UNDENIABLE PLEA

I put on my night dress and climb onto the bed beside my husband. My husband for the next one month or so. He helps me get under the duvet with ease, coming so close to me as I rest on the soft mattress. So close that his sweet whiff is nuzzling my nostrils, or better still, I'm breathing in his warm pheromones, and my fears out.

Our faces are flawlessly in alignment, and our features are sweetly outlined under the illuminations of the orange and red lamps. I can feel his eyes digging through the delicate skin of my face, but I evade his gaze. For the first time since I came into his life, I am scared of meeting his eyes. I feel a weird kind of fear since his announcement in the meeting this morning.

This is odd. And baffling.

I start closing my eyes, to try and sleep over this new feeling, and also because I have nowhere else to conceal my trepidations. I am sure by now he knows I am averting his gaze. I am that obvious. I know.

"Are you mad at me?" His sweet cold voice rings so lou