Serena looked at Mathew as he sat up in bed, grumbling about someone waking him up at this ungodly hour when he had a lot to do at the office in the morning. She was about to say she was sorry again when he looked at her like she was a nuisance and said “That is childish, Serena and I have told you before. I don’t expect you to keep making me repeat one thing over and over like you are a kid, you know”
Serena was not so taken aback by his words. He could be grumpy when one disturbed his sleep and she had done so because she knew if she lost her courage now, she might not be able to do it again later. Not that he would patiently listen to her anyway. Now was the right time.
“I am sorry,” she said softly.
Mathew sighed and looked at her face “It is not as if I want to complain or anything. It is just I have work to do. I understand that you might not get that since you are only at home and all but I have to work. I have to fight for my promotion and that means I have to have enough rest. Not being wakened up at this this...” he looked at their bedside clock. It reads 4:13 am. Mathew hissed as he gave her an irritated look “At this ungodly hour. If you are not feeling sleepy. You could pray or go do something else, you have plenty of time to sleep later in the day anyway” he said as he thumped his fist against the cover.
“I said I am sorry. It is just that you wouldn’t listen when I want to tell you this in the morning and when you are back in the evening, you just want to have your meal and sleep. You barely even look at me” Serena said then hating the whine in her voice, which Mathew had once told her made her sound like an immature kid, she cleared her throat and said softly “That was unfair, you know. The jab about me not working; I intend to work but you stopped me remember? If you can tell your mum that you want me to work now, I am willing to go out there tomorrow and get something. I work at home too, you know. I cook, I clean, I…”
“Yes, yes, yes, I know. Not this conversation about work again, please. I am already developing a headache from you waking me up like that. I don’t want it blown up into a migraine” he sighed and looked at the hurt on her face, he sighed again then patted her hand on the cover before leaning his head on the headboard “Okay, I am sorry. I shouldn’t have said that you don’t work. You know I appreciate you, right? I am up now, what did you want to say?” he asked without waiting for her reply.
Serena peeked at him sideways and she could see the relaxed posture on his face like he was going back to sleep. Her initial bravado was failing her already and she thought if it was even wise to say what she had thought of perfectly in her mind to him. Mathew was a conservative and discussing that now with him, well she had no idea how he would react but she knew it might not be so favourably. Should she just let it go and make do with what they have? She did not want to fight with him. She just wanted them to have a perfect family.
“A family you might never get to have if your next-to-nothing sex life continues as this” her subconscious whispered to her.
Serena closed her eyes tightly and wondered where that brazen voice in her head had come from. It was getting more and more daring these days.
Like the other day when her mother-in-law had told her to make herself useful by doing what a woman was meant for in a marriage and that voice had almost made her say…
“I didn’t expect to stay up just to listen to you breathe as you stare off into space, you know?” Mathew’s voice jolted her and she saw that he had opened one eye and had turned his head to look at her.
“Mathew, you know how it has been almost two years since we have gotten married now?” she started with the feeling that this was not going to go well at all.
“Yeah?” confusion was evident in Mathew’s voice even without the face he made as he looked at her.
“You know how we have always thought of how we would have our kids and start our family early?” he sighed and looked at her with a raised brow.
Serena got more animated and she moved from where she was to face him “Well, it's been almost two years now!” she exclaimed and looked at him like she expected him to get the hint.
He gave her a long look then rubbed his hand over his face “First, I know it has been almost two years. I have been here too. Two years that I wouldn’t trade for anything else though there has been some dissatisfactory part about it, I still count myself lucky and I…”
The smile on Serena’s face faded as he mentioned dissatisfactory “You… you are dissatisfied about our marriage?”
“No, no, not like that,” He said hurriedly then he sighed when he saw her stubborn, disbelieving look “Okay, maybe just a few things but I believe you would…”
“What? This is about me? What things?” she asked in disbelief. She had faults? of course, she had faults, she was not a saint after all, but to be labelled dissatisfactory? She had made him dissatisfied?
