Sebastian cleared his throat and made way for her. Scratching his head, he asked, “Do you need my help with anything?”
“No, I don’t need any help. I’m not making breakfast for you. If you are hungry, you can eat out,” she replied with a poker face.
‘Humph! You have no feelings for me, but you have been eating all the delicious breakfast I made. I’m not your maid, so don’t expect any more meals from me!’ she thought to herself.
Natalie walked to the fridge and took out two eggs. The oil sizzled in the pan as she cracked the eggs. Shortly after she drizzled some black pepper on her fried eggs, a pleasant aroma filled the kitchen.
Sebastian took a deep breath and his shoulders slouched. Without uttering a word, he sulkily went to the bathroom to freshen up.
He was naturally not a romantic man, so he didn’t know the sweet words to say or the best gift to get her. ‘She’s still angry with me. What do I do now?’ he pondered while brushing his teeth.
An idea suddenly popped up in his head when he spat out the foam in his mouth. He smiled faintly, staring at his image in the mirror.
When he returned to the living room, he saw that Natalie was eating breakfast slowly. She didn’t even look up at him, as if he was invisible.
“Are you free this weekend? There’s a part-time job that pays this much. Are you interested?” As Sebastian spoke, he pulled out the chair beside her and sat down slowly.
Natalie swallowed the bread in her mouth quickly when she saw him open up all five fingers of his right hand. With her eyes opened wide, she asked, “Five grand?”
Since they had been married for some time, Sebastian knew a little about her. She loved making money. A job offer that paid that much was something she could never refuse.
Sure enough, Natalie set aside the displeasure she felt about his actions last night. She wiped her mouth quickly. Although her expression was still indifferent, her face wasn’t as cold as before. “What kind of part-time job is it?” she finally asked.
A smile tugged at the corners of Sebastian’s mouth after he heard her response. He picked up a piece of toast from her plate and took a bite. “Well, it’s a painting job. The owner of the convenience store where I work is decorating his new house. He needs a wall painting. I saw your works before, so I thought you would be perfect for the job.”
Sebastian had seen Natalie’s paintings. Although she majored in fashion design, painting was one of her foundational courses. Her artistic skills were also very good.
It was at this moment that Natalie finally noticed that he had been taking big bites off her toast. She frowned and queried him angrily, “Sebastian, I said I didn’t make breakfast for you. Why are you eating my toast?”
“Chill, it’s no big deal. Just take this as a reward for telling you about the job. Besides, you are my wife. Sharing is caring!” Sebastian stuffed the last quarter of the toast into his mouth and smiled at her playfully.
Natalie’s heart skipped a beat when she saw his handsome smile. She wanted to draw the line between them, but he only got closer to her with every effort she made.
“Do you have any copies of your previous work? Give me some of them so I can show my boss at work today.”
Pouting her lips, she went to her room. She brought back her previous paintings a few seconds later. “Here you go. This is the collection of my works. Hope this will do?”
“Yeah, it will. I need to head to work now.” Sebastian picked up the collection and scanned through the paintings. He then stood up and put on his black jacket while staring at her with a playful glint in his black eyes.
Later in the afternoon, Natalie received a call from him.
“What’s the matter? I’m still at work,” she whispered directly into the speaker and glanced at her colleagues.
“Well, I just called to give you feedback. My boss likes your paintings. Instead of an artistic piece, he wants you to paint his wall this coming weekend. The price is double the one I told you about this morning. Would you be free this weekend?” Sebastian’s calm voice wafted into her ear from the other end of the line.
‘Ten thousand dollars just to paint a wall? That’s huge. I would be a fool if I turned down such an offer!’ she thought quickly.
“Yes, I can do it this Sunday,” she replied without hesitation.
The weather was very sunny that Sunday.
Natalie waited impatiently at the bus stop. She had looked down at her phone several times.
Just when the long-awaited bus arrived, she heard a roar of an engine. A dazzling black Vyrus suddenly halted in front of her.
Sebastian pushed up the glass visor of his helmet. His high nose bridge was revealed first, followed by his alienated eyes. He looked so dashing even though he was just wearing an ordinary black T-shirt and loose jeans.
He threw a helmet to Natalie.
“Get on the motorcycle.”
After she caught the helmet, she stared at the luxury motorcycle for a while before putting on the helmet reluctantly. She then asked, “Whose motorcycle is this?”
Natalie had seen this motorcycle in an automobile magazine before. It costs a whopping amount of money that she could never make even if she worked tons of jobs for the rest of her life.
“I borrowed it from a friend. My boss’s villa is a little far from here. It’s in the suburbs. I’ll take you there.”
Natalie sat on the motorcycle uneasily.
“Let’s go!” Sebastian cast a glance at his wife and then put down the glass visor of his helmet.
Natalie held onto Sebastian’s T-shirt tightly.
Sebastian rode the motorcycle at a high speed. The wind blew violently past her ears and ruffled her hair. All the road noises soon faded away.
Before now, Natalie had associated the riding of motorcycles with rogues. This was because most of them rode recklessly and the roaring sound of the engines always disturbed other commuters on the road. However, this wasn’t the case for this particular motorcycle. The engine only made a humming sound.
“Sebastian, why is there no loud noise?” she asked blankly.
“Are you talking about the sound of the engine?”
Sebastian abruptly stopped to wait for the traffic light to turn green. It was so sudden that Natalie’s breasts bumped into his back because of the inertia. He looked back at her and smiled.
“My dear wife, do you see me as one of those numerous hooligans that disturb the peace of this city with their roaring motorcycles? This one has a silencer. I don’t want to constitute any nuisance on the road.”