‘It’s not smut,’ she’d protested. It was one thing to complain about her reading, but it was another thing entirely to bring Jax into it.
‘Yeah, right. That half-naked Neanderthal on the cover suggests otherwise.’
She’d resisted the urge to point out he looked almost identical to said Neanderthal.
So she’d stopped reading when he was home. In all fairness, it probably had felt as though she were excluding him. It wasn’t a huge deal; there was plenty of time to read when he wasn’t there.
But lately, she’d also begun to notice he was finding fault in a lot of other things too. Maybe it was the normal transition between the honeymoon stage and a couple adjusting to living together, but there was definitely some kind of change taking place.
One morning after he’d gotten back from a trip away, Bel stretched and got up to take a shower.
‘What are you doing?’ he asked, reaching out a hand to lure her back to bed.
‘I have to get ready for work,’ she said, dodging his attempts to waylay her.
‘It’s Saturday.’
‘We’ve got a big author talk today. I have to be there.’
‘But I just got home,’ he pointed out, sounding oddly confused.
‘I know, and I’ve missed you, but I have to go in today.’
‘I don’t even know why you want to work in that place.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean, it’s hardly a big career move, is it? What happened to you wanting to go to university? I thought that was the whole plan, that you’d bedoingsomething?’
‘Iamdoing something. I really love working with books, recommending them to people. You know howmuch I love doing all that on my TikTok page. It’s a dream come true.’
‘Yeah, but it’s hardly a proper career.’
They rarely talked about her online presence. Right from the start, he’d dismissed it. ‘I don’t do social media,’ he’d said when they’d first been getting to know each other.
‘What? Not at all?’
‘Nope.’
‘How come?’
‘Why would I want everyone knowing my business?’
‘Well, you don’t have to post about that. You can keep up with what everyone else is doing.’
‘Why would I want to? If I wanted to know something, I’d call them.’
So social media was not something they’d discussed much.
‘I’m happy working there,’ she said now, trying not to let his attitude dampen her enthusiasm.
‘You have so much potential, and you’re wasting it working as a shop assistant.’
In truth, she had been looking at university when she first arrived, but nothing had really caught her attention. She was more confused than ever, with the huge selection of courses on offer. It was a big decision to make, choosing a degree. What if she didn’t like it once she started? She wanted to take her time to figure out what she wanted to do, not rush into it.
‘We can go somewhere nice tonight,’ she said, changing the subject as she pulled on her skirt.
‘I’m going out to a work function tonight.’
