Whats Love Got to do With it?: An Arranged Marriage to a Stranger

Arranged Marriage to a Stranger (7)

Hey, so I wanna apologize now if this chap isn't as good as the last ones. I'm pretty burnt out from work and school, so its really hard to find energy or time to write. But I hope you like it just the same, and again, if don't or have advice or anything comment and tell me so I can write better :)

Chapter 7

As soon as the car doors locked I unleashed all of my fury on my unsuspecting parents. Really, they should know better by now.

"What the hell is wrong with you two?! I am your daughter, for the love of God, and you're willing to destroy my life just to one up your sister?!?" I fumed.

"Calm down Carmella, jeez, stop being such a drama queen." My mother casually replied back, sounding disgustinngly similar to my sister. Its creepy really, like they're the same person.

I couldn't believe her, she was accusing me of being over dramatic? Over dramatic over my arranged marriage?!? Is that even possible? "Besides, I thought you said you wanted to marry Ezra now, you didn't change your mind in the last five minutes did you?" She asked me. My father gave me a quick glance in the rear view mirror, a tad bit of hopefullness in his eyes. I couldn't help it, that made me smile. My mother, of course, took that the completely wrong way. Cue creepy, clown like smile.

"Hah! I knew you secretly liked him" She beamed.

"What?! Are you crazy, the guy's a jerk and a perv, how you expect me to even tolerate his presence is beyond me." I retorted.

"Well you'll just have to learn to then, since you'll be spending a whole week with him."

Again, I say, "What?!"

"Oh did we forget to tell you at the house? Ariel and Lazar have invited our family to spend a week with them down at their beach house. And, well, since you said yes to the marriage, I just assumed that that's how you would want to spend your spring break, you know, getting to know your fiancé and his family better." There was a taunting grin on my mothers face that was just daring me to snap back at her. I think after all those months of moping around her bitchness just piled up inside her, and now she was ready for a release. Great, why me? I thought that's what husbands were for?

Through gritted teeth I responded. "Well I guess you can't be right about everything, mother, because I would rather floss Michael's  teeth than spend a whole week locked up in some house with HIM!"

My mother's face turned red at that, and the amused look she held turned pissed. She twisted her body around in the front seat to face me, and with one sentence totally and completely won the argument. "Carmella, I'm warning you once, if you do not go to the beach house with us then I swear to god you will be changing dirty diapers, wiping up vomit, and cleaning out Cara's breast pump for the next six months, DO YOU HEAR ME?!?!"

I gulped. I couldn't help it. The whole five months my mother was moping around she must have been secretly working on being terrifying, because at this moment, I have to say, she really was. Plus, I don't do dirty diapers, or vomit for that matter, and there was definitely no way in hell I was going near Cara's breast pump. So I just nodded my head, because frankly, I didn't know what to say. My mother instantly smiled again, her expression changing back to one of a manipulative evil mastermind, almost as if she had planned this whole thing out. But she couldn't have, right? No, she definitely wasn't that smart. Well, you win this round, mother- one point to the crazy lady off her meds in the front seat.

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April came way too fast, and before I knew it, spring break was here. *Yippy* Originally, my entire family was supposed to go to the beach house together but Illias pulled out, of course, to spend lovey dovey time with his girlfriend, I mean, its not like they don't have enough time to do that already. Eitan already made plans with his friends to go to Ft. Lauderdale for spring break, so that meant that he would be out too. And, this being Reuven's senior year of high school, he claimed he had soccer practice to attend at school over break, and if he missed it then he might not get a scholarship or something, blah blah blah, he just wanted the house to himself. So that left me, unfortunately, my parents, my sister (cringe) her trash compactor (vomit) and mr. poopy pants (my nephew, but don't tell Cara I call him that). Blah, this would definitely not work, so every night for two weeks before D-Day, as I liked to call it, I prayed for my sister to get her period the week of spring break so she wouldn't come. And guess what, she didn't get her period, but her hairy beast of a husband did get a huge ass rash all over is back, and I'm sure his ass too, apparently from eating spoiled food?!? So they were all now out. Good. The less witnesses to this trainwreck the better.

