I Picked Up the Trash Others Threw Away - Chapter 26.2

Chapter 26.2

After pulling the blanket and closing my eyes, Trish lay down on his side, supporting his chin with his hand, and stared at me.

I couldn’t fall asleep because of the burdensome gaze I could feel even with my eyes closed.

“Get some sleep.”

“Can you sleep in this situation?”

“Then pretend to sleep. You’re not going to stay up all night.”

“I don’t want to. I’m going to keep bothering you so that you can’t sleep.”

“Gosh, you’re not a child.”

What kind of evil disposition was this?

I stubbornly closed my eyes tightly and turned my head away. This time, he grabbed my shoulder and forced me to look in his direction.

I didn’t know why this man was behaving like this today. Did he take some drugs by mistake?

“You said before that you didn’t like me at all. Did you change your mind now?”

“What?” Trish stuttered with a bewildered expression for the first time as he heard my innocent question.

What is this? It’s not a route where the male character feels attracted when the female character dresses in a different way than normal, is it?

There are some novels where the male character is fascinated by the boldness of the female protagonist and unintentionally likes her, but the only thing I did to Trish was deception and condemnation.

“That’s impossible. Who was the one who bothered me and asked to marry first…!”

Ah, of course. There was no way we could expect a commonsense romance fantasy to develop between us.

“Then, is it because you’re feeling lonely? Because you haven’t met with women in a while?”

“Th-that’s right. You said I shouldn’t meet with them for a while even after getting married. Will you just sleep and pretend not to know after making me bored?”

“Yes. I don’t intend to be intimate with my contractual husband. Don’t you remember Article 1 Paragraph 2 of our contract? We shall never fall in love with each other.”

“Sleeping together doesn’t make you fall in love.”

“Don’t you know how intimacy works? We could fall in love at some point because of s*xual compatibility.”

Intimacy that leads to real affection is the most important factor to pay attention to in a relationship between men and women. Trish’s attitude of proposing intimacy without being concerned about whether there was a single shred of embarrassment was extremely brazen.

In order to get divorced neatly after a year had passed, it was necessary to draw a line in our relationship so that no emotions would remain between the two of us.

So no matter how Trish might tempt me, I would never fall for it. I shouldn’t give him any opening.

“You will meet a lot of women in the future. I don’t want to meet anyone yet.”

“Why are you saying that? You should meet another man later when you get lonely. The fact that noble couples don’t talk about each other’s lovers is something like a rule.”

“I don’t want to have one-night stands like that. At least for the first time, I want to be with someone who will treat me with sincerity.”

“That’s a nice thing to say.” Trish sighed sneeringly. He stopped bothering me and left the bed, taking a pillow with him. “Don’t curl up uncomfortably, just be at ease. I’ll sleep on the couch.”

He lay down on the couch, buried his head in the pillow, and closed his eyes.

I gazed at him for a few seconds, but he no longer spoke to me or looked back as if he really intended to fall asleep.

‘… It’s a little awkward, but is this okay?’

I shouldn’t worry about it. It was the first night in formality only anyway. No one would peek inside the bedroom, so there would be no problem with this. Though it was a little surprising that Trish, who supposedly touched any woman, would give up so obediently.

I thought I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep because it was an unfamiliar place, but unlike the old bed at home, the very spacious and soft bed allowed me to fall into a deep sleep.

***

I couldn’t see Trish when I opened my eyes.

It was almost noon when I woke up because I was soundly asleep.

I tried to call a servant because I thought I should replace the late breakfast with lunch and take a shower first, but someone came in through the bedroom door without knocking.