In the Loup Box Set #1: Werewolf Shifter Romance

Chapter 3

3

A half hour later found the partners dipping into a wide assortment of goodies of the Asian variety. Stephanie couldn’t get enough of the delicious meats scattered about the general wheat-compromising food stuff. Chuck watched her with horrified interest as she easily consumed her part.

“If you’re not careful, you’re going to eat your chopsticks,” he teased.

“If you’re not careful, you’re going to get a reduction in your paycheck,” she countered.

“Then I’ll have to ask to be reimbursed for this dinner,” Chuck pointed out. “I can’t afford to feed two people on any less.”

“Well, maybe I won’t cut your pay quite yet,” Stephanie admitted with a smile. She finally dropped her chopsticks and sat back in her chair. She was definitely pull as she rubbed her expanded stomach. “So how late do you stay here, anyway?” she wondered. Between them, she was always the first to leave after a long day’s work.

“Depends on what I’m doing,” he shrugged. “Sometimes it’s pretty late, and sometimes I’m right after you. Sometimes I wonder if I should just buy a bed and stash it in the back.”

“If that ever happens, I think I’d have to start taking out board from your part of the profits,” she teased him.

“I just think of it as a perk,” he countered with a smile. He started to pick up the mess of food boxes. “Besides, shouldn’t you be getting home?” he added. “I mean, isn’t Bob wanting to spend some quality time with you, or whatever married couples do after being separated?”

“I’m not sure he missed me that much,” Stephanie glumly admitted. She traced her finger over the new sketch designs. “Besides, I…I kind of yelled at him before I left.”

“Oh?” Chuck wondered. “About what?”

“Something stupid,” she conceded with a shrug. “He wouldn’t make me dinner.”

“Or even order takeout?” Chuck mentioned as he nodded toward the boxes of food on her desk.

“Yeah, I don’t know what’s come over him,” she commented as she sadly shook her head. “He just was, I don’t know, just lazy. Like he didn’t care.”

Chuck stopped the cleaning up and stared at her for a long moment. She didn’t like the look in his eyes, and he punctuated his expression with a sigh. He put down the boxes in his hand and seated himself on the edge of her desk close beside her chair. He glanced straight into her eyes.

“You want me to tell you the bare truth, or the truth sprinkled with sugar on top?” he asked.

“The truth about what?” she returned. She was both afraid and curious to know what he was talking about.

“The truth about your relationship with your husband,” Chuck explained. Her heart skipped a beat, but she respected his advice. Whatever he had to say must have been pretty important for him to be so serious.

“Well, I wasn’t one for dare, so how about I choose truth?” she tried to joke, but the amusement fell flat when he didn’t laugh. Her smile slid off her lips. “So what’s the truth about our relationship?”

“That he’s always been like that, Boss,” Chuck pointed out.

“Been like what?” she asked. She didn’t quite get his meaning.

“Been high-maintenance without much return for your affection,” he expanded. “You’ve been in puppy love since you married him, but I think you’re just angry enough with him right now to see the truth.”

Stephanie paused to think seriously about what her partner was trying to bluntly tell her. She mentally listed off all the financial and emotional gains he received from their marriage, and then she tried to think of any benefits she was getting out of being with him. Her counting stopped at one, companionship, but she could get the same amount of comfort from a dog as from Bob. She leaned forward over her desk and cupped her head in her hands.

Chuck was right. He was absolutely right. She’d been a fool to believe he was just a work-in-progress who would turn around any day and show her the affection and attention she desired. She had been willfully blind to his careless, indifferent attitude toward her. Bob really was getting everything out of this relationship without giving back.

How could she have been so naive? The only reasons she could think of was the one Chuck had mentioned about the notoriously blind puppy love, and the idea of being alone. Maybe she just hadn’t wanted to be alone for the rest of her life. There wasn’t exactly a large crop of men in this small town, and Bob had shown the most interest in her. She’d encouraged his attentions and in a year she’d proposed marriage, which he’d gladly accepted. That caught her attention now. He hadn’t been the first one to make the move toward marriage.

All these revelations scared her, though. Like most everyone, she hated change, and this meant change. She couldn’t just go back home and accept that maybe he didn’t love her anymore. Maybe he’d never loved her. She tried not to sob at that thought.

“I-I suppose you’re right,” she hesitantly stuttered out. She was trying not to cry at this sudden strike of reality, and was doing a bad job of it. She glanced up at her partner. “But what am I supposed to do about it?” she wondered with a sigh. “I mean, I don’t want a divorce or anything that major. It’s just…it’d just throw my whole life for a loop I don’t want to be on.”

“Maybe not a divorce, but definitely don’t let him run you over like he has been,” her partner suggested. “But right now, maybe you just need to let off some steam by doing what you like,” he added as he nodded toward the back room. Her favorite workspace. “Maybe draw some new designs for some clients or just draw what you want do.”

“Yeah, a little escape goes a long way,” she quietly agreed.

Stephanie wiped her eyes, grabbed her designs, and hurried to the back room before Chuck could see her breakdown. He watched after her with a gaze full of regret. He hadn’t wanted to tell her that, but it was a long time in coming. Ever since he first met her husband, he knew that man was a parasite. He could also see, however, that Stephanie’s affections were true, even if Bob’s weren’t so real. Thus her attachment to her spouse would have made her reject any advice he would have given about her poor marriage.

Now, though, this was almost as bad as her living in that fantasy relationship. Now she had to deal with these conflicting emotions of attachment and disgust, and probably end up with the final solution. Divorce. With Bob’s needy nature, it would no doubt be messy.