“Not mine,” I said sighing. She hated daughters. They were much harder work. According to her I was a nightmare child. According to my dad I was the best thing that ever happened to him. How could my parents be together when they were total opposites, who knew?
And why did my dad act like a kitten in front of her? Well, probably because she would claw his eyes out.
“She made my childhood hell,” I said, flicking to the last page of the magazine behind the cover. There was nothing interesting there to stare at, but it kept my emotions in tact thinking about my childhood, and what a childhood it was. And it kept me from staring into Darius’s intense gaze.
“I mean I had no friends, she would scare them away.” I added in a shrug to make it seem like it was no big deal, but it was. “They were too scared of her.” I was running out of pages to flip. Hell, I was on my last page and I needed something for my fingers to do.
“Then Rose came along.” And this brought a smile to my face, because Rose, I loved her. “She was the only one who wasn’t too scared of my parents, she stuck around. Of course, mum didn’t like this, tried sending me to boarding school, saying Rose was a bad influence on me, and hell yes she sort of was.” I remembered all of the parties she made me go to. Oh lord, I was a partier.
“But of course that’s when dad drew the line. He didn’t want me across the world in England without parents who could keep eyes on their child, so she let him but then made me go to a girls school. That wasn’t too bad since Rose transferred with me. There was an exam to do and thankfully we both got in.” It was a smart school, but I was sure my brains and IQ level dropped after I got into that school.
Hell, I became lazy, that school cared more about their grades than the students, and that was when I lost all motivation.
“And then I got into Med School, was respectful. Mother hated it, she wanted me to quit, she said it wasn’t a girl’s profession.” I rolled my eyes. I was quit passionate about helping people.
“Why did you quit?” asked Darius, speaking up since I started talking. My eyes searched for his.
I shrugged. “I wasn’t cut out for it.” She was right, not about the fact it was not a women’s profession. Hell it was, but you did need to be a certain person.
“It scared me. I had the power over someone else’s life. I didn’t like that, not to mention I had to deal with bones,” I said. “And touch people, ew.” Darius let out a chuckle, “Not my thing, but then I wasted so many years with that I didn’t want to go back to Uni and do another course, so I decided I would take a gap year. You know, that’s what everyone did before Uni. I didn’t so I was going to catch up.” I waved an arm and let one end of my magazine drop.
“But?” He prompted me on.
“You know.”
He shook his head. “Know what?”
I bit my lip. “Well, I really can’t go on a gap year and travel when I was meant to be getting married…to you.”
“Oh,” he said, realising what I meant.
“It’s okay, at least we went to France, right?” At least I did some type of travelling.
He nodded slowly like he was thinking of something. “Where did you want to go?” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Like on your gap year.”
I didn’t hesitate to travel. I had always wanted to go here, ever since I saw a picture on the internet of the beautiful blue water.
Just thinking about it made my eyes sparkle and my lips turn into a smile.
“Tahiti,” I said looking up and locking eyes with him again. “Why?”
“No reason,” he said, leaning back and taking his phone out, no doubt for more work.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
“What’s happening?” I asked, confused, as Darius stood beside me. The door bell rung as I was drifting off to sleep on the couch, and it woke me up. I mean, it was hard to fall asleep when Adrian was bursting into the house, after ringing the door bell like a civilised person.
Darius just looked as confused as me as we stood in the kitchen while Adrian grabbed things out.
“So it has come to my attention,” Adrian finally spoke, grabbing a bag of something and placing it on the counter top. “That neither of you can cook.” He gave me a pointed look, making me blush.
I can make pasta? If you give me the sauce, I mean it was just boiling water, right?
“You are a disaster,” Adrian bluntly said and I glared at him. Gee, thanks. “And you have potential,” he said, pointing to Darius. I frowned, I was sure I had potential too. Well, okay maybe not. If Darius started to cook I wouldn’t complain. I’ll happily eat for him. He would be too tired to do both. I smiled at my wicked idea.
“So let’s start simple today. Lasagna.”
As delicious as that sounded, how was that simple? It sounded hard. I looked at the ingredients he was taking out.
“Why do you have vegetables?” I asked feeling stupid. Wasn’t lasagna just meat, cheese, more glorious cheese and pasta? Adrian looked at me like I was the biggest idiot on earth, which I probably was when it came to cooking and his jaw dropped.
“To cook with the meat,” his tone disbelieving and that’s when I decided to keep all questions to myself. I could always just laugh at him when the outcome was horrible and tell him that lasagna had no vegetables. Well, I don’t know.
“Adrian can cook pretty good,” Darius whispered beside me and I raised a skeptical eyebrow. Let’s hope so.
“Darius, you set up the stove. Ivory, cut this.”
