My husband is not the CEO

Forty One

"Sorry to make Papa and Mama wait a long time."

Rafka's flat voice managed to pull me back to the real world after a long walk in the dream world. I slowly raised my head, where am I? in the hallway of the apartment I know, but why am I hovering? am I dead? I also saw my mom and dad standing at the door of the apartment.

"Where are you from?" Papa's voice sounded flat, like Rafka's. I blinked my eyes many times trying to wake myself up completely.

"Caramel sleeping?" Mama approached.

"Yes, Caramel slept during the trip."

"Basic kebo!"

"Aw!" I moaned when my mom hit me on the back hard enough, I didn't take long to get up, I was really good at waking people up.

"You're timid, don't you feel sorry Rafka carried you from the bottom up here, down!"

"It's a cruel mother!" I jumped down from Rafka's back, and it turned out that I was floating because Rafka was holding me. I deserve to be called a kebo, I might not wake up when Rafka lifts me from the car to our apartment. Maybe I'm overstuffed for spending so much nastar at Jono's grandpa's house.

Rafka rubbed my back gently relieving the pain due to my mama's punch. Instead of being hugged or kissed after a long time of not seeing each other, my mom hit me.

"Let's go in Pa, Ma." Rafka took my parents in while I was still grumbling following Rafka.

"Why don't you tell me you want to come?" I sat on the living room couch with my mom and dad.

I looked at them waiting for an answer but neither papa nor mama answered my question. They silently looked at me straight with a hard to interpret look. What's up with them?

"So the apartment has confirmed the arrival of Papa and Mama." Sahut Rafka's.

"Why don't you tell me?" I looked up at Rafka, I didn't know if they were coming.

"Because you sleep—Papa and Mama want to drink what?" Ask Rafka who is still standing.

"No need, just sit down, papa and mama want to talk important." Reply papa.

I'm fixated, not usually they put on serious faces like this. I get creeped out if Rafka and I make a mistake, but after I think about it again, we never do anything that breaks the rules.

The wind blowing quite loudly wiggling white curtains that cover the glass and the dividing window between the living room and the balcony makes the atmosphere feel like in a horror film. My hair bristles, not because of this horror atmosphere but because of the wind that touches the surface of my skin. The wind that blows after the rain is indeed cooler.

Slowly Rafka inched to sit beside me, I saw that she was also tense and nervous.

"Why don't you tell me that the woman in the video is actually Rama's wife?" Mama threw a sharp look at me.

I snorted, where did mom know. I've asked Jane and Kayla to keep this a secret from papa and mama, I don't want to worry them.

"You also did not tell me from the beginning that Rama and his wife live right next to this apartment!"

I gasp at my mom's words, "I want to tell Mama and Papa but wait for the right time."

"Until when? maybe if we hadn't come here ourselves, we wouldn't have known that you were actually neighbors, you could have kept something this big a secret." Mama's eyes were reddened with anger, I knew for our family, Rama was a deep wound that had left me slumped for so long. The fact that Rama and his wife live next door to me must have frightened them if I were to reopen the old wounds.

"Ma, our Pa doesn't mean to hide this but we don't want to make you worry." Sahut Rafka, he clasped my hand as if giving strength. "I will always be near Caramel to look after her." Rafka's tone of voice is so soft, I'm sure Rafka's words will successfully melt the hearts of papa and mama. Unlike me who talks emotionally, Rafka seems calm and wise to explain everything.

"Now your household has been disturbed by the existence of Rama." Papa finally made a sound, his face grim, "Papa is sure this is not good for your relationship."

"Pa's." I interrupted, "i'm the same Rafka who's grown up, our relationship is fine."

"Mama instead of meddling in your household affairs, Mama does not want you to be hurt anymore because of staying behind her."

I nodded, "i know Ma."

"Mama take it easy, I'll make sure Rama moves out of this apartment." Rafka said while nodding steadily trying to convince mom and dad. I was surprised how Rafka could have made Rama move out of this apartment.

"Yes." Yeah." Mama nodded, finally a smile rose also on her lips, "mama trust all the same you."

"Don't you believe me?" I raised my chin demanding trust from my mother as well.

"Mama believes Rafka more." Reply mama with contrived tone.

I swerved to jump to sit next to Mama, "so now Mama trusts Rafka more." I protest.

Mama laughed mockingly, she had never been gentle with me until I grew up to be a hard woman as well.

"Mama don't want you to be bullied Rama, Mama doesn't want you to fall in love with her anymore." My mother whispered in my ear.

Ih, how could I possibly be like that, just seeing his face makes me want to vomit. If time could be replayed, I wouldn't choose Rama as my girlfriend just yet, I would choose him as my future husband.

Mama doesn't know that I've been Rafka's bucin, I always cry bombay every time Rafka will leave for work, as a result he finished his work from home for the past week. I knew it wasn't healthy so I decided to go back to work after solving my problem with Adena.

"Then Papa and Mama go home first." Papa.

"Aren't you going to have dinner here?" I saw my mom and dad alternating.

"We don't want to interrupt your time." Mama got up from her seat, "it's important you know how you're doing here."

"Every weekend we would visit Mama and Papa at home." Rafka is moving.

"You know you're busy but don't forget to take care of your health." Mama rubbed my arm as if she had forgotten that she hit me on the back quite hard. Maybe mom forgot that I was pregnant, she could make my son's nose snub from the punch.

"Yes Ma." I'm nodding.

"Rafka, Papa, take Caramel with you." Papa patted Rafka on the shoulder several times.

