Chapter 16

• Without talking that much, the two went to the kitchen together.
• If only Chadwick isn’t injured, he can cook for himself. He’s been living alone for many years so that’s not a hard task.
• But for Adira to cook?
• That rich lady who never tastes hardship in life when it comes to financially?
• Chadwick heard there are many servants in the Hale’s mansion where Adira lived before.
• The fridge is almost empty, given that the couple don’t spend too much time inside their house.
• The two don’t have the time to go to the supermarket right now. So, Adira used the new service everyone is using nowadays.
• Using an app, she asked someone to buy the fresh ingredients real fast. With just a single click, the ingredients were delivered outside their house after some minutes.
• Adira brought them into the kitchen. She bought fresh clams which have natural sweets in them. Then there is also pasta, baby plum tomatoes to add some colour to the plate, olive oil, parsley, chilli and garlic.
• All of the ingredients are so simple, but if they put together, they made the most unbelievable flavour. In fact, Chadwick could guess what will be the dish she’ll make.
• ‘She can cook bongole pasta?’ he wondered. It is a famous dish among Italian restaurants, and it will be hard to pull unless you’re used of cooking it before.
• Nevertheless, Chadwick decided to shut his mouth and just watched Adira cooks.
• She placed the fresh clams in a large bowl of cold salter water, then she left it soak for 5 minutes. The clams look so clean but she wanted to make sure to remove all sand inside the shells. She drained and rinsed them under running cold water afterwards.
• The she sliced the herbs needed, the sliced garlic, chopped fresh chilli and half of chopped parsley.
• Adira placed large frying pan on the stove and poured enough olive oil. She saute the garlic on a gentle heat until the garlic is golden in colour, before she added the next herbs.
• She, then, turned up the heat. She added the halved tomatoes and clams before covering the lid.
• Couple of minutes after, the clams started to open as they cook. Adira shook the pan a little while keeping the lid on so that the clams will be cooked evenly. While waiting, she cooked the spaghetti.
• For the last, she used tongs to add the pasta to the clams and finish to cook for another 3 minutes. This way the pasta will absorb the broth released from the shells and create a velvety sauce.
• Chadwick watched the whole scene with sightly opened mouth.
• He could not believe it.
• He really could not believe that Adira could cook!
• Then how about the taste?
• Even if you can cook like that, he had to know if that taste is good.
• Adira set up the table for them to start eating. Chadwick sat down, and Adira also perched at the seat across him.
• Chadwick looked at the fish before him. Just the look of it made him drool. He cannot wait to eat, even if he only had his left hand to feed him.
• “This will go best with cocktail,” Adira said.
• When he lifted his head, he saw her pouring beverages drink onto their glass.
• “Hey, you are going to drink?”
• “Do you think I would like to make you drunk so I can seduce you?” she answered, placing the bottle on the top of the table. “This is not alcoholic.”
• Chadwick sighed in relief.
• “Actually, I did plan of seducing today. However, I changed my mind. Thanks to your fart.”
• “Hey!”
• “The smell is so awful, honey.”
• “Why are you talking as if you don’t fart!? Everyone fart!”
• “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now eat. The food will turn cold.”
• Hissing, Chadwick grabbed the fork and poured his anger toward his hand. Then he tasted the bongole pasta cooked by his wife.
• Eureka!
• As soon as it reached his taste bud, he could see ocean and bright sky at the same time.
• ‘How… How it is possible that she cooks so good?!’
• Usually, a busy woman like Adira who has time to make herself so pretty and sophisticated, is a type of woman who cannot cook.
• But she can.
• She is so good at work, but also good in cooking?
• If Chadwick does not know her personality, he will agree that she’s so talented and perfect.
• He continued eating until he almost emptied the plate.
• Unable to contain his curiosity, the words just slipped from his mouth.
• “How?”
• Both stopped.
• Chadwick also did not know why he thought of asking this. But since he did, there’s no backing out.
• “Are you curious why I know how to cook?” Adira completed the question for him.