A chopping board with carrots and capsicum was passed to me and I looked at it. Adrian had already washed them and peeled the carrots.
“Small, really small,” he told me and I nodded. Here goes nothing. The capsicum was slippery and the skin was a bit harder to cut through, but I got the hang of it pretty fast. I mean I did do this for him last time he cooked.
I cut them as small as I could, and then thought it was too small but when Adrian nodded at me, I guess it was okay. Man, I can cook! Well, cut.
“Now what do I do?” I asked after I finished. My jaw dropped when Adrian placed six onions, big ones, on the counter top.
“Cut them, too.”
Six?
I got to work right away. Only when I reached my second one did I feel my eyes burning. I could feel the tears coming down and I sniffed, closing my eyes. They were too strong for my eyes and nose.
“I can’t,” I yelled, dropping the knife and lifting up my shirt to press against my eyelids as they stung.
“Oh my god, onions,” I jumped up and down, turning around.
“You only cut two…” Adrian said from somewhere close, his voice sounded close and I waved a hand. “It stings,” I said.
How did chefs always cut onions without crying? I didn’t realise it would be this strong.
“Don’t be a baby. Cut them.”
“Adrian…” It was Darius.
“What? She can cut them. She only has four left.”
I blinked a few times before nodding. I can do this. I can take on these onions. I peeled the skin off the next one and washed it and placed it on the chopping board. I closed my eyes feeling for the knife and the onion and started chopping.
“Is she chopping with her eyes closed?”
“Wait, what?”
“She’s going to cut her fingers off. No, Ivory. Fine, switch with Darius.”
Thank the lord. I looked down to see I did a pretty good job. It wasn’t that bad to cut with your eyes closed.
“What do I do?” I asked, walking up to the sauce pan but it was pretty self-explanatory when I saw it. Stir. There was a red paste, no doubt tomato paste, and in the other pan there was hot oil, where mixed minced meat was already browning.
“Don’t let it burn.” I nodded upon hearing Adrian, who was walking around grabbing more things out of the cupboards.
“Where is Margaret?” I asked, realising again that her presence was missing.
“She’s gone to visit her family. She’ll be
back in two months,” Darius said and I looked over my shoulder to see he was handling the onions pretty well. He was already onto the last one and not a single tear.
I nodded. Two months seemed like a long time. Maybe after this I could ask Darius for her phone number and give her a call. Hope everything was alright with her.
“Stir, Ivory. Not stare at the oil.”
I rolled my eyes and picked up the wooden spatula. I was waiting for the meat to cook before I stirred. I realised then that Adrian was a horrible teacher. He had no patience and yelled at the smallest things. He yelled when Darius dropped one small piece of onion on the bench, claiming it was a waste.
He yelled at the fridge for being too cold, at the sink for being too big, the floor for being too wet when he dropped some water. Darius and I shared a look as we watched him yell at someone on the phone. Whoever was on the other line was receiving his wrath.
“What’s that smell?” Darius asked, sniffing, and I had missed it till he mentioned it. Oh crap. I turned away from the bench, rushing to the stove and opening the lid. Everything was mixed together now and was meant to simmer to get the flavors together. Only it wasn’t simmering, it was burning.
“Crap,” I swore. Everything was going so well! I grabbed the spatula trying to mix it around. Most of it was good but I could see that some of the meat was stuck to the bottom.
“It’s burning,” I said worriedly.
“Mix it.”
“I’m trying. Where’s Adrian gone?” I asked, panicking. We couldn’t ruin all this beautiful sauce and our hard work because the meat was stuck to the base of the saucepan and now it was browning, fast.
“Here, move aside.” Darius’s arm came onto the handle on top of mine and the other took the spatula as he stirred. Only I was between him and the stove.
“Um, Darius?”
“Yes, Aluminium?”
“You going to let me out?” I didn’t know how I was meant to move aside. I was too scared to turn around and come face to face with his eyes, so instead I watched the spatula stir harder, getting the meat to unstuck from the pan.
“I think I’m fine.” And I felt his chin rest on my shoulder.
“It tastes okay,” I said, nodding as I tried it.
“It tastes good,” Darius agreed with me.
“It tastes like burnt charcoal,” Adrian snapped when he took a taste, spitting it back out. We both winced. Okay maybe we burned it, a bit, a lot.
“I quit,” Adrian blurted, standing up and taking off the apron he was wearing. I agreed, that apron looked silly. “You both need professional help.” He shook his head in frustration and walked out of the kitchen and Darius and I looked at each other.
Now what?
“Um,” I said, looking around the mess we made in the kitchen, the sink filled with dishes, splashes of sauce all over the stove and bench near it, rubbish on the ground. I then looked at Darius. “Let’s order pizza.”
