Exotica

Tonight

♡ Amini Salazar ♡

I yawn for what felt like the hundredth time tonight and step into our quiet home. By the lights being off I assume that my husband is most likely asleep even though it's not ten p.m which is normally when he goes to sleep unless he has work keeping him up or, our children. I shut the door behind me and drop my heels on the hardwood floor then wander into the kitchen in search of food since I was too busy with work to remind myself to eat.

With work consuming so much of my time I forget to do the simple shit but I have to remind myself that this is temporarily, once I find a good manager I can stop over working myself and dealing with countless bullshit that I honestly don't need. I step into the kitchen and feel against the wall for the light switch. I turn it on and to my surprise, I see my husband seated on one of the bar stools with his chin proped on his hand. "Hi babe, why are you sitting here in the dark?" I ask and make my way to the refrigerator. He ignores me which is strange since he's normally the first one starting conversations but, I don't think too much of it. It's late at night and he's probably exhausted from work as well.
I grab some chicken and rice from the night before and walk over to the microwave to heat it up. " How was your day?" I ask only to receive no response in return. "Babe," I place my food in the microwave and turn to look at him. "Are you okay?" I walk over to him and place my hand on his shoulder, feeling him tense up.

Okay, that's not normal at all.

He removes himself for the stool and glances at me then at the table where a magazine was laid. I glance at it then back at him. "We need to talk about a few things." The tone of his hoarse voice makes me raise my brows but I just nod at him.

"Okay..." I push the sleeves of my shirt up and rest my hands on my hips. "About what exactly though?" I watch him grab the magazine, he looks down at it, me then back at it. "I was at the market today getting some ginger root and saw this magazine," he stops and licks his lips. "I was actually excited to see my wife on the cover of it, looking beautiful as ever, per usual. What bothered me was the headline." He tosses the magazine on the table and walks out of the kitchen into the living room. "See, you and I got married a few months ago. You understand how I dislike the public eye and attention but, I'm standing here looking at you and Hayden on the cover of a magazine with an unpleasant headline when I'm your husband." I grab the magazine off the table and look at it, mentally cursing myself out at the image of Hayden and I. I place it back on the table the join my husband in the living room. "Okay, let me explain this because it is far from what it looks like, my manager-"

"So you're publicly cheating now?" He cuts me off.

"What, no-"

"Is that why you're so distant with me? Is that why your phone stay on vibrate and the reason why you now have a passcode on it?" He cuts me off again, bass easing in his voice. "I mean you get calls at night and have to walk out of the room to answer them, who the hell is calling you that late? You lie to me as if I'm that gullible to believe you. Not to mention, you're never in the mood. When was the last time you and I were intimate with one another? Hell, the last time your lips were on mine were on your birthday which was three weeks ago. If you're already second guessing this marriage then let me know now. We vowed to love one another and be faithful but you're doing the opposite." After his rant I tuck my lips and stare at him, feeling highly offended but, I can't blame him for feeling any of this because it looks suspicious on many levels.

"Okay, can we talk about this? I want to explain what the fuck it is you're thinking which is nothing but assumptions." I say calmly, hoping that he'd try to reason with me. He sighs and glares at me, I guess debating whether or not to even discuss this whole situation. "Please, I promise it's the complete opposite of what it is you're thinking." He gives me a subtle head nod then walks over to the couch, taking a seat. I do the same but sit on the couch across from him. "Okay well, starting off with that stupid headline." I bite down on my bottom lip then look across at him. He leans back into the couch cushions and just stares at me, hard as fuck. I look away and bite the instead of my cheek, nervous as fuck to even talk about this but, I need to talk about this. All of this shit is long overdue but at the same time, I don't want to talk about this because I don't want to resurface emotions that I shoved down inside me.