One of his brows quirked and he pulled the tissue paper out, tossing it to the side.
“Oh,” he mumbled, pulling out a wooden box and scanning it.
“I couldn’t get you the other ones I wanted because… well, my dad screwed me and my bank account over.” My eyes shifted to the side. “So uh, yeah, anyway from my research, I read these ones were just as good.”
“These are Davidoff Oro Blanco cigars. They’re not cheap.”
“They’re good ones though, right?” I picked Princess up and hugged her to my chest.
“They’re one of the best.” Yosiah pulled the box open and brought it to his nose, inhaling them. “Damn these smell good.”
“You hear that, Princess. The best.” Pride filled me. I tried to put as much thought into my gifts as possible. It wasn’t easy since I had to get used to having limited funds. I’d never even heard the word budget used in the same sentence as me before, but I managed.
Yosiah set the box of cigars down and faced me. He stared at me for a long while, silent.
“What’s wrong? Is there something you didn’t like?” I scanned the gifts scattered around him.
He licked his lips and stood, coming over and taking a seat next to me.
His intense stare started to make me question the gifts I’d chosen, which was crazy because I’d always been an amazinggift giver. He narrowed his eyes and tilted his head to the side, running that burning stare down my body before circling back to my face.
“How did you pay for all this, Xylina?”
“With money, what do you mean?” I giggled, putting Princess down.
He didn’t find humor in my words. “You know what I mean. Those cigars alone aren’t cheap and everything else added with the Ryokan. How was everything paid for?”
I knew what he was getting at and it was something I didn’t see worth discussing. “C’mon, hubby, you know it’s rude to ask something like that. You got gifts and that’s all that matters.”
“Xylina.”
“Just because I was cut off from Daddy’s money doesn’t mean anything. I made money from brand deals, remember? Since I never had a reason to touch it, it piled up. It’s no big deal.” I waved him off.
He still didn’t look convinced. “I didn’t want you to empty your account just to celebrate my birthday.”
Butterflies erupted in my stomach knowing he was worried about me. It felt good to have someone care about my well-being. Smiling, I moved over to him and straddled his lap.
“You like this position, huh?” He gripped my hips.
“I do. Makes me feel like I’m in control.” I planted my hands on his shoulders. “I appreciate you being concerned but you don’t have to be. Plus I have a hot, rich husband who gave me access to unlimited funds again; so we’re all good.” I moved in and kissed him. “It’s nice to know you know your wife isn’t meant to be in the lower-class population.”
“Not how I would put it, but I can agree. I don’t think you would do well in the working class.”
“Right! I’m Xylina Bedford! It doesn’t even sound right. Can you imagine what my friends would think? I’m the mostinfluential person they know. Moral of the story, just enjoy the gifts and be happy your wife is a great gift giver, okay?”
“A’right I’ll let it go, but there’s something else I want to talk about.”
I grinded against him. “Is it usfinallychristening the house? There’s no staff here so we have free reign to start here and move around the house.”
“As good as that sounds, I want to discuss something first. The crying last night.”
I paused. “I told you it was nothing.”
“Call me crazy but I don’t believe you.”
Rolling my eyes, I went to move off his lap but he held me in place. “I let it go then, but now let’s talk about it.”
I sighed. “When did you become so chatty? I’m kind of missing when you used to ignore me.”