The drive to the Jersey shore lasted about two hours and was completely silent. I was pissed, to say the least, and at this point I couldn't help but feel that not only had I been manipulated by Ezra, but also by my mother into this arranged marriage thing. And I'll admit, I was starting to get a little nervous and slightly annoyed that I didn't see this coming.

When we finally arrived at the "beach house" I was shocked, it was more like a beach mansion, these people must like everything big. I guess the hotel business is doing well. Two men (man-servants?) came out and took our luggage into the house. Behind them Ariel came skipping out, obviously overly excited about our visit. She ushered us into the house and then began to explain our "sleeping arrangements". Ariel explained that my parents were going to be sleeping in the room down the hall from Lazar and Ariel. Ok, remind to avoid that corridor, no need to be scarred by gross, old people sex.

"And where will I be sleeping? I woke up early this morning, and if its ok, I kind of want to go take a nap." I asked, getting impatient. Hey, its early, I'm tired, and marrying the devil, I'm allowed to be bitchy.

"Oh, Carmella, of course you can take a nap. We were going to put you in the room down that hall." Ariel said, pointing to an adjacent hallway. I began to walk in that direction without even uttering so much as a thanks when her next words stopped me. "But, then Ezra decided he didn't want to sleep in the house, for some reason, and has taken up residence in the guest house, so we decided that it would be a better idea if you stayed in the guest house with him."

I groaned. I mean, when were they going to stop shoving. Ezra and I were polar opposites, and like magnets, no matter how much they tried to shove us together, we would always repel. I don't care what he looks like, how hard his body is, how chiseled his abs may be, how large his..... wait, what was my point again? Oh yeah, he repelled me, he repelled me, really.

I shook my head, trying to get my attention to snap back, I've been told that I have the attention span of a goldfish. "Fine" I muttered. I am too tired to fight now, I'll just sneak out of the guest house later and find an empty bedroom in the house, I'm sure they have lots of those.

"Wonderful" Ariel beamed. "Garbanzo will escort you and your luggage to the guest house now so you can take a nap." Just then, one of the man-servants stepped out of the hallway and picked up my luggage that was on the ground. I just looked over at him and cocked an eyebrow, who the heck names their kid after a stinky bean? What ever, parents are crazy, I should know that. Garbanzo began to lead the way with me trailing slowly behind him when my mom spoke up. "Oh, and by the way Carmella, we are trusting you to behave while you stay with Ezra. I would like my daughter to have something to blush about by the time she gets married, so no you-know-what." I blushed crimson at that, like first time you get your period and your in the middle of gym class with your crush crimson. She couldn't actually think that Ezra and I would do "you-know-what" (*rolls eyes*), that kid would be lucky if I hand him a tissue when he sneezes. Ariel's soft laughter reminded me that we were not alone, because everytime I'm humiliated there has to be several witnesses.Way to say that in front of his parents, mom,  and put my virginity on blast. I swear, its like if she didn't embarrass me every chance she got she would die!

I nodded quickly, wanting to get away from the old people as quickly as possible, then turned to bean -man  and nudged him to continue showing the way. When we finally got to the guest house I laughed because it looked just like the beach house, except in mini form, it was actually kind of cute.

I walked inside and stopped right in my tracks, my mouth fell open, and I couldn't help but stare. Standing in the middle of the living room was Ezra, soaking wet with a beach towel slung over his shoulder. His chiseled abs glistening from the sun shining in through the open windows. His biceps flexed as he readjusted the towel on his shoulder, and suddenly I had never wanted to be held by a man so much in my life as I did then. What shocked scared me the most, however, was the tiny black speedo he was wearing. He looked like an olympic swimmer, and how he was able to fit all of.... him into that tiny bathing suit I couldn't comprehend, it looked very... tight. Hmm, maybe if he agrees never to talk this whole marriage thing could work out?