It wasn’t the first time I met Julia after all. She treated me rather well when I was in the hospital, and apart from occasionally being hesitant about my relationship with Christopher, she had never picked a fight with me. She had even cried after hearing about my terminal disease.
She may have been a powerful businesswoman, but she was still sensitive. If not, she wouldn’t have been so sentimental and wouldn’t have been so torn over my marriage with Christopher. When I went to visit his family the last time, she barely said anything offensive. Her attitude today had been truly out of the ordinary.
When I thought about that and how Mitchell had approached the Tanner family, this was all obviously one of the Martin family’s tricks. Mitchell must have told Julia something for her to act so differently from usual.
Is Monica involved in it all?
I didn’t know how to tell Christopher any of this. Honestly, I didn’t want to, but the Tanner family’s problems needed an urgent solution. Even if I didn’t tell him, my father would still have found a way to make a fuss and spoke to him directly.
I was distracted throughout the whole day. Apart from nearly slicing my hand open while making dinner, I was even distracted after the meal when Christopher made his usual advances on me in our bedroom. While thinking about whether to tell Christopher about it, he wrapped my legs around his waist and pinched my face lightly. “How are you still distracted at such a moment? Am I being punished for not satisfying you?”
“No, no, it’s nothing,” I said hurriedly.
After he was finally satisfied, he held me in his arms and let me rest my head against his chest. He caressed my bare back gently and asked, “What’s wrong? You’ve never been this distracted before. Did something happen while I was gone?”
“Nothing. The art exhibition has been pestering me to attend all these parties and get interviewed, and I’m not really up to that but I do want to meet some of my favorite artists,” I randomly strung together an excuse and managed to steer the conversation in that direction. Thankfully, I had something else to talk to Christopher about. He was well-educated on art as well and our conversations about it were usually rather long.
“What’s there to be stressed about? Go if you want to and don’t go if you don’t feel like it. You’re joining the National Youth Art Exhibition and Contest after all, not some random party with nobodies. As for your favorite artists, just tell me their names and I’ll invite them to our house. I can ensure that you’ll see them tomorrow,” Christopher said with a smile.
“What a simple and quick solution! Why didn’t I think of that?” I joked back and nuzzled my head into Christopher’s stomach. “Can’t you come up with a more reasonable solution? Those artists won’t be happy if you force them to come over. I know how they are and with their egos, they only bend to talent, not brute force.”
“There are plenty of talented people. Some are just more low-key than others,” Christopher said as he pulled the blanket over me and lit a cigarette from the bedside table.
“Like you, for example?” I rolled my eyes.
“Why, how did you guess?”
“You’re so self-absorbed.”
I couldn’t come up with a better idea, so I decided to consult Sabrina and listen to her thoughts on it. She had always been the more opinionated one after all. When I reached her house, Zachary was the one who opened the door. He was still in pajamas and looked as if he had just gotten up. I looked past him and into the house but couldn’t find Sabrina. “Where’s Sabby?” I asked him.
“She’s still sleeping. Give me a second, I’ll try to get her up.” Zachary may have been married to her, but he still smiled like a teenage boy with his first love.
“She’s still sleeping?” I said as I looked at the afternoon sky. It was already around three or four p.m. Even if she was lazing around, she would have gotten up by now. What happened?
“W-well, she was really tired last night, so-”
“I got it! No worries, it’s nothing urgent at all!” I said and hurried away as if I were being chased.
I had already forgotten that Sabrina had just gotten married and was still in the honeymoon phase with Zachary. Why would I be so silly to pester her?
