Chapter 61: Boyfriend Issues

ASTRID’S POV

"Who is he? I asked before and you didn’t give me a straight answer." Ethan’s voice had an edge to it. We were at his house and his patience was wearing thin.

"Okay, I’ll tell you the truth," I said.

"Alright. I’m listening."

"He is my betrothed mate."

Ethan went silent for a long moment.

"I promise you, I haven’t seen him in a while. I didn’t even know he was the minister of foreign affairs."

Ethan’s eyes went wide. "Your mate was in that building with us the whole time and you’re only just telling me now? Why didn’t you say something sooner? What else are you hiding?"

"If I were hiding anything, I wouldn’t be telling you this at all. I didn’t bring it up because it was weird. I’m still finding it hard to believe myself."

He shook his head slowly, like I had disappointed him. I knew he was being protective ... he didn’t want me chasing after anyone else or anyone else chasing after me.

"Have you two fucked before?" he asked.

My heart skipped a beat. What kind of question was that?

"What’s the point of that question, Ethan?"

"Just answer it. Have the both of you had sex before?" he pressed.

"I’m not answering that. He’s my past and he’s buried there, so leave it alone." I tried to close the matter, but he wasn’t done.

"So he’s smashed you."

"What the hell, Ethan? That’s no way to talk to a woman."

"You know what? Let the matter die there. I now know something I didn’t know before, and who knows how much more I’ve yet to find out." He turned and stormed upstairs.

"Ethan, I’m sorry. Please don’t stay angry with me," I called after him.

He didn’t so much as slow down. Just kept walking until I heard the bedroom door.

A night that was supposed to be full of celebration, drinks, and laughter had been ruined by a man who wasn’t even there with us.

I followed him upstairs. He was already changed into his nightwear and stretched across the bed.

I took my shower quickly and slid in beside him.

It was like a switch had been flipped inside him. For the first time, he didn’t react to my touch. Didn’t react to my scent. My cologne had never failed to get a response out of him ... but that night was worse than any nightmare I could have conjured. I hadn’t imagined Ethan could ever shut me out like that.

"Ethan, you’re not even responding to me." I let the silence sit for a moment. "Okay. I’ll leave you alone until you get over it."

I wanted to tell myself that a male wolf could act this cold toward his girlfriend out of love ... that it was protectiveness hiding in stubbornness. But it didn’t feel like love. It felt like offence. Plain and simple.

The next morning, he was up and dressed for the office before I even stirred.

By the time I opened my eyes, I had twenty-five minutes to get to work.

I looked over at him. He didn’t glance at me ... not even once. That look was his routine every single morning. That slow, appreciative sweep of my figure before he headed out. He never skipped it.

Until today.

This was serious. When it crossed into the next morning, it was no longer something small.

I flew into the bathroom and was out in fifteen minutes flat, my normal routine completely abandoned. Ethan had already left by the time I was ready. I didn’t know what other apology I could have offered him anyway ... I didn’t even know where to begin.

I arrived at the office and couldn’t hide that something was off.

"What’s wrong with you today, Astrid?" my boss, Liam, asked.

I couldn’t exactly tell him about the cold war raging at home between me and Ethan. But Liam was sharp.

"Boyfriend issues?" he guessed.

My eyes must have answered before my mouth could. He and Ethan didn’t speak, so there was no way he’d been told anything.

"Calm down," he said, patting me on the back. "Every relationship goes through it. It’ll be resolved. For today, just focus on work ... at least try." He left me with a pile of accounts to balance.

I offloaded almost everything onto my assistant, giving her light supervision while my mind stayed somewhere else entirely. She ended up carrying most of the load.

I found myself thinking about what it must have been like for Ethan’s ex-wife ... the woman who had lived with him for ten years before their divorce. He turned cold over the smallest things, and he held onto offence like it was a debt to be collected. I had never seen anything like it before. No two people are ever the same.

The other two men I’d been with had their flaws too ... but nothing like this. Damn. I had really tested the waters over the years, and I was only just realising it.

I stayed lost in my thoughts while pushing through work, and before I knew it, break time had arrived.

I went to the restaurant across from the company ... somewhere I didn’t usually go. Ethan was the reason I never needed to. He always had food waiting for me before he left for work. I had taken that for granted.

I spotted him on my way out. He looked right through me, like I was a stranger on the street.

I walked into the restaurant and found a seat. I pressed my order into the tablet sitting on the table and waited, watching the screen read processing order.

Then someone pulled out the chair across from me and sat down.

Raven.

"Hey, Astrid." That easy, familiar smile. Showing up uninvited and sneaky, just like when he cornered me in the restroom at the celebration.

"What are you doing here, Raven?" I asked, keeping my voice flat.

"This is a public place to eat, isn’t it?" He adjusted his chair like he owned it.

"That stunt you pulled at the celebration yesterday was dangerous," I said.

"I wanted everyone to know where I stood with everyone in that room. Where I am now, I can’t afford to harbour secrets."

I stared at him like he was the most self-absorbed person I’d ever met. So he was willing to torch someone else’s relationship just to feel transparent. Fuck him.

"Anyway, you’re my past," I said, keeping my tone cool and deliberate. "You shouldn’t be sitting in front of me ... you should be behind me."

I wanted that to sting. I meant it to.

He leaned in closer across the table. People around us were starting to look. "Before all of this, you were my mate first. And I’m leaving in three days ... I only came here for a brief visit, so..."

His hair looked good. Everything about him looked good, actually. He looked like a man who had moved on and thrived without me.

He was looking his best without me.

"So why are you telling me this?" I asked. "What exactly do you want me to do with that?"

"Just know that life happens," he said. "We will meet again." Then he stood and walked away without looking back.

My food arrived shortly after. I had no appetite left.

I ate very little and left.

I wasn’t about to let Raven ... a man I had no contact with, no future with ... burn down what I had with Ethan. But his words sat with me in a way I didn’t want them to. Maybe there was something unfinished between us. Something that hadn’t been properly buried.

If I needed to clear it, I had three days to do it before he was gone.