The Fake Marriage (Completed)

Chapter 18

"Damn!" Rina shouted sitting on her bed. "You! How could you?" She tugged her hair as she shouted in frustration. "He was drunk but how could you?" She shouted. 

"You kissed him back." sitting beside her, her subconscious smiled at her. "You even closed your eyes first."

"Shut up!" She threw a pillow over, and her subconscious self vanished with a poof.

Her mind projected few slides of the kiss again and she unconsciously touched her lips, feeling the lingering sensation.

"You liked it. You like him don't you?" Her subconscious appeared again.

As soon as she realized what she was doing, she slapped her cheeks. "I must've gone crazy! And no! How can I like him?"

"Why can't you? He's funny, witty, charming, and he has this sweetest side to him."

"He's Rihito! For god's sake!" She yelled.

"Are you serious? That's your reason?" Her subconscious raised her brows.

"Duh! Now go away!" She glared at her and with that, she vanished again.

"Me like him? him of all people? I need to get my head checked." She rolled her eyes. "Ah I know what this is, it's just like Stockholm syndrome, I'm getting attracted to him just because of this place and he's the only guy I've been spending my entire time with. Once we get back home, everything's gonna be perfect, back to how it was." She nodded to herself. "So please brain of mine please stop thinking about unnecessary things and let's get some sleep." 

She sighed at the sight of the empty room. After the abrupt end of their soft and sensual kiss, Rihito had gone out to 'cool his head' and she returned back to the room. She had been tossing over the bed for a few hours already.

"Yeah, it was just a kiss. Why bother?" She shrugged as she puller over her blanket.

*****   

Though it was 'just a kiss', in the end, she couldn't sleep a wink.

With shadows under her eyes, she sat at a restaurant table drinking lemonade and aspirin for her headache.

"You're here? I've been looking around for you." She felt a hand on her shoulder, turning around she looked at the sole reason for her headache.

Her zombie like appearance made him flinch and he almost screamed. "What's wrong?" He asked.

She glared at him, what's wrong? he asks?

"Why are you looking at me like that?" He gulps as he steps back.

The waitress brings her breakfast, she sighs and begins to apply butter on her bread. 

"Nice timing! I'm so hungry!" She sees his hand trying to take one from the plate, she slaps his hands making him drop the food back on the plate.

"They're mine!" She glares at him, pointing the knife at him.

"okay. Relax!" he raises his hand in surrender.

She was about to take a bite but when he pulls a chair beside her, she glares at him. If a look could kill, he'd be dead and cremated by now. 

"What's wrong?" he dares to ask.

"Go figure it out yourself." He shivers under her cold gaze.

"And do yourself a favor. Stay away from me, as far as possible before I strangle you to death." Saying this, she picks her plate and moves to another table. 

"It's Rihito after all. And I'm burning my blood because of this idiot? I've definitely gone crazy!" She muttered on her way.

****

As told Rihito maintained his distance, he surely didn't want to die yet. They left Mexico in the afternoon and maintaining a safe distance from his feisty princess he sat few seats away from her. Rina had dozed off to compensate for last night.

"Rina." He called out to her. When he didn't get any reply he slowly got up from his seat and sat opposite Rina's. Just then her head slipped off the seat, he places his hand supporting her gently cupping her cheek, seeing the lock of her hair over her face he draws his hand near but immediately pulls back.   

He takes a deep sigh.

****

Greece, Athens

"Just where are we going? Where is this place?" Rina asked as her eyes were blindfolded the moment they landed. "Didn't I say I wanna go home already?" 

"We will." She heard him answer.

After an hour or so, the car stopped at its destination. Rihito helped her out of the car. "Here we are." 

Her eyes slowly adjusted to the light, her eyes moistened at the sight of her old house. "This..."

"Surprise! You wanted to come here, didn't you?" He smiled at her. 

"How did you..." "Wait, Teresa's slipping out a lot, isn't she?" Her eyes teared up.  

"She told me you'd be like this." He hugged her.

"What are you--" 

"She told me to do this." He tightened the hug. Rina hugged him back. "I'm fine." 

"Then let's go in?" He held her hand, she nodded.

"Why do you have the key?" She asked him as he unlocked the door.

"The owners are on vacation so I burrowed the keys for a while." He answered as they entered inside.

Every corner of the house brought back memories, memories of her childhood days when she lived there with her mom and dad. The happiest moments of her life before her mother passed away. This house was a gift to her, her mother had left behind. To her, this house was her real home, considered the house as her mother herself. But she had to sell this house for Ethan as she needed money, she had to sell her home to cover up for Ethan. She wanted to visit here once, she wanted to do that before she sold it but she never got the chance and now she was finally here.

She visited every room, telling her childhood stories to Rihito. They then went to the backyard where rested a huge tree. "Sorry, I'm late." She whispered hugging the tree.

"We planted it together, mom and me. Whenever I was upset I used to come  sit here and ranted out my problems." She squatted down, she dug the ground taking out a treasure chest. "I used to write my wishes here and every wish of mine would come true. My mom had cancer but my parents never let me know of that until it was too late. I was 10 when she passed away, I couldn't believe I won't see her again so I came here with a wish on the paper, I wished my mom would come back, my wish was half granted, I didn't get my mom but I found her letter she wrote to me before she died." She choked.

"This means a lot thank you for bringing me here." She smiled wiping her tears.

After they toured the entire house before they went back she looked at the house once again, she had promised to get it back. "Few more years," she whispered getting into the car as they drove off. She kept looking back from the window until the house disappeared into the distance.