as she stopped fighting.

He goes up and takes his own share of the food, and none of the watermelon. He leaves Natalia on the ground, and goes up to the room that they shared humming a tune.

“If only the women of these days would be as good as the ones before.” He mutters and goes into his room.