The Mockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
Chapter 238
-MARCO-
I practically ran from breakfast.
I stood, muttered something about a call, and left Beatrice mid-question about travel and family.
It was too much at once.
Beatrice asking things like we were already a couple in a magazine. Like our marriage had already been announced to the paparazzi.
My parents kept praising her degree like medicine made her holier than the rest of us, throwing shade at Charlotte between sips of coffee.
Luca and Charlotte disappearing for “drinks” and coming back looking like they had just had wild sex. It was written all over their faces. The flushed skin. They could not even look at each other without giving it
away.
They thought no one could tell.
They made it obvious.
I walked fast down the hotel hallway toward the café.
I needed quiet. A corner where no one wanted me married by dessert. Where my mother was not listing Beatrice’s virtues like a product description.
Where a stranger with a perfect smile was not touching my wrist like she already had a claim.
That was when it happened.
I bounced straight into someone.
The same disaster as last time.
I looked down.
In horror.
It was the same girl.
Loretta.
What were the chances?
I could not believe it.
She had tomato sauce on her white shirt. Something green on my sleeve. She did not look happy to see me. She looked like she wanted to file a complaint with the hotel and then have me banned from the hallways.
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The Mockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
“Is this a sport for you now?” she demanded.
Imost smiled
First time all morning.
And it was for this rude stranger who clearly did not like me.
“I’m sorry.”
She narrowed her eyes. “This is the second time my food has suffered because of you. I would rather not bump into you again.”
Fuck.
Why did she have such pretty lips?
Why was I noticing that while wearing someone else’s lunch?
“Hello?” she demanded. “Are you even listening to me?”
“Yes.” I blinked. “No. Both. Your food. I heard you. The food is the victim. I’ve noted it.”
“Don’t joke.”
“I’m not joking. That’s two meals. At this rate you’ll starve and I’ll be charged with making you hungry.”
She stared at me like I was a burden she could not wait to get rid of.
“Do you walk with your eyes closed,” she said, “or is knocking women over just how you say hello?”
“I was fleeing breakfast.”
“Fleeing.”
“Family. A girl my mother would like me to marry if I sit still long enough. You would flee too.”
Loretta looked down at her ruined plate, then back up. “So you used my food as an exit strategy.”
“I used the hallway. You were in the hallway.”
“I was in the hallway first.”
“Then you should look out for men running from arranged breakfasts.”
Her mouth twitched.
Not a smile.
Almost.
I wanted it anyway.
“I don’t know who you think you are—”
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The Hockey Captam’s Unwanted Wife
“Yesterday you said you didn’t know who I was. I’m Marco. Still sorry. Still offering to replace the food you can apparently buy yourself.”
“I can buy it myself.”
“I believe you. You’ve said it twice. It’s very independent of you. I’m just trying to fix the mess I created”
She shifted the tray like she might hit me with it.
I would have let her.
“You think you’re charming.”
“Never said that.”
“You’re in the way.”
I stepped aside.
She did not move.
That was interesting.
“Same café?” I asked.
“Why would I tell you that?”
“So I can walk in a different direction next time.”
“Walk into a different country.”
“Tempting. I should do that to get away from the doctor.”
That made her pause. “A doctor.”
“Future doctor. The woman I’m running from. Perfect posture. Perfect answers. My mother loves her. 1 have been sitting next to her for forty minutes trying not to look like a hostage.”
Loretta looked at me properly then.
Not the clothes.
The face.
Whatever she saw, she did not like that she noticed it.
I did not like that I wanted her to notice it.
“You’re one of them,” she said. “Think no woman is good enough for you.”
Where did she get that from?
Not once had I thought that.
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The Mockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
“And you’re one of those,” I said. “Judging someone you just met over spilled sauce.”
Sence.
A waiter appeared, saw the floor, and looked appalled.
“I’ve got it,” I told him. Then, to her: “Let me buy the replacement. Not because you can’t. Because I want to apologize properly.”
Loretta considered me.
Long enough that I felt it in my throat.
Long enough that I noticed the freckle near her mouth and the way anger made her eyes brighter.
Then she shook her head.
“I will get it myself. You should go back to whatever arrangement you’re running from.”
She stepped around me.
I should have let her go.
I had an almost doctor in the restaurant and parents who thought she was the perfect bride for me.
I watched Loretta leave instead, that stupid pull starting again. The same one from our first meeting. The one that made no sense. She hated me.
I had ruined two meals and asked if she knew who I was like an idiot.
I still wanted to follow her into the café and sit down across from a woman who would rather starve than
let me pay.
“Loretta,” I said.
She did not turn.
“I’m still sorry,” I added.
That got a hand in the air. Dismissive. Rude.
I smiled at her back like a man with a problem.
Then I looked down at the mess on my sleeve and the sauce on the carpet and the hallway that had just become more interesting than the table I had escaped.
I should have gone back to Beatrice.
I went toward the café instead.
Thu, Oct 1
The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
Dex Morgan
Dex works to elevate each story with clean writing, emotional balance, and thoughtful flow for readers.