“Oh. God, I shouldn’t have said that, should I?” he looked at her mutinous face “It’s nothing in particular, okay? I just feel that you need to be more grounded, you know. To act more like a wife than a girlfriend. To act more mature”
Serena couldn’t believe her ears. She couldn’t let this go even if this sounded like a breaking the rule of a good wife in his rule book “What? I am not a wife enough? How am I not supposed to act like a girlfriend when I was your girlfriend before I became your wife? When I…”
“You see what I am talking about? You.. you are too emotional. A good wife should learn to control her emotions” he said with conviction.
Where were all these coming from? “What? But you are my husband and you were once my boyfriend. If I couldn’t even show my emotion to you, what would that make me? I don’t want to be an iceberg, Mathew” she said as she suddenly grew weary. Why was she even fighting with him? She had something important to say and now he might not even want to listen again.
“You are just… it is not as if I want to complain, you know. You know I wouldn’t complain about you. I love you but I am not the only one that sees it. Just the other day, my mother was saying…”
“You discussed me with your mother? Again? After you promised to stop doing that? Why am I not surprised?” she asked as anger coloured her tone.
“You would not take that tone with me when talking about my mother, woman. She is my mother and she deserved all the…”
“And I am your wife and I believe I deserve something too. You apparently did not agree with me on that. You…” she sighed as she wondered how she had gotten off course. “Never mind, you can go back to have your precious sleep. I promise not to disturb you again”
He looked at her as she turned her back on him and said in a condescending tone “She was right. When we start having babies, they would keep you grounded and make you behave more like a wife”
Serena who thought if she became more grounded than this, she would certainly become a root turned back to him sharply “And that brings us full circle to what I intended to say before you…you” she wondered what cause the lump in her throat even as she felt tears pooled in her eyes. Stupid tears.
Mathew hated theatrics and had told her but he was not about to bring that up now, not when other emotions were running high. So he looked away from her swimming eyes as he asked “What was it you wanted to discuss?”
Never would he have imagined what she fired back. Not from the mouth of his sweet Serena “We need to have more sex!”
His head swerved back sharply to her in disbelief.
“What?"
The shocked look on Mathew’s face made Serena feel like she had just told him to kill his cat. “Well, that could never be the case as he already deemed having a pet as undignified,” she thought hysterically as she waited in bated breath for what he would say when he stood up slowly to face her. “Are you crazy? I am sorry about my language but I would never have expected such a talk from you. You spoke like a dirty woman!” he exclaimed. Serena forgot her apprehension as she narrowed her eyes at him “Excuse me?” “I do not want to say it, you know I wouldn’t disrespect you,” Mathew said as he rubbed his hand through his hair then gave her a look that made her uncomfortable “You are..you are talking like a wanton woman, like a loose woman. What has come over you, Serena? I thought you were better than this!” “You did not want to disrespect me, you say? This sound more than any disrespect anybody had ever accorded me recently and believe me, I am getting enough dose of it almost every
“Ser!” Serena looked up in the direction where the sound was coming from. She smiled as she saw Amara running to her as her husband told her to calm down as he tried to catch up with her while holding their toddler. He tried to carry the girl but she cried “Daddy, walk” Bo had no choice but to let her walk as he kept his hand on hers to guide the toddler after her mother who paid her husband no heed as she continued to run toward her friend. A run would have been used liberally in terms of what Amara was doing though. Waddling was more the term. Amara was heavily pregnant. “Sweetheart, Serena is just right there. Take it easy” Bo said exasperated as he looked down at his daughter who had the same temper as her mother and would not take it kindly if he ignored her request and carried her. He really shouldn’t let Amara run. “I will take it easy when I die” Amara called back at him. Serena laughed as she stood up to go meet Amara halfway. She knew her friend wouldn’t trade her husb
“Whew! Finally got rid of the Hovery Lord!” Amara said dramatically as she adjusted the skirt of her gown, settling it around her legs in the shaded part of the park where Bo had insisted they have to sit if she wanted him to leave as his wife had asked. She looked over at Serena when her friend laughed. “What? What is it? Am I wrong? I swear that man hovers around me more than a mother hen would do whenever I am pregnant” she smiled. Serena tried to curb her laughter to reply to her friend with the minimal result “No, no, not that. When you said Hovery Lord it sounded like Ovary Lord” she snorted again. Amara was confused “Of course, that was what I me…oh” Her eyes widened and she laughed when she realised what her friend was talking about “You meant O-va-ry, whoever made up these words must be a rogue” then her smile turned lascivious as she patted her stomach and gave her friend a sideways look “Well, he is lord of that too. Hello? Proof right here” she smacked her lips. Serena
