Was he flirting with her? Did not matter; Arianne’s cheeks were already burning even though it was supposed to be a somber event. It was hard to remain sad when Mark suddenly showed off how slick and buttery he could be.
Mark personally drove both himself and Arianne to the civil affairs office that day. In other words, he was trying to minimize the number of people who might catch the news of the pair’s divorce.
The car quickly arrived at their destination, yet both the driver and the passenger remained silently seated for a long while with their gazes linked. Finally, Arianne broke the spell by glancing at the time and noticing that they were about to be late to work.
“Can you just start checking if you’ve brought all of your necessary documents already?” she piped up.
“No need. I forgot to bring all of them,” Mark answered, unmoving.
“Stop joking around and take this seriously,” she chided helplessly. “Look, let’s just go. We don’t have that much time to waste. We still have to work after this, you know.”
Her finger slipped into the handle and yanked to open the door when Mark’s hand suddenly latched around her wrist and tugged.
“Just to be clear, you will wait for me till this stupid debacle blows over, right? If I found any male hanging around and breathing your air, I’ll murder him.”
“Mister, the only male who’s gonna be around me all the damn time is your son!” she snapped curtly. “A little too early to be trippin’ balls, aren’t you? You’ve been spouting ridiculous things since early morning! Ugh, let’s just go already.”
The documentation and legal procedure went on smoothly, with Arianne bearing a calm exterior while Mark wore a petulant, grinchy grimace. The contrast between the two was so jarring that the officer in charge had to stop and ask skeptically, “Are the two of you really sure about this whole thing? Do the two of you consent to this mutual agreement?”
Arianne nodded, but Mark grouched, “Not me. I was forced.”
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Dangerous Love: You Are My One and Only Bride