Rafka and I drove them to the front door.

"Mama and Papa also take care of health, enough food and rest." Rafka's message before they step through the corridor and are no longer seen getting into the elevator.

We went back in after making sure papa and mama were no longer visible. I wanted to clean myself up and soak in the bathtub for a moment to forget about today's events. I also want to think about the next action that I will take— continue this case or end peacefully with Adena. I am not a good person who easily forgives the mistakes of others, but Adena's remarks about Ara have been successful in disrupting my thoughts until now.

"You want coffee? let me make it." Rafka steps towards the bar table.

"Tumben you nawarin coffee." I glanced at.

"Today you haven't had coffee at all." He took one of my favorite coffee capsules from the storage cabinet.

"No, I'm going to take a shower first." I flicked my hands at him so he would stop his activities making me coffee.

My bathroom door was wide open before I stepped in, I thought after a few months of living here I could get used to bathing myself with the door closed but I was wrong. I still do not dare to shower alone, if I can be honest I hate this habit but fortunately Rafka does not matter about it. I was also calmer because we were just the two of us so no one else would enter the bathroom carelessly.

Songs I want He's playing soft from my cell phone, this is one of the mandatory series before soaking. I poured Bath Foam—inhaling the aroma of white musk that went all over the bathroom. It's not wrong that I chose the soap that was originally for Rafka but I ended up using it more often because Rafka does not like to soak. The aroma managed to lure me to immediately submerge myself into the bathtub with soft foam that has expanded.

"You know him, despite the many differences

I want him to be happy just with me .... " I hummed a little with my eyes closed enjoying my soaking session this afternoon.

I'm relieved that mom and dad aren't too upset about Rama and the video. I knew that it was an important thing that I shouldn't keep secret from them. I don't want Rama to have so much influence over our family, I want to really drown him out of our lives that I don't want to tell papa and mama. But considering the words of mama must have been they met with Rama in this apartment.

"Yeah!" I screamed in shock at the feeling that someone was piercing my body, I spontaneously opened my eyes and saw Rafka already inside the bathtub joining me.

"What are you doing?" I'm glaring.

"I want to shower with you." Rafka replied in a flat tone as usual, why he was relaxed once entering the bath when there was someone else in it. Even though we were married but I never soaked with anyone else in the bathtub.

"Say you don't like soaking in bathub?"

"Today's an exception." Rafka hugged my body, fortunately the bathub here is large enough to accommodate two people without crammed.

"Why are you?" I wriggled with her hand wrapped around my stomach. Rafka is so weird, it's still afternoon—I mean we used to do this kind of thing at night and not in the bathtub.

Instead of answering Rafka just silenced my mouth with a deep and long kiss that made it difficult for me to breathe. His gaze was full of passion, not giving me a chance to talk. It seems I'm wrong to say Rafka is mighty in bed—ia is also mighty in the bathub.

"Rafka, can't you wait until I'm done showering?" I held his head a little bit away.

He nodded faintly, what is wrong with him?

I couldn't say anything more as Rafka put some distance between us and smacked my neck. Ah I have to work tomorrow but I'm sure Rafka will leave a mark on my neck. I felt a strange rumble as our bodies began to fuse together. I can't believe we did it in the bathtub, it's like a movie scene.

******

"Where did they go?" Mama Caramel stepped casually into the elevator to get to the Rafka apartment unit after getting a visitor card from the apartment.

Papa Caramel just put his shoulder to the wife's question, the apartment just said that Rafka allowed them to enter.

"Wah Rafka gave a luxurious residence to Caramel, Pa." Mama can not stop amazed at the interior of the apartment that so feels comfortable, it is worth Caramel used to dream to live in this place.

"We should be grateful to have a daughter-in-law like Rafka, it looks like Caramel is also starting to fall in love with Rafka."

"Oh yeah?" Mama Caramel saw her husband, he raised his eyebrows next to her. She could not see Caramel's change in feelings because they rarely met but she did not expect that her husband could feel it.

Ting!

The elevator doors opened, they stepped out.

"Rama!" Mama Caramel screeched to see the man who had once filled the life of Caramel, he could not believe if the man named Rama would meet him again after a long time.

The owner of the name spontaneously stopped his activity to open the entrance of his apartment, he turned to look at Mama Caramel. Their expressions were both shocked as this was an unexpected encounter. Moreover, Rama and Caramel had just had a big fight at the police station. Even Rama could still feel Caramel's slap on his cheek.

"Om, Auntie, how are you?" Rama greets Caramel's parents stiffly after a few minutes of mental gathering.

Papa Caramel held his wife's hand not to move closer.

Rama swallowed his saliva with great difficulty, like there was a large object stuck in his throat. His eyes were heating up, their relationship used to be very close. The Caramel family received it well until just before the wedding— before the incident.

"Mmc .... " Rama doesn't know what to say, he stutters wanting to disappear from here immediately.

"Mas, come on in." Adena came up from behind the door, "is that right there?"

Mama Caramel notices Adena coming out, she knows exactly that it was the woman who tried to kill Caramel. He clenched his hands holding back emotions.

"Who?" Adena saw Rama and two strangers who were not far from them.

"Let's go in." Rama pulls Adena into their apartment without answering the wife's question. He could not show himself longer in front of Caramel's parents because he was too embarrassed. Now the regret felt increasingly gnawing at the heart of Rama, he used to leave without caring about the feelings of Caramel. The slap of Caramel's feeling had made him realize that he did not deserve to return, he had to go as far as possible even though deep in the recesses of his heart missed the figure of Caramel.