Playing Married

She's Hot!

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It was half past nine. And Violet still wasn’t back. Last time he checked; she was still finishing up work because she didn’t want to stress over it all weekend.

Nathan sighed as he took a swig of his beer. He felt like an old man, not having any plans for a good Friday night.

Truth was, Nathan didn’t have any friends. Violet was the only friend he made in college and though he did occasionally hang out with some of her other friends, he never clicked with any of them.

Also, he didn’t have any siblings, unlike Violet who had three – a step sister and two half-brothers. And they all loved each other so so very much though they liked to share the story of how the step-sisters, Violet and Paige, only start to love and understand each other after an incident which occurred right before college.

Violet kept no secret from Nathan, but that incident was one such family secret that no one knew. Even the twins didn’t know.

Nathan chewed on his lower lip, glancing at the open kitchen. There was no dinner – he had fired the maid, Stella. He had seen Violet’s favorite bracelet sneaking out from under her sleeve.

Violet was not one to wear much jewelry but she cherished the things that were given to her by her closed ones and this was an anniversary present from him so he was very mad. It was a miracle how he stopped himself from calling the cops on her – she was crying profusely and though he was an asshole, he didn’t like it when anyone cried.

The beep of the door-lock had him looking over his shoulder, from where he sat on the living room couch, watching The Office.

“You know, if you have to work over-time, it means you aren’t competent.” He commented as he watched his wife walk over to the refrigerator and take out a bottle of chilled water.

Violet gave him a flat look. Drinking some water, she said, “Or it could mean that I am a concerned wife who did both her and her sick husband’s work so that he doesn’t have to suffer when he gets back to the office on Monday.”

Nathan turned back to the TV with a pout. She always had some excuse up her sleeve for everything she ever did.

“There’s no dinner?” He heard her ask.

“I fired the maid.” He said.

Violet leaned against the counter and took a deep breath. She didn’t even want to ask why he did that, because there was no use in asking him.

“You could have told me earlier so that I could have gotten some take-outs.” She stated but she realized she didn’t have her husband’s attention anymore. He was hooked to the match going on.

All Violet wanted to do was have some food and get some rest. She didn’t have her breakfast or lunch, she was functioning on coffees and croissants and when she finally comes home, she was made to make the dinner as well.

Violet felt so angry at that moment. Frustrated and angry. So, she decided that her husband can do whatever he wanted, she was going to get some sleep. But she was so hungry that she decided to finish a tub of ice-cream before she went to bed.

It was around eleven in the night when Nathan’s stomach started to gurgle. He sighed and looked over at the kitchen to see that Violet wasn’t there.

The food wasn’t ready yet?

Nathan hopped to his feet and made his way into their bedroom, expecting to see his wife and best friend awake and doing some more work given the workaholic she was. But no, Nathan Black was surprised to find his wife fast asleep on their bed, having left him hungry.

Nathan groaned and climbed onto the bed. He was ready to nag her awake when he noticed the exhaustion on her face.

Of course she was tired! She worked all day!

Nathan pouted when his stomach growled again. And he noticed the empty tub of ice cream on the nightstand. He decided he could live without dinner for a day and her arms looked too inviting.

So, he quickly made a trip back to the living room to turn off the lights and joined her on the bed, snuggling into her chest.

Violet sighed contently when she felt the familiar warmth. She felt complete with him though he didn’t feel that.. yet.

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Nathan poured the maple syrup onto the pancake. Violet had kept her promise and taken him to their favorite breakfast place, Mama Rosette’s. While Violet was munching on her favorite bacon and eggs, Nathan scrolled through his ** as he ate his pancakes.

Suddenly his eyes caught a picture posted by his sister-in-law and Violet’s step-sister Paige Smith. She was posing in the studio she was working at with a brunette. A goddamn gorgeous brunette.

“Who’s this?” He asked Violet curiously as he turned the phone to her.

