Alpha Feud BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance Series - Books 1 to 5

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

The following day, Eliza was scheduled to cover the first day of the livestock fair, which was to begin at two in the afternoon. Considering that she stayed up late the night before, she had a bit of a lie-in. Since she was running around to different locations for the majority of her waking days, Eliza really cherished free mornings such as this.

After she got out of bed, she went to the kitchen and cooked herself up a filling, balanced breakfast. Instead of her usual routine of cereal bars somewhere between her car and the office, Eliza decided to really take her time with cooking. She even made a smoothie and found an old show to watch on Netflix while eating. If there was even a slight hint of a hangover when she woke up, the breakfast had certainly cured the remainder of it. Eliza concentrated on the TV show and tried not to let her thoughts linger on the previous night, which had turned out to be a little bizarre.

There was just something about this Theo that didn’t quite sit right with Eliza. She had always known Melissa to be anything but a cheap drunk. Melissa was very good at holding her alcohol and yet last night she had somehow gotten really tipsy really fast. Something about it just didn’t seem right.

Sure, Theo had volunteered to help Melissa to the car and losing the fight over who should be taking Melissa home. Eliza couldn’t help but notice the way he looked at her as he was helping her into the car. He looked at her as if she was a meal, like he was hungry. Eliza just wasn’t sure if it was a s****l hunger or something else.

Although Melissa’s drunkenness was completely understandable, given the cumulative amount of drinks she’d consumed throughout the night, Eliza still couldn’t shake a feeling that something was off. Not all men are rapists. And even if Theo were a creep, why would he have to d**g anybody? With that face and those shoulders, he could have anyone he wanted. He looked like a model straight out of a sports magazine. He was all tan, with nothing but muscle, and his chocolate brown hair hung just below his eye, brushing his perfectly sculpted cheek bones. His eyes were something else too. They were a soft shade of green with little flecks of gold in them. Plus, he was tall, so, so tall.

However, it hadn’t been the circumstances that bothered Eliza so much as a feeling she got when she looked at Theo.

I’m reading way too much into this. I’m feeling pretty tipsy as well.

Three episodes of Friends later, Eliza took a long, luxurious shower. She brushed her hair and towel dried it, before proceeding to brush it all over again. Her hair had always been the most time-consuming aspect of her routine. Eliza’s hair was long, dark and naturally wavy, but if she didn’t style it, it would turn into a ball of frizz and knots. After combing it thoroughly, she picked up a round brush and a hair dryer and began the laborious process of shaping her locks into beautiful curls. She finished off the look with a few spritzes of anti-frizz hairspray.

By 11:30, Eliza began to feel a little bored. She wasn’t used to having free alone time and couldn’t help but feel a little antsy. Perhaps the events of the night before were still weighing a little bit on her subconscious. To alleviate her need for doing stuff, Eliza decided that she would bring Andrew some lunch. She rarely got to see him during the workdays, and even though they used to sometimes meet at 12:30 for coffee and sandwiches, Andrew’s promotion had brought him new responsibilities that overruled any lunch date opportunities so Eliza assembled a pretty magnificent looking sandwich, using some leftover turkey from dinner and piling on an array of condiments, veggies and cheese. She wrapped it up in foil, grabbed a can of iced tea from the fridge, and stuffed the contents into her handbag.

Twenty minutes later, Eliza pulled up outside of the Millstone Firearms factory. This had been the workplace of Andrew’s father, and his grandfather, and possibly even his great-grandfather. Eliza sometimes zoned out a little during the family tree conversations, which were a tad too common during Thanksgiving dinner. The factory and office buildings merged together, and the result was a colossal structure of pretty epic proportions. To outsiders, it may have seemed that Birkbridge was built around this factory, but as Eliza’s third grade history teacher had taught them, this was not the case. Birkbridge, Indiana was actually an old mining town, and coal continued to be the town’s main export, alongside agricultural and livestock outputs.

Eliza flashed her visitor badge and took the elevator to the fifteenth floor. Even though she’d been over to visit Andrew a few times before, she still experienced feelings of surprise and awe whenever she walked into his executive office. Andrew’s secretary was away, so she decided to just let herself in. Her boyfriend was staring into his laptop, deep in thought, and didn’t seem to hear the door open.

“Hey,” Eliza said, smiling.

Andrew looked up from his computer, his expression changing instantly. “Oh hey there, baby!” He looked genuinely thrilled to see her, and this gave Eliza butterflies in her stomach. When she got home the night before, Andrew had already been asleep, and he’d woken up in the morning before she did. The moment he looked up into her eyes, flashing his winning golden-boy smile, she realized that nothing else should matter. Why had she been so concerned about looking attractive to men in bars when she had Andrew? Perhaps it was just easy to take people for granted when you saw them every day.

“Don’t they give you lunch breaks around here?” Eliza teased.

“Nope, they’ve got us slaving away all day, daydreaming about tasty meals and cold beers...”

“I see, it’s all part of their mind games. Hungry workers are obedient workers.”

“That’s right. God, you’re smart. Come over here.” Andrew stretched out his arms and closed his eyes. Eliza strolled up to his desk and placed the sandwich bag into one of his outstretched hands. Andrew opened his eyes.

