Chapter 37: Apologize To Her
Chapter 37: Apologize To Her
Nathan met Crystal’s eyes in the mirror, and his brow furrowed furiously. “What is your problem?” he shouted. All he knew was that Crystal wanted to divorce him. “I would think that the advantages of being married to me would outweigh the disadvantages, but not only do you not want to talk about our marriage, but you want to keep it a secret! What’s up with that? How long until we can’t make our marriage public?”
“We can make it public after I graduate,” Crystal replied.
Nathan: “That will do.”
It was a ten-minute drive from their home to the supermarket, and when they arrived, Nathan followed Crystal into the store. They got a cart to put the groceries in, and as they were walking through the produce section, someone pushed Crystal against Nathan, and her hand brushed against his. Nathan took this as an invitation to hold hands, and he smiled as he took her hand into his own.
It was the first time Crystal and Nathan had held hands, and her palms began to sweat, and her heart skipped a beat. Crystal tried to pull her hand away, but Nathan increased the pressure on her hand instead of letting go.
There were not very many people in the supermarket, and Crystal tried to focus on pushing the cart one-handed. After a while, she began to whistle softly. Crystal loved shopping at the supermarket. There was a wide variety of goods in the supermarket, delicious snacks, exciting toys, and fresh ingredients, and all of these things together put her in a good mood. She turned to Nathan and asked, “Is there anything in particular that you want to eat?” Before Nathan could reply, she added: “I’ll give you three seconds to think. One. Two. Three.” She laughed. “All right, time’s up.”
Nathan grinned and said, “You are so naughty. You didn’t give me a chance.”
Crystal: “I did. I counted - One. Two. Three, and you didn’t say anything. You give up?”
“Okay,” Nathan laughed, “but I won’t forget this!”
Crystal was selecting onions. She looked up and asked Nathan what he meant.
“I won’t forget what you did to me,” he clarified.
“Be content. I’m going to buy food for you. I seldom cook for anyone. Hey! Look at this onion. It looks so familiar.” Crystal held the onion against Nathan’s cheek and said, “Mercy me! This onion is your long-lost brother onion.” Crystal giggled, and then she nearly burst into tears with laughter. “What do you think?”
“What do I think?” Nathan grabbed the onion and held it in front of her. “If that is the case, it is your husband’s younger brother,” he replied. Come on, say hello to it!”
Crystal grabbed the onion and put it in the shopping cart, and said, “No, I refuse.” She reached forward to get a piece of ginger, and as she placed it in the cart, a man accidentally scraped the wheel of his cart against her heel as he passed her. “Ouch!” she cried. She turned to the stranger and shouted, “Watch where you’re going!”
The man turned briefly, and then he walked away as if nothing had happened without even offering Crystal an apology. She was about to scold him again, but before she could, Nathan stepped forward and grabbed his arm. He twisted the stranger’s wrist savagely, spun him around, and pinned him against a shelf. With his free hand, Nathan mashed the man’s face against the glass jars and canned vegetables on the ledge - and several items fell and smashed on the ground.
The stranger’s face was pale, and he was trembling. Nathan twisted the man’s wrist until he felt it break. There was a loud CRACK, and the man shrieked. However, the shriek only lasted for a second, and the sobs of a broken man replaced it. Nathan leaned in behind the man and whispered into his ear: “Apologize to her.”
The stranger turned to look at Crystal and cried, “I’m sorry.”
Crystal turned to Nathan and said, “I think you’ve made your point. I’m fine. Now let him go.”
Nathan let the stranger go, and he held up his arm in dismay. His hand hung loosely at his wrist. He was in a state of shock. After a minute, he began to walk to the front of the store, and Crystal thought that he looked like a man emerging from a war zone. She sighed and said, “I hope he’s okay….”
“Never mind him,” Nathan said. “He got what was coming to him. Now let’s take a look at your ankle.” Nathan crouched down in front of Crystal and began to untie her shoelace. Crystal tried to pull away, but he gripped her ankle and took off her shoe and sock. Nathan frowned at the pink indentation from where the cart had hit her. “Does it hurt?”
Crystal shook her head and said, “No. Not at all.” She heard someone giggle, and when she looked around, she realized that they’d begun to attract the attention of several other shoppers. One person asked her if she was alright, and she said that she was, but everyone else seemed to be more interested in Nathan.
Two teenage girls were standing near a giant box of watermelons. One had blond hair, and the other had brown hair. The blond girl said, “Wow! He is so cute. His girlfriend is so lucky.”
“She is,” the brunette agreed. “What a hottie!”
The blond: “He looks like a million dollars! My, my! I’m going to secretly take a picture of him and post it on my Instagram account so that my friends can see what a perfect guy looks like.”
Crystal glared at them. There were too many nymphomaniacs out there. They admired Nathan, and they envied her, and they were super annoying. You can have him! - Crystal thought to herself - If only getting rid of him was that easy...
The girls put away their phones when they saw Crystal glaring at them. They rolled their eyes at her and curled their lips. And Nathan sniggered.
Crystal scowled at him and asked, “Why are you smiling? Don’t you realize that if we are photographed together, our relationship will be made public? And we just agreed to keep our marriage a secret until after I graduate!”
For a second, Nathan stopped smiling. His hand stiffened as he put Crystal’s shoe back on.
He had thought that she was jealous of the attention he received from the nymphomaniacs, but it turned out that all she cared about was keeping their relationship a secret. And that hurt.