Violet wiped her mouth with a napkin as she took the phone from him, scanning the picture. She shrugged, “Colleague, I guess. I think I have seen her once or twice when I went to pick Paige up. We were never introduced.”

She returned his phone and watched his expression closely. “Why ask?” She asked, feigning disinterest in the topic.

“She’s hot!” Nathan winked at her before going back to his phone. Violet narrowed his eyes at him but she couldn’t help the tinge of jealousy and sadness that erupted in her heart at his words.

Violet wondered if he had ever thought of her as hot or looked at her pictures like that.

They were married. It had been two years. And they were having s*x with each other – but it was because they couldn’t make the mistake of being caught with someone else. And they knew that the probability was pretty high because Veronica Gale was watching them like a hawk.

But in Nathan’s words, they were friends-with-benefits, and nothing else. And that hurt her so bad, but Violet being Violet didn’t say anything and went with the flow. She was a pushover, there was no sugar-coating it.

Violet was convinced that Nathan was never going to feel anything for her at this point. He hadn’t for the last two years or the four years before that. They had known each other for six whole years and he didn’t acknowledge her as anything more than his best friend and 'wife'. Violet had come to terms with it and was satisfied with the title of the best friend – at least he didn’t cheat on her, though their marriage was fake.

She was fine with it. But him showing even the slightest interest in a woman was new. She had seen it for the first time. He was always awkward around people due to the environment he was brought up in and so he had always suppressed his emotions and then he had got married to her and had been faithful every day.

But today, two weeks before their second wedding anniversary, for the first time in their whole six years of knowing each other, he had shown some kind of an interest in another woman, and it hurt Violet more than she cared to admit.

“Vee, why the hell are you staring at me like that?”

Violet blinked as she was brought out of her thoughts. Nathan was staring at her with confusion etched on his fine features. She couldn’t help compare herself with her sister’s colleague. She was a beauty while Violet was a plain Jane. What if Nathan really ended up being attracted to this friend of her sister?

“Nothing.” She shook her head. “I think I should get some more sleep.”

“Yeah maybe you should. You looked hella tired yesterday.”

Violet’s eyes widened. He had noticed?

The other, empowered part of her internally smacked her across her head. She had set the bar way too low for this man, hadn’t she?

“Uh.. yeah!” She nodded. “I worked all day yesterday and..” She wanted to say that her husband had fired the maid and she had ended up eating ice cream for dinner after starving the whole day, but she just couldn’t bring herself to say it. “I think I just need to sleep.” 

Nathan nodded, unaware of the tsunami of thoughts in his wife's head. 

Her phone rung and both their eyes darted to it to see that it was their favorite person. 

"Mom?" Violet had the sweetest grin on her face as she picked up the phone.

The excitement in her daughter's voice brought a smile to Stephanie Smith's face. 

"Hi, my little one!" She grinned as she said it, narrowing her eyes at her son Jeremy when he mimicked her expression from across the dinner table. 

"What's up?" Violet asked, slapping away Nathan's hand as he tried to get hold of her phone to talk to his mother-figure. 

"'What's up?' I hope you haven't forgotten what's up with today!" Stephanie said, her brow quirking. 

"What's special about today?" Violet whispered to Nathan who looked at her, equally clueless. 

"It's the third Saturday of the month, young lady!" Stephanie rolled her eyes. She couldn't even blame her daughter because her husband and twins had also forgotten about it, and Paige wasn't even picking up her phone. At least Violet was busy running a successful business and she had learnt the previous day that Veronica had managed to cause yet another trouble in Violet's routine. 

"OHHHHHHH!!!!" Violet exclaimed in realization. "Of course Mom, we will be there." 

"Yeah, I will see you then."

"Okay! Love you."

"Love you more  sweetie!"

"Dinner at your house?" Nathan looked like a kid on Christmas day. He loved spending time with Violet's family. The evening would be filled with so much love and laughter and warmth - one night there was equivalent to all the happiness he had before he met Violet.

"Yep!" She grinned at her husband.

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