Chapter Ten
Claire
I was exhausted by the time I got home. After putting up with my boss for so long, he’d finally let me check out of work. I didn’t even know if I was going to get paid a bonus for winning the case, seeing as I'd be working with one of the partner’s.
I’d done it once and it didn’t work out well with the senior partner. Because, he ended up taking all the credit, while I did the scraps in their eyes, but really I did the bulk of the work, but going against one of the senior partner’s was like fucking law suicide. No one would hire you after your current firm fired you, because you wouldn’t be deemed as a team player.
Once, I got home, the lights were on, but the apartment was silent, was the first thing I noticed upon entering. I looked around the living room, a bit scared to move past the door. It was ridiculous, because I was worried about how he would react, but this was still my place.
If he had something to complain about…well, it wasn’t like I could kick him out, either. I wasn’t doing this for him, after all.
“Hello?” I called tentatively, slipping off my shoes and moving further into the room. “Rogue? Are you asleep?”
He wasn’t. He stepped out of the kitchen at the sound of my voice, and he wasn’t looking all too happy.
Shit. Couldn’t he just have gone to fucking sleep? I didn’t want to deal with this crap now, and I could just tell from his expression that he was going to give me attitude.
I had no idea what to say, but whatever would get me off the hook the quickest was my intention. But before I could open my mouth or think of something, he spoke.
“Where the hell have you been?” He growled at me, and he had his arms crossed over his chest as he glared at me. I was a little taken aback, but I wasn’t the kind of woman that backed off in front of angry males. If I did that, then surviving in my job wouldn’t be such a simple thing.
“Where do you think I’ve been? I’ve been at work; I just had to work a bit later today. I thought you’d be asleep already.”
“I was waiting for you,” he got out between gritted teeth.
That gave me some mixed feelings. I’d always lived alone in the apartment, so this was the first time I had someone waiting for me at home. It was a new experience, a sort of strange one.
“All right,” I murmured. “Well, I’m here now, so you can go and do whatever it was you were doing before.”
My words only seemed to make him angrier, and he sneered at me.
“You still haven’t answered my question, Claire. Where exactly were you? What were you doing that you managed to get home this late?”
“I was at work, Rogue,” I said again, frowning as I started feeling a bit annoyed myself. “I’ve already told you so, haven’t I? Unlike some of us, I have a job. A job, Rogue. Some of us need those. And maybe if you were smarter and got one yourself, you might not have ended up where you did.”
I saw his eyes widen at my words, then narrow. I hid back a wince, wondering if I had maybe taken it a bit too far with that statement, but there was nothing I could do about it. The words were already out there, and I went stiff, waiting for his comeback.
So, it surprised me when he decided to back down.
“Your food is in the fucking kitchen. In the fucking trash,” he growled. “But then I realized that something could have happened to you. So, I left mine out for you to eat. Kinda serves me right for getting so fucking angry.”
Wait, what? Did he make dinner? I went into the kitchen just to check, and sure enough, there it sat on the counter. It was covered, and I almost wished there was nothing underneath it, but I was hungry. And underneath the cover, was food.
… Shit.
Rogue made me dinner. This bratty kid with the huge ego and ridiculous sex drive actually took the time to cook dinner for me, and it looked and tasted good. I tasted it and nearly cried. When was the last time I had homemade food? I couldn’t remember, because more often than not I survived on frozen foods and instant meals. Not because I didn’t have the time, but because even when I did, I wasn’t that great a cook.
Was he waiting for me to come so we could eat together?
I couldn’t imagine it. That Rogue could be that kind of person. I didn’t think he’d be so considerate to cook me dinner in the first place.
Still, even if I was a little touched, his attitude was still atrocious. Did he think I was like him? Going out nights to look for men, to drink, to gamble. Other than work, and work-related business, I rarely ever went out. It wasn’t my fault that it was so late when I left the office. And there was some light traffic on the road that delayed me a bit more.
As it turned out, quite a few people didn’t sleep nights.
I looked at the food for a long time, before sitting down at the small dining table to eat. Before I knew it, I’d eaten it all.
Again, I felt guilty. It felt like Rogue was trying to make this whole living together thing work. Mom would be happy to hear it, but it only gave me complicated feelings after last night. He hadn't even said a thing about what happened last night, but that might just be because he was angry at me. If he tried to bring it up later, could I still escape?
I washed the dishes and went to my bedroom, feeling done with this day. But I stopped at the doorway because right in the middle of my bed, was Rogue.
“Why are you in my bed?” I blurted out.
There was no way I was sleeping with him in my bed again. Before I could speak up again, he got up.
Fuck!
I didn’t even thank him for cooking, but as I saw his eyes averted from me as he stomped out of the room. Then he slammed a second door open and shut, and it wasn’t in the direction it should have been coming from.
“Oh fuck!”
He went out. Was he an idiot? I didn’t have to guess where he would go or what he would do, but did he even realize the situation he was in? He was still on parole, and if he was careless, they might just decide to throw him back in the slammer, and who did he think was going to go and pick him up again?
Not me. Even if the beef casserole was fucking delicious.
I thought for a moment, before deciding to let it go. There was nothing I could do. He was faster than me, I didn’t know where he would go, and I doubted he would listen to me right then even if I did catch up to him. We were both feeling high strung today. And on top of everything, I hadn't gone to the hospital like I’d promised Mom I would, and I needed to go to work early tomorrow, too.
I crawled into my bed, not even bothering to change my clothes besides taking off my coat. I curled on my side and pulled the sheets over me. Even my feeling of frustration wasn’t enough to keep me up.
As I closed my eyes to sleep, the last thought on my mind was that Rogue and I were worlds apart.