It was a poetically nice day outside, thought Jeremiah Gantz as he stared out his front window in passing. Course, he’d never thought he’d have a house as nice as this, not when the clan he was born in already had too many in power, squashing any potential he may have had in rising up in the ranks. The chance Evan Rosier had offered him was more than he could pass by and the offer had already shown benefits. He was really starting to like it here.
Of course, even happiness had it’s downfalls. Outside, he caught a glance at his wife by the mailbox, carefully slipping a letter into it.
When she caught him looking, a glare streaked across her face– it was challenging and aggressive but Jeremiah didn’t indulge her. His shrew of a wife would have her time to argue with him later; for now, he’d much rather enjoy his peace and quiet.
There always seemed to be some form of arguing or yelling going on in their home. Emilia had always been a firecracker, which had initially attracted him to her. She wasn’t a soft woman and that was pretty clear in how she had always behaved back home with her brash, hot-headed temper and thorns that pierces anything that came close to reaching anything real with her. And Jeremiah had wanted her to be his.
To say Emilia was unhappy would have been an understatement. She had, at first, flat out refused his proposal, nearly flattening his ass when he tried to come back and persuade her. But when her father died and her brother, having inherited the house, refused to continue to support his sister (who had already sworn never to marry anyone). It drove Emilia to resort to something she regretted and constantly reminded him of each day: marry Jeremiah Gantz.
“What do you mean you can’t take this postage? It’s still usable!” The pitch in her voice was high, grating against his ears as she let out her anger upon the poor mailman. Jeremiah felt his pain.
She could carry on and make as much fuss as she wanted. Jeremiah would take care of her. There wasn’t the same attraction as he’d held before, replaced with a mutual animosity that lingered through the days and weeks they had been there.
Well, they would both have to get used to it. Sleeping in separate rooms helped, Jeremiah thought as he left the living room, retreating to his study. Later he heard her footsteps on the stairs. She didn’t linger on the second floor, retreating up to her rooms and the work room she kept for her paintings. Jeremiah didn’t move from his chair, pausing only in his reading to wait until he heard classical music playing upstairs before he continued reading.
Great beginning. I loved Emilia’s postage tirade.
This is me just dropping a note saying: omg! I now know where you got the ‘book of days’ from. I read it in the book and I was like, “huh.”
Ahaha, dude, actually, I got it from an Enya song I listened to while creating it. I thought of calling it book of shadows but then I was like “noooo” so yeah. Is it really in the book too? I’m planning on re-reading it on my long plane ride.
Seriously? An Enya song? And here I thought I was being all cool with figuring out where you got it from. ;P And yes, it is in the book.
I do prefer book of days over book of shadows. The latter is too modern and cliché sounding.