• “Hmmm,” he murmured, looking back at her. “How?”
• “Well, I live separately from my father. So, I have no choice but to learn how to cook. My palate is so sensitive.”
• Chadwick did not know about this. He thought that as the only daughter of the billionaire chairman, she’s living like a princess in their mansion.
• “Why are you looking at me like that? Did you fall in love with me?”
• “As if,” Chadwick mumbled, then took the last bite of the pasta.
• “Right,” Adira agreed. “You only have Isa in your heart.”
• “That again.”
• He placed the fork down on the table.
• “I told you that we are not in that kind of relationship. We’re just friend.”
• “But you did not deny your feelings.”
• “...”
• That’s right. Chadwick can’t refute to that. He did love Isa a lot before he got married. And if he is still feeling that right now, then he is the real villain between him and his wife.
• “Liking someone when you’re married,” Adira said, taking a sip on the drink. “Then, if I also fell in love with another man, that makes us the same.”
• Chadwick’s right hand clenched. He used that since it was covered with a cast and Adira won’t be able to see his reaction.
• “But that is impossible to happen,” Adira added, laughing.
• Chadwick grabbed the glass and drank the cocktail in one shot.
• Even though she said that it is impossible for her to like someone else, he still feels awful.
• Why?
• Is it because of his pride as her husband?
• Or because that means Adira won’t give him the attention she’s giving to him so far?
• The two finished their dinner without talking further about that topic. It was because Chadwick fell in silence and he never looked at her eyes again.
• Since he is injured, Adira presented to wash the dishes. Then Joshua entered.
• Leaning against the closed door, Chadwick stayed there. In deep thoughts, he wondered about these sudden changes in his mind.
• He did not care at her before. But look at him getting bothered when she talked about the non-existent guy whom she might like in the future.
• If by chance she does like someone else, then she and he will be in the same situation. They are both living as married people who likes another people.
• “Maybe. I just need to sleep. Right. Let’s just sleep for tonight.”
• He was about to move and throw himself to bed, when suddenly, he heard a scream.
• “Ahhh!”
• Not hesitating, Chadwick dashed out of his room and went to the kitchen where he heard the shout.
• When he got there, he saw pieces of broken glass and Adira looking at the blood on her finger. His face turned pale, and his knees weakened. Even so, he used his strength to approach her and ask what happened.
• “Did you break a glass and pick it up?” he asked.
• “No,” Adira answered. “Only fools do that.” She looked at him and added, “Inside the cabinet, the glass was leaning on the door, so it fell down as I opened the door. I avoided it but a piece of the glass reached my finger. Thankfully.”
• “Thankfully?!” he gasped. “What do you mean thankfully? You got hurt!”
• “You are overreacting, Mr. McElroy. What I mean is, I would rather choose having my finger cut than my face. It will ruin my beauty.”
• “Idiot,” he mumbled, staring at the blood dripping on her finger. “You need to feel sorry for your finger too.”
• Next, he grabbed her hand and…
• “...!”
• Adira’s breath stopped for a second.
• She watched him suck the blood on her finger, even licking at the end.
• The man, who did not know what the hell did he just do out of impulsiveness, pulled his mouth away.
• Gulping, he lifted his gaze.
• Heat reached his cheeks.
• He did not mean to do that.
• ‘It just… just… there was this crazy bug inside my head that asked me to do this crazy things as soon as I saw her wound!’ he tried to defend himself.
• But in front of the malicious wife, he just couldn’t find the right words.
• What if he uses words that will misunderstand his intention?
• What if Adira thinks that he has feelings for her when he knew he’s just acting out of kindness?
• ‘Kindness? Who licks someone’s blood out of kindness?’
• He is so puzzled, as if he’s been finding the answer for long days but he always goes back to zero.
• “Honey,” Adira called him in husky tone.
• Chadwick looked up and met her gaze again.
• “You seduced me first,” she said, before she pulled his collar and kissed his lips.