Husband For Hire

17. Snowy Night

That was a valuable piece of information I suppose. I didn't know much about his past yet. My people were still working on that.

"They didn't love each other?" I asked hesitantly.

He ran a hand through his hair and leaned back. "Apparently, if you can fall in love, you can also fall out of it. It's quite terrifying." He said it so casually that I believed he didn't care much for his parents' separation.

But I was wrong.

"You must've been hurt," I stated.

"Believe it or not us serfs have thick skin and a high pain tolerance." He joked.

"And empty wallets," I added.

"Not all of us are born with a silver spoon in our mouths," he retorted not unkindly.

"Not my fault my daddy worked hard to become a billionaire." I shrugged proudly. He didn't bother fighting over the subject and I didn't have the energy to. I checked the analog clock on the wall. "How long are we staying here?" I inquired hugging my coat tightly. The heat was barely on in here to save electricity.

"I dunno," he shrugged. "I told you the blizzard caused a state of emergency. We'll get fined heavily we go out on the roads now."

"I'll pay the damage," I said immediately.

"You wanna get points taken off your license so you can get it suspended? Be my guest." He had a way with words which made me look stupid.

"I can't believe I married you," I muttered.

"Oh please, you don't know how lucky you are," he said shaking his head as if I was missing out on something. "I was an irresistible bachelor prior to your mother's marriage charade. Girls fought over me."

"Fought over what?" I asked curiously. "You have no redeeming qualities whatsoever."

"Please." He leaned forward slightly as if sharing a secret. "I used to work at a gym. You could probably tell from my body." He flexed his biceps slightly and resumed, "An obese teenage girl joined the gym, and I was her personal trainer. Mind you, she was double my weight. Nevertheless, I took the challenge to help her lose a hundred pounds."

"Did she?"

"She actually came down to a hundred and twenty pounds, beginning at three hundred."

"Great story," I said unimpressed by him. Losing weight was a struggle and a completely mental thing. "I'm sure she asked you to marry her afterwards."

"No, she asked me out and I rejected her," he said looking remorseful.

"Because she was fat?" I asked feigning a horrified look. "Wow Ash, I expected you to be a little less harsh."

"Ash?"

"You call me Ano."

"Fair enough." He let it go and continued his depressing saga of rejecting a girl. "Anyways, I didn't say no because she had been obese but because she was so beautiful. I needed her to realize her independence and built more self confidence and self love." He acted like he was so selfless. I had to stare him down to tell me the truth. "Also, her dad was in the secret service and I didn't want him to shoot me."