AOM tossed around in her bed as she had difficulty to fall asleep right now. Thank God that she did not wake Aaron from his sleep and stop tossing around when she felt that sleep would not come at her in any minute. So she sat upright and brought both knees closer to her chest and hugged her legs afterwards. The incident this evening kept replaying inside her head even though she wanted to forget it so badly.

            Rudee was still as mean and arrogant as ever even after years had passed. She and her good friend Ariana had always never liked her. She never did wrong to them, but they hated her for always being a top student in her class. Aom admitted that both Rudee and Ariana were prettier than her. However Aom still did not understand why they still got mad if there was someone tried to make a move on her as if she did not deserve at all to be liked by any man in this world.    

          ‘We thought that she was faking her marriage because she was always alone back then,’ Aom chuckled bitterly as she recalled that painful statement. She glanced at silver band on her finger with heartache. Even this wedding ring could not save her from accusation about her faking her marriage since people were more eager to see her mysterious husband than believing her words.

          ‘Aom, just give him a chance to fix everything. I can feel that he now is more ready to carry his duty and responsibility as your husband and father to your child,’ a heavy sigh escaped from as she wiped her face with both hands when Mrs. Manee’s advice on living together with Mike echoed in her ears. She glanced at sleeping Aaron and his head with tenderness after that.

          “I hope I’d made the right decision to let your Daddy stays with us. After all I did all this just for you, and I’m glad that you are starting to accept him in your life,” she whispered and planted a soft kiss on Aaron’s forehead. The thing that she wanted to give Aaron right now was a complete family although she had to put her feeling aside.

          She blinked back the tears that threatened to fall dawn before carefully crawled down from the bed. The time was almost 3 in the morning, and she needed something to clear the mess inside her head right now so she at least could have few hours of sleep before morning. Aom quietly left the room, but she frowned while closing the door because she saw the light in kitchen area.

          “What are you doing here at this hour?” asked Aom in confusion after Mike noticed her presence as she approached the kitchen.

          “I can’t sleep,” he replied, but he earned the chuckle from Aom afterwards. What was she chuckling about?

          “If you can’t sleep, why you still drink the coffee?” she questioned him while heading to fridge. Mike looked inside the mug in front of him and realized the reason she was laughing at him. He just observed Aom tore a sachet of chocolate drink and mixed it with hot water before put the ice cubes inside her drink after stirring it well with small spoon.

         “Let’s have a drink together,” said Mike which made Aom stiffened for a moment before she moved to sit across the table. Suddenly there was an awkward silence between them until loud thunder surprised them. Both of them looked at each other before they moved simultaneously from the table to check Aaron inside the room.

          They entered the room and relieved that Aaron did not flinch a bit in his sleep while both of them could feel the building was shaking because of the loud thunder at outside. Aom approached the bed and pulled up the blanket to cover her son more before reaching the remote to decrease the speed of fan. She noticed that Mike quietly left the room but he came back few seconds later with two mugs in his hands.

         “I think we better have a drink here,” he whispered while handing the mug to her. She actually did not get his words until Mike sat crossed legs on the cold floor at the end of bed. Then he gave her the look like he was asking her to join him, and she did not take much time to make the decision. Smile plastered on his face when Aom sat beside him with flexed legs.

         “Is chocolate your favourite drink?” Mike pointed at her mug, and she just glanced at him before quietly nodded.

         “It helps me to feel more relax and at ease,” she explained without being asked, but he just listened it with small smile on his lips.

        “That’s what coffee does to me. I know caffeine will make you alert and increase the heartbeat, but I experience the opposite effects. Now you know the reason I choose coffee to drink right now,” he wagged his eyebrow at her before drinking his coffee. Aom shifted her gaze back to her mug with smile, and tonight she had learned something about her husband.

        They might like different types of drinks, but they had similar reason of liking their favourite drinks. She glanced at him but embarrassment suddenly took over her after she realized that Mike also was looking at her. Probably he had watched her for quite some time now.  They were quiet again and let the sound of heavy downpour filled the silence until Mike said something that she was not really wanted to talk about right now.

        “Hey, about the thing that happened in market yesterday, I’m sorry about that. I’d heard your friend talked bad to you, and I think it is my fault. If I didn’t leave and stay…,” Mike could not finish his sentence because he was embarrassed with everything he had done to Aom in the past.  He let the anger took control. He was not ready for marriage and the most important thing, he was a victim.

       “After all, I was partly responsible for the pain that you had gone through after we got married. I was mad at you for something that was not your fault. I forgot that you also were the victim. None of us wished for this marriage, but I unleashed everything on you,” since Mike returned to Thailand, this was the first time they opened up about the problem in their marriage.

        “I’ve someone I loved back then, and I felt this marriage had ruined my future. I was not ready for it, so I chose to escape and act as if you never exist in my life but everything changed drastically