Chapter 13

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When Duke and Audrey got home, they found that Lindsey had just left for the church party.

Audrey kicked the heels off her feet as Duke walked over to the bar and grabbed a bottle of whiskey with two shot glasses. The two sat by the carpet and Duke poured the first shots.

"Am sorry you have to deal with all this bullshit," he spoke as he was pouring himself a second shot "I guess staying secluded was better after all."

Audrey didn't say anything, she just took a second shot then got up and walked over to the sound system, putting on some music.

She grabbed the bottle from him and started pouring shot after shot until she couldn't even feel bothered by what was happening on social media, she started dancing and laughing hysterically, just finding amusement in the most mundane of things.

"Do you wanna dance with me DK?" she asked as she was twirling, her arms moving about in the air.

"Sure," Duke smiled and got up, sure she was a bit drunk, but she was happy and that's what mattered in that moment, she was not burdened by the hatred from random strangers but just wanted to dance like nobody was watching.

Duke danced with her, laughing along as she made silly dances. When the song switched to a slow one, he put his arms around her waist and pulled her even closer, Audrey putting hers on his shoulders.

His eyes fixed on hers, she had really beautiful eyes and he couldn't help smiling just by looking at them.

"This is nice," he said and she nodded in agreement.

His eyes started switching from her eyes to her lips and she could clearly see where things were headed so as he started to slowly move his head forward, Audrey spoke up.

"Do you have feelings for me Duke?" she asked, and he froze in place for a second. Was this really the right time to ask such questions?

"I care about you a lot, Audrey."

Well, that was not the answer she was looking for. Even though it was a heart piercing answer, she smiled and took a step back.

"Then we shouldn't do this," she said "it'll only make things worse for me."

She had already started developing feelings for him and she knew that if they ended up in bed together while he didn't even have feelings for her it would probably break her, especially now that he was reconnecting with his friends, and she had to remain home while he was out there mingling with different women who were actually his type.

"you're right," he shook his head and pulled away as well "am sorry, those shots are messing with my head."

The last thing he wanted to do was give her mixed signals, sure he loved her personality, and she was beautiful, but he preferred slender women because he had observed that naturally women tend to become a bit bigger after having children so if she was already on the curvy side, he was afraid after having kids she would start looking like his elder sister or aunt. He did not want a situation where people questioned whether it was really his wife.

And seeing as it was already happening on social media, he was afraid it would only become worse if she was to have maybe two or three kids.

Of course, telling her to start the gym and diets was unacceptable and he saw it as an insult, she was beautiful just as she was but perhaps just not for him, there were men out there who loved women with her body type.

.

When Wednesday came around, Duke got the surgery, but it was just minimal, the scars did not completely disappear, but they were not stealing attention from the rest of his face anymore. Audrey had been on high alert, safeguarding her heart and refusing to raise her hopes no matter how nice and sweet Duke was. She had deactivated her Facebook account to stop herself from being exposed to all the hate and negativity, it was undoubtedly the smartest thing she could do.

Duke was still hanging out with his friends, but he was being careful and once a week he would take her out for dinner then another once a week they would go out as a family with Lindsey.

On the other side he was still thinking about the NDA situation with Connie, wondering if he had to first tell Audrey about it.

.

"Because it's you, I will give you a 10% discount," Jerome said to Audrey.

Her weekly allowance was accumulating, and she had seen a beautiful six-bedroom house being sold and immediately thought of a classy boarding house, it was just ten minutes away from a private international university. To her surprise it turned out to be Jerome selling it.

"Make it 15% and we have a deal," she tried to negotiate.

"Oh, come on, you're married to a billionaire with a weekly allowance of $10,000. You can afford this."

"And you're a millionaire, you can afford to give me 15%" she grinned, and he chuckled as he leaned back.

"Fine, 15%" he gave in, the house was in great condition, but he just wanted to sale it so that he could invest in another venture which would bring in even more money.

"great" she almost bounced in the chair because of happiness, sure her love life was in the pits but business-wise things were getting better and better, she wanted to end the year with an apartment building and maybe a farm.

"Would you like to go and see it? It's currently unoccupied."

"Yes, definitely." She agreed "can we pass through the mall for champagne?" she was really excited about it and instead of just sitting focusing on what was not going right, she had decided to focus on the positives and celebrate each win.

"Sure, I'll even get a ribbon for you to cut by the door," Jerome joked.

"That would be incredible," she said, and he just shook his head in amusement.

The two drove to the mall and even though he had said it as a joke, he did buy the ribbon and a scissors for her to cut.

She was so excited about having the house and kept on talking about the things she would buy and how she planned the boarding house to be like, just seeing the excitement had him feeling happy for her.

He was glad that she was building herself because time passes by so fast, and the five years would be gone soon.

When he remembered that Duke had been inquiring about an NDA so that he can have a sexual relationship with Connie he couldn't help feeling bad for Audrey, surely, she could offer Duke everything she needed.

"what's wrong?" her voice brought him back to reality

"What?"

"what's wrong? Your face has suddenly become all gloomy and sad," she pointed out and he was impressed at how quick she picked up emotional ques and expressions "don't tell me you want to change your mind about the house."

Audrey had already written him a cheque.

"of course not," he smiled "it was just something else, don't worry about it."

Jerome put a note in his mind to remember to have a chat with Duke and ask him if he really wanted that side relationship with Connie, to find out why he couldn't just amend the initial agreement and add sex to the contract with Audrey.

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