He shrugged, taking out his phone. “Okay, who’s cleaning up the mess?” he asked and I put my hand up.
“Bags not,” I said, rushing out of the kitchen. His hand grabbed mine before I could go too far.
“Someone has to do it.”
“That someone can be you,” I said, pulling my hand back and patting his shoulder. “You can learn some house work, dear husband.”
“How about the loser does it?”
“The loser to what?” I questioned him.
“Monopoly.”
I smiled. I could finally win. I forgot everything I said about the last monopoly game, because this time I was going to win.
“You’re on.”
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
The longer I stared at the mirror, the funnier it got.
I was on the bed staring at his reflection. His eyebrows were furrowed as he focused on the task at hand. Watching him try to tie a tie was just plain entertainment. It was better than netflix.
I played with the hem of my black dress, leaning against the headboard and waiting for his poshness to finish. And here I thought I was going to be late. It took me an hour to find a nice black dress to wear and in the end I settled for a simple yet elegant long black dress with a high neck that had big rhinestones as a design.
"You know if you need help, you can ask," I told him after he undid his tie and started again. Was this the third or fourth time? I was waiting for him to ask me for help, but he didn't. He looked up, his eyes meeting mine in the mirror and sighed. "Maybe I shouldn't wear a tie."
I raised an eyebrow and reminded him, "It's a black tie event."
He pulled the tie and turned around to face me. I had to admit, I preferred him without the tie, with the button undone. It looked better but a black tie event meant he had to wear a black tie, or a bow tie, or a tie at least.
I shook my head and stood up. If he wasn't going to ask, I'll do it anyway. "Alright, come here."
I grabbed the black tie, trying to straighten it out. With the attempts he made, it was more crinkled than a twisties chip. I placed the tie around my neck, doing the knot. "You know, it's really easy. I can teach you."
I showed him the first step. "First you make a knot like this, and then you place the big end through."
"I don't need to be taught." Darius placed his hands on my waist, pulling me against him. "You can do my ties every time."
"What about during your business trips?" I tried to loop it around but my hands were stuck between myself and his chest. I don’t plan to go to all his business trips. He has to learn how to do a tie. How did he get them done before?
"Jesse can do it then," he answered, as though he read my mind.
"Jesse does your ties?" I asked incredulously, leaning back so I could finish the knot.
Darius shrugged and said, “Or Margaret.”
I rolled my eyes, trying not to laugh. I could just imagine a frustrated Darius yelling at Jesse to do his tie and then shoving it at him after he finished the meeting. Typical.
I narrowed my eyes at the tie and sighed, looking up. "You're distracting me."
"I'm not doing anything." He looked innocent enough, but his green eyes twinkled with amusement as I finished the tie and took it off my neck. He didn't have to do anything. Just staring at me intently like he was now was enough for every thought to disappear from my brain.
I placed the tie around his neck, pulling it tighter to make it sit perfectly between the collars.
"Are you trying to kill me, Mrs. Quartz?" he teased, removing one hand from my waist and loosening his tie.
"No, don't do that." I slapped his hand away. "It's got to be tight." This wasn't school to have unbuttoned shirts and a loose tie. It would be a formal event, and to think Darius should know about this.
He rolled his eyes at me, which was a comical sight to behold. Who knows the great billionaire can roll eyes like this?
"Okay, done. Let's go or we're going to be late and I don't think Daniel will be happy!"
I was surprised we were even invited. I didn't even know how they contacted us but when Darius told me this evening that Daniel had invited us to his twenty-first birthday, we could go if I wanted. And of course I wanted to go.
We had met them all when we played volleyball at the beach. I was surprised they even remembered us. It was touching.
"Do you have the present?"
"In the car." Then he raised his finger and wiped it across my lips.
I pulled back, looking at him with wide eyes. "What are you doing!" I exclaimed, seeing the red lipstick on his finger. He took out his handkerchief and wiped it off.
"Don't wear lipstick."
My mouth dropped as I stared at him. I was sure this colour looked nice. Rose picked it out, saying it made me look good. "Why?"
Darius smiled and leaned down my ear to say, "Because then I can't kiss you. In case it smudges."
"You guys made it!"
Daniel greeted us as soon as we walked into the large venue. It was a rented hall in Docklands, a
part of the city with a spectacular view of the waterfront. You can see the ships and boats by the harbour and the place was decorated with black, white and gold balloons.
"Happy birthday!" I yelled, throwing my arms around him. Did he get taller?
He laughed, his grey eyes twinkling as I hugged him and he picked me up before putting me down. "Great to see you both again," he said, ruffling my hair like last time and I slapped his hand away. It was ironic how much we hated each other, or didn't get along when I first met him, but somehow seeing him after all this time made me miss them all.