“Is this? Nooo, oh my God, you are seriously the best thing ever.”

Andrew proceeded to shovel the contents of the bag into his mouth, gulping down the food like air.

“I hadn’t realized that mankind had developed the ability to inhale food, but I guess you’re just one step ahead of me in the chain of human evolution,” Eliza said matter-of-factly.

“That could be one explanation, but a more plausible reason for my gluttony is the fact that I’m actually ridiculously low down in the human evolution chain. You’ve seen how secluded my family is; we’re like a surviving population of Neanderthals.”

“Mmm... I love my Neanderthal man.”

“And I love my sexy girlfriend who makes me amazing turkey sandwiches.” Andrew took another bite. “Wow, is that pickle I taste?”

“Sure is.”

“Nice. Who would’ve even known that pickle could taste so good with turkey?”

“I guess there’re many things that Neanderthal men have yet to learn.”

Eliza had an hour left before she needed to return to the livestock fair, so she hung out in the office with Andrew. At first, they chatted a little bit about their plans to re-paint their house. They’d made the big move out of Andrew’s old apartment and into their current place only three months ago, and there was still a lot of work to be done. They wanted to paint the exterior and add an additional bathroom upstairs. They made a promise to make arrangements with the painters and the construction workers tomorrow. Eliza kissed Andrew on the mouth and nibbled at his neck. He pinched her butt and she yelped, jumping backward and laughing.

They caught up about the day before, and Eliza told him about Melissa’s sudden drunkenness. She told him about Theo, but decided not to mention her odd suspicions. After all, she had no basis for any of her paranoid thoughts, so she decided not to burden her boyfriend with this unnecessary information.

Andrew had laughed at the story, but Eliza detected a hint of pity for Melissa. Throughout his entire life, Andrew had been a one-woman man, and he strongly believed in the notion of settling down with the person you love and staying with them for life. Eliza was incredibly grateful that she could trust him to be faithful, but she sometimes thought that he oversimplified human relationships. Perhaps this was a hangover from his childhood, since he had been lucky enough to witness successful thriving marriages.

Even now, Eliza couldn’t name a single failed relationship amongst his many cousins. Perhaps people really did take after their parents in more ways than they let themselves believe. For Eliza, it was difficult to determine whether or not her parents’ relationship had affected her. In theory, Jeanette and Martin were still married and living together, but she was aware that they didn’t share the same bed. Her mother had always been a little bit insecure and seemed to never have gotten over her outsider status. Nowadays, her father had also become somewhat of an outsider in their town. Although this should’ve brought her parents closer together, it seemed to have the opposite effect. The more her father retreated into his world of history and research, the more insecure and distant her mother would become. This, ultimately, would push her father away even more, and thus began the vicious cycle.

Eliza witnessed how her mother’s insecurities had blossomed throughout her marriage to an attractive semi-celebrity, and sincerely hoped that this wasn’t a window into her future with Andrew. She certainly hoped that they would turn out like his parents, but she knew that Andrew was wary of being like his parents, too. It seemed that they were destined for their own path; the two of them against the world. In many ways, this was a comforting thought.

Andrew was drinking his iced tea and leaning his feet against his desk counter. Eliza had taken his place at the main desk and was feeling powerful. They were in the middle of a heated discussion.

“No, sweetie, I’m not even complaining, I’m just saying that we used to not cover this kind of crap. I’m just worried for Jim, that’s all. He might be losing his flair,” Eliza continued.

“I’m sure he’ll find a way to make it interesting, El. People watch Jim’s channel for the same reason they buy Millstone guns; they want to experience something that combines the Midwestern experience with an air of sophistication and excitement.”

“And what exactly is the Midwestern experience? Shooting things and gazing at cow dung?”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much it,” Andrew laughed.

“Well, where’s the sophistication and excitement then?”

“Excitement doesn’t have to be about seeing something new. Everything on TV is pushing the envelope so much these days, and people eventually become desensitized by it. What they really want to see is something relatable. The excitement comes from the fact that they see you on TV, standing at a place that’s accessible for them. When they go to the livestock fair, they can feel special because they’re going to a place that they saw on television.”

“Hmm. I might not completely agree with you, but you sure are a great salesman,” Eliza admitted.

“Damn right I am!” Andrew chuckled.

>>

Eliza’s broadcast went pretty well that afternoon, but she was glad to get home when it was over. She was looking forward to a quiet night in with Andrew, when her phone began to ring. Oh no... don’t answer it. Eliza checked the phone and it was Melissa. She hadn’t spoken to her since she’d brought her home the night before, so she was pretty concerned about her friend’s wellbeing. She picked up the phone on the second ring.

“Hey, Melissa, are you ok?”

“Hey, yeah, of course I’m fine! Are you?” Melissa replied briskly.

Eliza was unsure whether Melissa’s tone had been defensive or whether she genuinely didn’t realize she had been that drunk. “Yeah, I’m good, I’m just asking because you were a little... I mean, we were all a bit tipsy last night, but you were especially tipsy. Not in a bad way or anything, just wanted to make sure you were ok.”

“Yeah, of course. Sorry if I was acting loopy, guess I haven’t been out in a while! Anyway, sorry about being so last minute, but I wanted to ask you a huge favor.”