Page 17 of The Wife Deception
"Had a productive day?" Nolan asked as soon as he saw me enter the kitchen. I was thinking of my grumbling stomach as I made a beeline for the fridge, so I didn't see him until he spoke. He looked at home in just his pants and shirt with the two top buttons undone. He was standing behind a counter with a pot full of mixed vegetables, another full of rice, and a wok brimming with chicken breast surgically cut into cubes. Nolansystematically filled four neatly arranged clear Tupperware boxes with rice, vegetables, and chicken breast.
Of course, Nolan was a meal prep guy. Even the way he was doing the prep was so methodical as to be downright psychopathic.
"Something like that." I took out the first thing I found in the fridge, which was one of four sandwiches in paper wrapping, neatly placed in a row on the top shelf.
"Although I don't get why you want to change your decor. It's lovely as it is." I gestured at the food. "Don't you have Magnus to do all that for you?"
"He wanted to leave early so he could attend his kid's recital. And he has a few days off because his wife is sick."
The thought of the big tattooed Nordic chef being domestic was hard to imagine. He had the energy of someone who spent his nights with his garage rock band, not reading bedtime stories.
I bit into the sandwich. Holy shit, he had a fantastic chef. It looked like a typical ham and cheese sandwich, but Mangus must have used high end ingredients or added some secret third thing, because this was delicious.
"Does that mean I have to endure your cooking?"
He glanced in my direction and resumed packing. "I thought it was the wife's duty to cook?"
I scoffed. "It's not the fifties anymore, buddy. Do I look like I cook?"
He looked at me as though he was actually contemplating the question. It was a piercing gaze that made my stomach tumble in a way that had nothing to do with hunger or the food.
Nolan shook his head. "Neither can I, frankly, but you can rest easy because Magnus had already made supper before he left."
"You should give Magnus a raise. He knows his shit." I raised the sandwich.
Nolan's eyebrows shot up. "That's mine, by the way. I was supposed to eat that tomorrow."
Ah. So that's why there were four identical sandwich boxes in the fridge. The sandwich became hard to swallow and my appetite zapped as guilt gnawed at me. I didn't mean to take his neatly packed delicious sandwich. Even if he wasn't angry, he looked agitated that I was eating it. "I'm so—"Aelin would never say sorry. In all my years of knowing her, she's never uttered the word."I didn't see your name written on it. Besides, what's yours is mine, dear husband."
I bit into the sandwich again, forcing myself to swallow. I waited for him to get angry, but instead, a small smile formed on his lips. Heseemed amused.
"Anything funny?"
He shrugged. "It's an act."
"What?" The food in my mouth almost fell out. I gulped, my heart hammering against my chest as I waited for the sword of Damocles to drop.
"Your whole thing. You remind me of my sister. You want everyone to think you're strong willed and unaffected, but deep inside, you're desperate to please people."
"You couldn't be more wrong. Relief washed down my back. He hadn't clocked me yet, but he was too perceptive for my liking. Maybe not as perceptive as he thought he was, though.
"Am I? I don't know. I know you're hiding something about yourself. Not sure what it is, and neither do I care honestly," he said as he snapped the lids of the Tupperware boxes shut, "but you're not the carefree, unbothered person you pretend to be."
He stacked his lunch boxes and marched over to the fridge. I was still too shocked by his dressing down of me or rather of my poor performance as Aelin, I froze until he gestured to the fridge at which point I jumped out of his way.
Nolan put his stacks of pre-made lunch in the freezer perfectly in a row and closed the door. "Do you still want dinner?"
"Why not?"
"From the little I know about women like you, more food would ruin your calorie deficit."
"All that arrogance and you still don't realize that some of us aren't calorie counters. I want my chef Magnus made dinner."
"Huh."
"Surprised that your neat assessment of me is off?"
He grunted. "You don't get a body like that by eating a lot."
