Page 26 of Anything But Convenient

There are three floors. The basement has all the laundry and fitness stuff. The upper floor houses the bedrooms. You can wander as you please. Would you like to come pick a room first?

For some reason, the question made me irrationally angry. I didn’t want to have a separate room from him.

But… we didn’t agree to that.

Just because he kissed me like a dying man and held me close like I was precious didn’t mean he wanted to snuggle me at night. He might not even realize he’s been sending me mixed signals today.

My best course of action was to get my own room to give myself space to think. Starting tomorrow I would observe things between us to see if these feelings were one sided.

It might all boil down to wedding energy. Don’t people usually hook up at weddings? That had to mean there was some kind of happy chemical signal in the brain that led others to make decisions they might not normally.

Sure. That had to be it.

I could tell I was lying to myself. It was a necessary choice given my husband just offered for me to follow him to my new bedroom — one he wouldn’t be joining me in.

Takeshi

Are you ok, Archie?

The vibrating device in my hand pulled me back from the dark trail of thoughts. I turned to smile at Takeshi, then gave him a thumbs up.

“Lead the way, please,” I said, stuffing my phone away. The message he’d sent haunted me with each step we took to reach the second level.

I wanted to take in the beautiful view from the large windows at the back of the house. Instead, I focused on not throwing up the cake I’d eaten earlier. My nerves were a mess now that reality had settled over us.

There were a few doors to my right and a couple to my left. Takeshi motioned to the right, which led me to believe his room was probably in the other direction.

He tapped on three doors, then waved at me as if instructing me to choose one. I went to the one in the middle, not really caring about what the differences were in the room. They’d all feel cold without him there to share the space.

When the hell did I become so dramatic?

I silently groaned at the stupid trail of thought. Whatever this newfound crush I had on my husband was, it needed to scram.

The room was actually really nice. It mirrored the same design of the main areas downstairs, only instead of living room furniture, there was a massive bed and nightstand on one side and a dresser with a tv on top across from it. The closet wasa walk in, from what I could see of the open door. There even appeared to be a bathroom attached to the bedroom.

I was going to be spoiled rotten here.

Turning, I smiled at Takeshi. “This is lovely. Thank you.”

He rolled my suitcase into the room, then bowed swiftly before leaving. I stared after him, confused by his reaction.

Was he struggling too? Did he want me to come to his room?

Or was all this too much? Was he regretting marrying me?

God, I hoped not.

I wasn’t even worried about my citizenship at this point. With one kiss, I realized one sad truth: I wanted to be with Takeshi. To really be with him.

This was going to be a disaster.

CHAPTER 10

TAKESHI

I stareddown at my hand as I leaned against the wall outside of Archie’s bedroom. It took everything I had to leave the space, though I hadn’t made it far once I did.

The gold band on my ring finger glinted. Light came in from the windows, making it shine even more brightly than before.

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