Emilia: Finding My Forever

26|Liking My Husband

He didn't seem phased at all by my comment. "Then try it. You know how my food tastes already."

I picked up my fork because tasting a bit of everything. My shoulders dropped.

"So?" he asked as he waited calmly for my response.

"It's delicious," I said as a bit of jealously escaped in my tone.

He nodded before finally eating his food.

He was acting weird. He usually smiles at me.

"Santo, did I do something wrong?" I asked feeling guilty about something I'm not sure I did wrong.

"You did nothing wrong, Emilia," he said avoiding eye contact with me.

There was a coldness in his tone that I didn't like. It felt like he was pushing me away.

I lifted my hand to touch his but I immediately retreated.

I didn't know how he would've reacted.

"Then why are you are you so cold?"

"Just work stuff, it wouldn't interest you," he assumed and I raised my eyebrow.

"Try me," I said. "I want to hear about your work. I want you to talk to me."

He paused from eating to finally look at me. Him looking at me felt like a reward I've long awaited.

"I don't do therapy sessions, Emilia," he said.

"This is not a therapy session," I made it clear. "This is a friend to friend conversation."

He sat back. "Well, my new gun model is taking longer than I expected, some of my investors are pulling out, my father made me lose some profits, and I'm going to have to kill my gun designer if he finds out who I really am. See? Boring business stuff."

"It's not boring," I told him. "I forgot that you had all that responsibility on top of running a mafia."

"Yeah, it really sucks," he complained as he looked back down on his food.

I was losing him. It was clear that he didn't want this. All this responsibility was thrown at him.

I decided to stop overthinking and held his hand.

He looked at my hand before looking up at me. "Emilia, what are you doing?"

"You don't have to go through this alone. This is what marriage is all about. You can share your burdens with your partner."

His thumb lightly brushed against my hand before he stood up. "I'm afraid this marriage is only for business, Emilia. Even though we are friends, we should still have a limit."

Maybe I don't want our marriage to be strictly business anymore.

I stood up and just when I opened my mouth to speak, Jaz and Gia walked in.

"Look, it's my favorite newlyweds!" Jaz said excitedly as she walked towards us.

"They are so cute, I think we were interrupting a moment between them," Gia told her as she held her baby.

"I'm sure they've had plenty of moments. I'm guessing there is going to be a fourth baby coming soon to our group," Tomasso joked as he and Dante walked in.

Perfect timing guys.

"What are you guys doing here?" Santo asked, seeming upset that his friends were here.

"Why are you switching up on the new model? It seems fine to me," Tommaso said.

"The model I was shown today was not the one presented before. I can't approve that, it'll bring shame to Valentino," Santo defended himself.

Gia touched me. "Meet Junior," she said as she handed me the baby.

I awkwardly held him as this was my first time holding a baby.

"On second thought, you might want to hold off on giving your wife babies," Tommaso said to Santo and he glared at him.

"What's wrong Emilia? Don't you like babies?" she asked me as I gave her back her son.

"I didn't grow up around a lot of people so I didn't know a lot about babies."

Santo's eyes pierced on me as I said those words. What I said was not embarrassing, however, it was hard for me to talk about.

Jaz smiled as she hugged me. "Don't worry, you have us now and you will get to be around a lot of babies."

I smiled as I hugged her back. "Thank you."

"How about we sneak away from the guys for a while? They're just going to talk about work the whole time," Gia whispered.

"I thought you would never ask," Jaz said before pulling us away into the living room.

"So Emilia," Jaz said as we sat on the couch. "How is the married life going?"

"Santo just pisses me off all the time," I said with passion. "Every time things are going to go, he makes it hard. He purposely sabotages our relationship. I just don't get him."

"Marriage is already hard," Gia joined in. "but a marriage with Santo? It's not going to be a straight road. We've been friends with him for years and none of us can fully understand him. Now even Dante and they've known each other since they were in diapers."

Well, that just made me feel worse.

Gia sighed. "I'm scaring you again, aren't I?"

"Maybe a little."

She smiled. "Don't worry. Santo married you for a reason. I've seen the way he looks at you. I've never seen him look at anyone that way."

Yeah, he did marry me for a reason; a fair business trade.

"And you know the worst part of it all?" I asked them and they looked scared to hear what I had to say next. "I think I might have a crush on him."

They both stared at me before bursting out in laughter.

"Of course you do," Jaz laughed. "He's your husband. That's not a bad thing."

"It would be a bad thing if she didn't," Gia laughed.

I frowned as they both laughed.

This was definitely a bad thing.

It isn't supposed to happen. Santo just made it clear that this is a business relationship.

I think I like my husband.