“To see your face of course. Do you see how beautiful you are? You are a damn gorgeous woman, sexy in fact. You know I would kill to have amazing hair like yours. Instead, all I have is this mop of dishwater hair” Amara said as she picked up a handful of her hair for emphasis. “You know your hair looked amazing. You are just saying that” Serena said in a miffed tone as she collected her ribbon back. Amara sighed then she smiled “Yes, I admit that. Moreover Bo loves it, his ash blonde hair coupled with mine seems to be what gave Tanya her platinum blond hair. I swear I can already picture how much of a fashion diva that girl will be” Serena tucked her hair beneath her ears and briefly pondered packing her hair up back into a bun “If she ended up as one, she would have gotten it from you. At least the diva part” she said cheekily. “Hey, I can be fashionable too,” Amara said in protest then she grinned as she remembered all her makeover flops in college. Serena had been the one that s
Serena laughed as she remembered how Amara used to talk to her like this when she wanted to get anything out of her. Angrov. It had been a while since anybody called her that. All she heard these days was that she was Jones now. Jones. Jones. Jones. One would have thought she never had an identity before that. She batted her friend’s hand from her face playfully “It is Serena Jones to you now, woman and you had better remember that” “Pfft. I don’t want to” Amara stuck out her tongue to her friend before she turned to face front “Anyways, even if you did not tell me, I can tell that you have not done it in a while, maybe not this month at all” she caught the expression in her friend’s eyes and turned to her sharply “I am right, ain't I? How long? One month? Two months?” Can she really tell? Does it show? Serena thought as she laughed at her friend “I am not discussing my sex life or the lack of it with you, you horny girl” Amara sighed dramatically as she shook her head at Serena “T
“You know I wouldn’t want to disrespect you or anything” Serena rolled her eyes in the vanity mirror after ensuring he couldn’t see her as she heard that sentence, he was somewhere to her right behind her and he was not looking straight at the mirror. She wondered briefly how she had gotten used to the fact that every single insult he doled out to her these days started with that sentence, he seemed to be taking his time as she was sure he was checking her out before he delivered whatever the special was for this evening. “But you look like a tart” “Well,” she thought “That was a new one,” she thought. She doubted if he had ever called her a promiscuous woman before, maybe something close but not directly like that. She held on tightly to the hurt that lanced through her and turned to face him with a smile. Her smile slipped when she saw the derisive look he had on his face. No, she would come out of this unscathed. He wouldn’t rattle her confidence. Hadn’t she given herself a pep ta
She left him behind. And took the car. “I know you are not about to go to that party without me” Mathew had said as he stood close to the doorway as Serena, face perfectly made up with a heavier hand on the makeup this time around walked towards him. She grinned as she stood close to him, and rolled her eyes at him. I just did that she thought as she wondered what came over her. Well, she was not about to analyse that now. For today at least she was going to enjoy this A****n woman spirit that seemed to have overtaken her body “Sweetheart, watch me” she said simply and passed beside him. He made a grab for her but he did not connect as she raised her hand at the exact time. Purely coincidental. “What has come over you?” He asked again “Are you supposed to leave the house when I am angry with you? You hit me on the head too and now I have a splitting headache. You are supposed to stay and take care of me as a…” “Good wife, yeah? I know. Dear husband of mine, as of today; I am on va
Sip and See are celebrations done in honour of newborn babies after birth and one would have expected that the child deserved to be celebrated in her own home at least but as usual, the Matriarch of the Jones family had her way when she suggested to her family that it would be better if the celebration was done at her place. “Seeing as I have a bigger yard compared to that small thing you children have at the back of your house. It would only be sensible that you do it here. That is if your wife would allow it. What does an old woman like me know anyway” she had said before she added that the decision was all up to them. They moved the Sip and See to her house. It was their idea, of course. Serena geared herself up for what she was about to face as she spotted her mother-in-law’s drive. It was a garden party and she knew there would be people all around the house. She just hoped she would have been able to adjust herself to the apparent stare she was bound to get from people when sh