Chapter 1 - Color of Fluid
Elle tugged at her blouse ensuring that her desired amount of cleavage was exposed. She absolutely hated the loose white blouse and grey dress pants she was instructed to wear for the night. It was such an unflattering outfit and did nothing but hide her gorgeous figure which she'd worked so hard to obtain. A short, formfitting dress would have suited Elle's taste much better. But of course, it wasn't about what suited her, it was all about what suited her husband, which was the reason she was subjected to wearing such a bland outfit.
"Ready hun?" Asked Elle's husband Romeo as he wrapped his arms around his wife.
He trailed kisses down her neck landing the very last one on her shoulder. Elle couldn't help but notice how unaffecting his kisses were, for they fail to excite her. Unraveling her husband hands from around her waist, Elle proceeded to the door grabbing her pearl earrings, which she also hated, before exiting the room.
"They'll be here any minute now," she shouted while heading downstairs.
"Babe wait!" Romeo zipped down behind her grabbing her by the wrist. He stared his wife up and down as if performing a thorough inspection. "Shit", thought Elle knowing that she had been discovered, for nothing got pass her husband's hawk eyes. She could recall plenty of times she'd attempted to alter her boring wardrobes but during every inspection she got busted. Romeo was such a prude and not at all her ideal man. If it wasn't for her mother and father being so unreasonable and threatening to stop paying for her education, she wouldn't have even started dating him.
Raised in the church, Romeo was the wholesome, kind gentleman every saintly woman, and occasionally non-saintly woman, desired. Standing at five-eight with beautiful hazel eyes, light brown skin, and a fairly toned body, it was nearly impossible to speak a word to him at church due to the flock of woman nearly ripping each other's weaves out in order to get close the him. Elle, on the other hand, was not very popular with the guys. Though she had a naturally curvy body (all thanks to her mother), golden brown skin, and soft curly black hair which she usually wore in a bun, facial wise she blended right in with all the other average looking girls. Dark brown eyes, luscious full lips, and a smile that could melt ice, Elle was definitely considered to be pretty, but that was all, and Elle couldn't have cared less.
Because Romeo was an untouchable force, once Elle's parents discovered that he'd asked her out and she had rejected him, they scolded her for being "selfish" and missing out on an opportunity of a life time as if dating Romeo was like winning a lottery. Even after being condemned to a life of abuse by the hands of some worldly thug, Elle stood strong against her parents but was defeated by their decision to discontinue paying for her schooling unless she chose to date their prince charming. Although Elle hated it, she decided it would be best to bend to their will, at least until she was done with nursing. The only problem was that nursing took much longer then she had expected. What should have been two years of prerequisites turned out to be three due to unexpected circumstances. On top of that, nursing school had extended it's time frame as well, so by then her parents, friends, and boyfriend was pushing marriage her on. In all honesty, Elle had come to like Romeo a lot more than when she first started dating him, and although she was not attracted to him physically, and believed twenty-four was way to young to even consider marriage, she thought that maybe, just maybe, marrying him wouldn't be so bad and agreed to do so.However, three years later, she now realize that that was a big mistake.
Once Romeo was done adjusting Elle's blouse to his liking, he gave her a quick peak on the forehead. "Make sure everything is ready for our guest. We wouldn't want them to think badly of us now would we?" He stated before heading back up stairs.
The doorbell rang sending both Elle and Romeo flying into place. They made sure their outfits were neat and hair just right before opening the door to their new neighbors.
"Hello, we're the Cowins,' exclaimed Romeo while shaking their guest's hands. "I'm Romeo and this is my wife Elle."
"Romeo. How romantic. So I see you've found your Juliet," joked the wife of the other couple.
Both parties shared a good laugh, then the older gentleman introduced himself and his wife.
"I'm Alex Ace and this is my wife Maya Ace. Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you two. Please come in. My wife has prepared a beautiful meal for us so lets eat and get acquainted with each other."
Elle, who was silent for the most part, frowned at her husband's choice of words. Once again he was portraying her as some 1960's housewife. She never wanted anyone to see her in that light for she disagreed completely with that type of lifestyle. She wanted to be viewed as a independent, free thinking, strong, and cable woman. Not some woman who can cook and clean like a damn slave. Once seated at the round, cloth covered dinning room table, Elle's attention was directed back to its original target when she noticed soft green eyes were watching her. Elle turned her head away wondering if Alex had seen her expression. "He's kind of hot......hell, he's super hot!,' thought Elle, eyeballing Alex from her side view. She scanned him over starting from his short cut blonde hair, to his beautiful European influenced features, then settling on his mesmerizing green eyes, which were staring right back at her. "Fuck! Not again." Elle didn't want to seem like some desperate housewife looking to get laid, therefore she tried focusing her attention on anything and everything other than the gorgeous man sitting to the left of her.
Now that Elle had averted her attention elsewhere, unfortunately it landed where she wished for it no to. And that was on Mrs. Maya. Maya was a lovely woman, slender, tan skin, long silky black hair, and stunning baby blue eyes. Just staring at her made Elle fill a bit insecure. However, the woman seemed to be very nice, and by the looks of it, she was definitely a people person.
Elle giggled finally realizing that her and her husband was a bit over dressed for the occasion. Unlike Alex who wore a white dress shirt and brown khaki pants, Romeo decided to go with a light grey dress shirt, covered by a dark grey blazer and a red tie. And even though Elle's outfit was a bore, compared to Maya's which was a simple black sun dress, Elle's was to overly formal as well.
"So Elle, what do you do?" Asked Maya awaiting Elle's answer.
"Oh I...I...what do I do?" Elle was totally detached from the conversation at hand, thus Maya's question caught her off guard.
"Yes. For a living," clarified Maya.