Chapter 43: Is It Good?
The next day, no one came to wake her up. Arianna slept until noon, and all the bones in her body seemed to have collapsed.
Arianna usually showered when she was at Travis’s, only using the bathtub when she was trying to evade him for some periods of time. But since she did not have the strength to stand up, she had to use his bathtub.
There was no sign of Travis in the house. Arianna was too lazy to even change into her pajamas. She spent the day with a towel wrapped around her. She ate the lunch prepared by the servants before going back to sleep.
When she got up the second time, it was close to evening. She had stayed in Travis’s residence for over twenty-four hours now, which was extremely rare. Arianna felt a little annoyed with herself. She wasted a precious day and night of her vacation. Although it likely would have been spent at home watching movies or surfing the net, there was a difference between being free and imprisonment’.
She changed into her clothes and decided to leave. But when she was only two steps down the stairs, a courteous butler. approached her and asked, “Can I help you with anything?”
“Yes, could you call me a car to take me home, please?”
“Mr. Cooper has invited you to dine with him tonight. He is at the company now. If you are feeling bored, you can see the flowers in the greenhouse, or take a swim in the pool, or maybe read a book in the library or go online.”
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When Travis came back, Arianna was practicing yoga on the ground in front of the window of his study. She was in a deep lunge to try to stretch out her sore legs.
Some light music played from the computer on the desk in the study.
Arianna spent quite some time in the pose before she entered into a plank position and put her other foot into the front of the lunge.
In the beginning, she was struggling to complete the most basic poses, but when she finally stretched out her limbs and torso, the pain in her body temporarily vanished.
It was her first time in Travis’s study. There was a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf along one wall, with a desk made out of the same dark wood. There were chairs and couches in various places in the study. The bookshelf was densely packed with books, and the room was naturally lit through the big windows.
There was no smell of any mildew from the books, and there was no dust anywhere in the room. The room was again decorated according to Travis’s taste.
Arianna didn’t like being in places that resembled Travis too much, but she couldn’t go to the greenhouse because the flowers were blooming, and she was allergic to pollen. And she felt dizzy again the moment she saw the pool. This only left the study as the place where she could get out of the bedroom but still have privacy.
When she heard the sound of the door, she immediately dropped her pose and turned around. Travis’s tall frame stood in the doorway. She couldn’t see because her eyes were blurred from the bright light from the window, but judging from his motionless structure, he was looking at her.
No one liked when someone walked through a door unannounced. Arianna sat down on her mat, looking at him through her squinted eyes. Arianna asked, “Why didn’t you knock on the door?”
She wanted him to disappear immediately. She was usually polite with him; however, his unexpected call from the day before limited her patience with him.
“This is my study.” He said firmly, walking forward as he spoke.
Arianna turned her head to look back out the window. She decided to ignore him, lay down on the ground, and closed her eyes.
But when she heard him move again, she opened her eyes just as he spoke, “Your outfit reminds me of a movie I watched long ago. It was about a python.”
The words hit Arianna’s ears. A snake! A serpent!
Her body jerked. She hated everything about those creatures, and Travis was now one of them in her eyes.
“So, you really are afraid of snakes.” Travis’s tone sounded like he had discovered a juicy piece of gossip.
When she looked over at him, he was sitting in the desk chair looking at the computer screen. Maybe he wanted to know what music she was listening to, but the screen was filled with many web pages she visited, and it was a book website that she was on last. Arianna did not want him to know what she had been looking at.
She immediately said, “Don’t look at that!”
“This is my computer,” Travis answered as he left the desk. Arianna didn’t know how much he saw.
After struggling to move her limber muscles, she scrambled to the computer and closed all the web pages. Then, when the music stopped, Travis asked, “What was the name of that song?”
“I don’t know.”
“What novel were you reading?” Arianna rolled her eyes and said, “The boring story of a neurotic man and woman who got married, then divorced, and then married again.”
“Is it good?”
“Not at all.”
“Then why were you reading it?”
“I was bored.” Arianna finished erasing her history and shut off the computer. She wanted to get out of there.
“If you’re so bored, then why don’t you accompany me on a trip for a few days?” Travis suggested as she walked towards the door.
Arianna was stunned. Their agreement never included her going out or traveling with him. When she was about to speak, Travis interrupted her since he knew she was going to refuse him.
“You won’t need to entertain anyone, and I have things to do most of the time. You’d be free to do as you please. After this trip, I’ll be gone for two and a half. months.”
Two and a half months without living under a shadow! The temptation was large indeed. Arianna hesitated, “I must be back by the end of my vacation time. Where are you going?”
“No problem. And India.”
She was pleased with his response.
Arianna asked, “Are you planning to sell me when we get there?”
Travis Cooper smiled, “A good businessman like me only does transactions with top-quality merchandise. Are you top quality?”
Her cheeks blushed a little, and she replied, “Whatever.”
She returned to the living room, where one of the servants notified her that Ryan was ready to take her home.
When she reached her apartment, she took her suitcase out from underneath her bed and packed some clothes away.
Afterward, she drew herself a nice hot bath with salts to help soothe her body. She spent an hour in the tub, lying back with her head on the pillow, trying to clear her mind. Though the companion was her least favorite person, she was excited to go to India.
She went to bed, but before she knew it, the sun had risen, and Ryan knocked on her door to take her to the airport.