Living with My Ruthless Ex-Husband (ENGLISH)

CHAPTER 2

GARRIE

THE nerve of this guy to ask for a kiss! I didn’t mind his word but instead, I looked out at the window and tried to ignore his presence.

“What a way to greet your husband, huh?” he said while I continued looking out at the window of the car. I didn’t know where we were going and he was still not telling me either.

“Ex, Lucas. Ex-husband,” I corrected him.

“Alright, alright. Ex-husband it is,” he teasingly answered.

I didn’t know what was with him and why he was acting like this, all of the sudden.

“Where are we going?” I asked him, completely ignoring his last word.

“I’m staying at a small hotel nearby. That’s the most decent hotel I can find around here,” he said.

“Why are we going to your hotel? I know a decent coffee shop in the next town. We can stop there and talk.” I didn’t see any good reason why we needed to go to his hotel. We might be annulmentd but he was still a man and I didn’t trust him, neither myself.

Three years have passed and my feelings for him didn’t even change for a bit. My body still jumped at the single touch of his hand and my heart still trembled at the sound of his soft and baritone voice.

“Why? Are you afraid of me?” he asked teasingly while not even trying to hide the smirk on his face.

“Why would why? I just don’t think that it will be appropriate for us to stay in a hotel just to talk,” I defended.

“I need to attend an important conference. My laptop is in the hotel. Don’t worry about it. I won’t do anything against your will.” I saw him smirked when I peeked at the rear view mirror. Our eyes met and it surely sent shivers down to my spine and my heart almost jumped off my rib cage.

Damn you, heart!

I quickly shifted my gaze back to the window and never tried to look his way again. Few minutes later, we finally arrived at the only decent hotel around the area. It was located at the town proper, thirty minutes away from where I was staying.

I didn’t wait for him to open the door for me like he always did when we were still together. I was not expecting anything from him. He grabbed my hand while leading the way inside the hotel. I was not comfortable with the hotel staff staring at me like I did something horrible. I tried to snatch back my hand from him but the more I resisted, the more he’d tighten his grip. When I didn’t succeed in removing my hand from his grip, I just bowed my head and tried to hide it so no one would recognize me.

“What are you doing?” he asked while frowning when we finally stopped in front of the elevator.

“Stop talking and start walking will you? I need to get this over with, before anyone sees me. Gossips in this town spreads like a wildfire. I don’t want people talking about me,” I told him while I was still trying to bow down my head as low as possible.

“You don’t have to worry about that. You may not be staying here any longer,” he said while shrugging his shoulder.

“What?! What are you talking about?” I asked, surprised by what he was saying.

I was about to bombard him with another question when the elevator finally arrived and he suddenly pulled me inside. He didn’t bother answering me and just continued to ignore me.

“Lucas, I’m asking you—”

“Patience, Hon. Patience,” he said after cutting me off.

“Patience your face!” I told him, then abruptly pulled my hand from him which took him by surprise that/s why I easily took back my hand from his grip. I rolled my eyes at him when I saw him smirking. Moment of silence wrapped the whole elevator and that was the most agonizing minutes of my entire life. Being confined in a small space with him didn’t do me any good.

He led the way to the right most part of the hallway where his room was located supposedly. He took out his key from his pocket and opened the door wide before letting me in first. He even gestured a courtesy that just earned an eye rolling from me.

“Nana Grace is coming back to Manila,” he started. I quickly turned my face at him with a wrinkle on my forehead.

“And what does it have to do with me?”

“She still doesn’t know that we already got annulment,” he explained.

Nana Grace was Lucas’ grandmother. She’s our witness when we got married in the UK where she’s currently staying. She’s a self-proclaimed Lucas-Garrie shipper. She’s rooted for us since the beginning.

“It has been three years, Lucas, and you haven’t even had the time to tell her?”

“I was busy and it completely lost my mind to inform her about us.”

“You’re busy with what? Your mistress?” I sarcastically asked him.

“What? You still haven’t gotten past that?” he questioned and started to get annoyed. Yeah, he’s right. There was no use in bringing back the past.

“Well to make the story short, she’s not doing well that’s why she’s coming back here in the Philippines,” he continued.

“What?! What happened to Nana?” I was surprised with the news about Nana Grace.

“She’s old and she wants to spend the rest of her life here in the Philippines and she’s expecting to see us. I can’t afford to tell her now about what happened to us. It will break her. You know how much she loves us being together.”

He’s right. Nana Grace would definitely get sad if she finds out that her favorite love team was now annulmentd.

“I need to discuss with you the other details, but I need to attend a conference call. After that, I’ll be with you shortly. Make yourself at home,” he said before walking towards the cabinet and took out his laptop. He assembled all his things in the small table that was placed across the room, near the bed.

This was not the typical kind of room Lucas would like to stay, but I guessed, he didn’t really have much of a choice. Iguig was a small town of Cagayan, way far from the modern and sophisticated infrastructure of Manila. There was a Queen size bed in the middle of the room and it has a small bedside table with a lamp. There was also a small couch on the left side of the room that was facing against the wall where the 24-inch television was located. There was also a small personal ref inside the room.

I heard him started talking. At first, I thought he was talking to me, but when I looked at him, he was now focused on his laptop. The conference that he was referring about had started now.

I looked around the room to look for something to do while passing the time and waiting for Lucas. I decided to open the mini-ref and raid it. I saw a couple of beers in a can and some soft drinks. There was also chips inside. I took the beer and the chips and slumped against the couch. I started scrolling on my phone while drinking the can of beer in my hand.