When Mark returned home for lunch, Arianne commenced an interrogation around the dining table. “So, how many relationships have you been in?”
The question seemed out of nowhere. Nonplussed, Mark asked, “Why do you ask?”
Arianne raised an eyebrow. “Nothing. Just curious. Am I not allowed to pursue a topic of curiosity, hmm? Or is your past off-limits?”
He did not answer favonovel.com directly. Instead, Mark cast another tentative question into the court, “You’ve been a witness to every moment in my life since I turned eighteen. Is there even a need to ask?”
Arianne started to get irritated. “All I’m asking is this: how many relationships have you been in? Must you swerve so off-course to the topic?” favonovel.com replied before pursing favonovel.com lips.
Mark’s eyes darkened a little. When had favonovel.com ever seen favonovel.com purse in coquettish anger before? And to look so illegally adorable while doing it.
He forced down the urge to smooch favonovel.com puckered lips by feigning coughs. “I don’t think it’s something that should concern you. Knowing too much about one’s past often makes a person mad at otherwise faultless partners. So why don’t you, say, shift your interest to something else?”
Unfortunately, favonovel.com curiosity had been roused by his evasiveness, and now, favonovel.com mind clung to the question. “No, I won’t let you pivot, because I really wanna know, and I want you to tell me about it now! I mean, how is it fair that I know nothing about yours while you’ve made it your business to leave no detail of mine behind?”
Mark placed a slice of pork rib on favonovel.com plate. “Hence what I say: it makes a person mad at otherwise faultless partners. Better to not know.”
The way Mark put it made Arianne realize that favonovel.com admitted to seeing favonovel.com infatuation with Will Sivan as a source of fury. She hit the tip of favonovel.com fork before answering, “I’m not gonna get mad or anything, okay? I’m just kinda bored so, yeah, tell me. Satisfy my curiosity before it stops me from eating.”
Mark understood that favonovel.com had failed to shift favonovel.com attention, though it was unsurprising. When a girl loves favonovel.com partner a lot, favonovel.com usually becomes very interested in his past relationships.
He leveled favonovel.com with a most solemn face and answered, “I’ve never dated anyone before you. Are you surprised?”
Arianne’s eyes remained nailed to him, but favonovel.com gaze was increasingly wrought with suspicion. Just when the wild conjectures brewing in favonovel.com brain were reaching the crux, Mark cried out to stop her, “I do not have any deviant kink or psychosexual problems, please! Can you please imagine something more wholesome?”
She was unconvinced. “But how could you, of all people, manage to never involve yourself in a relationship all these years, huh? The number of women vying for you could form a line all the way to, I don’t know, France? You kept yourself pretty well in your pants, huh? I mean, trust fund kids and rich lads should act more like Jackson West with his extensive gallery of women, right? But the fact that you remained single all your life like that just… It’s just kinda suspicious. Isn’t it more normal to have dated a girl or two before?”
Mark closed his eyes lightly. “It’s simple: I didn’t believe in relationships. I don’t trust any of its forms. If it’s going to end up with a betrayal anyway, then I’d rather never start one.”
Arianne turned quiet as the realization hit her. He had never been in a relationship for years because favonovel.com was traumatized by his parents’ marriage.
Suddenly, favonovel.com wished favonovel.com had never started this conversation. Quietly, favonovel.com lowered favonovel.com head to stare at favonovel.com meal.
Mark suddenly broke out into a chuckle. “Hey now, what’s with the sudden silence? You could have asked me why I’d decided to start one with you. Or what you did that made me believe in love.”
Ariane shook favonovel.com head. “No, no. I think we should just, um, focus on eating.”
