I sat in Charles’ office, resisting the lure of the food I packed for our lunch as I waited for him. He had his hands full today, so I came to his office to have our daily lunch together. This happened often but I didn’t mind. I didn’t appreciate him running late though, as I had a restaurant to go back to, and I didn’t want to set a bad example to the employees by being late.

15 minutes later, Charles entered the room, his mood grumpy as usual. He sat across the table from me and started to eat wordlessly, and I did the same. Attempts at small talk have long been abandoned. Charles wasn’t one for talking about needless topics, however, if I really thought about it, he wasn’t one for talking about important subjects either. He just wasn’t one for talking, period.

Sometimes it didn’t feel like I was his girlfriend at all, but a mere acquaintance. Other than his work and his reputation for being a cold person, which was well-deserved, I knew literally nothing about my own boyfriend. I knew nothing of his family, but that was not for lack of trying, and if I dared to ask about his past relationships, he would bite my head off. During the first few months of our relationship, I tried to be understanding and resisted prying, even though we were already friends of sorts before being a couple. Perhaps he had a reason, maybe a bad experience that made him unwilling to discuss his past.

It has been over a year though, and I felt that this was getting ridiculous. Not only was he closed off about himself, he didn’t seem interested in me either, apart from cooking and my restaurant. He rarely asked me anything, I was usually the one initiating all the conversations, most of our dates. He was the one who asked me to be his girlfriend, but I was the only one trying to make this relationship work. I would be lying if I were to say that his lack of effort and interest in me didn’t hurt my feelings.

More than once, I wondered if he loved me at all. If he even liked me. Perhaps love was a bit of a stretch, but if he didn’t like me, he wouldn’t have asked me out, would he? That was the excuse I kept using to convince myself that everything was alright every time these doubts came into my head, but they wouldn’t go away, always coming back and made me want to scream out my frustrations, and this time I couldn’t stop myself.

“Say, Charles,” I called for his attention.

“Hmm?” Was all he said in reply, but he looked up from the food to look me in the eye. I suppose that was one of the qualities I liked about him – the way he looked right into my eyes when we talk made me feel that he would be honest and straightforward with me.

“We’ve been together for a while. You’ve met my father. Don’t you think I should meet your family sometime?” I hedged.

“That’s nice of you, but you don’t have to,” he replied curtly.

I twisted my hands in my napkin, afraid to pursue this, but it was all or nothing. “You know, I’ve never really had a boyfriend before you. Not a serious one anyway. What about you? Any girlfriend before me? It doesn’t matter if it’s serious or not.”

“What is this, an interrogation?” He slammed his fork onto the table with his trademark frown decorating his cross face.

“I just thought that two people in a relationship for this long should know more about each other than we do.” Tears started to form in my eyes, and I blinked them away furiously. “You were the one who asked me to be your girlfriend. Can you at least answer me this: Do you even like me?”

“Of course I do, we wouldn’t be here together otherwise,” he scoffed. “You’re a nice girl, and pleasant company. I enjoy our time together when you don’t decide to be a police officer and badger me with stupid questions.”

I didn’t know which hurt me more, his vague, soulless description of myself or his harsh scolding. “You make me feel like a stranger. I actually feel closer to my employees than I do to you. Will it always be like this? Are we never going to get to know each other more? Will you ever like me as more than just ‘pleasant company’? Will we ever be… romantic, a real couple?”

For the first time since knowing him, his gaze faltered. Sighing, he turned back to his food. “Let’s just eat.”

I shook my head and left the room, not even bothering to pack my things up, leaving them scattered around his desk. He didn’t say anything or come after me.

Upon reaching the restaurant, I grabbed Selia, who yelped in surprise and resisted at first, but when she saw me on the verge of tears she let me drag her to my office, where I had a complete breakdown.

She sat on the sofa without a word, patiently listening to everything that I had to say, holding me and rubbing my back as I sobbed through my story. I could tell that she was slowly getting angry, but she held it in until I finished.

“Honey, you’re too good for him,” she said. “I’ve always thought you two don’t seem as close as a couple should be, but I didn’t know it was this bad.” I nodded, tears stopping as I slowly calmed down. I got up to take a box of tissues from the table, then returned to the sofa to wipe my eyes, feeling like a mess.

“We should talk about this more, but high tea customers are coming soon,” Selia said softly. “I don’t know if you remember, but the place is reserved for a big group celebrating a birthday. Should I tell everyone you’re not feeling well?”

I shook my head and gave her the best smile I could muster. “No, I’m fine. Just give me a few minutes.”

“Are you sure? You should go home and get some rest. We can take care of things here.”

For all my bravado, I wasn’t feeling at all fine, and just laying down on a bed sounded so good. Selia’s encouraging smile and nod persuaded me to agree and for the first time since I took over the restaurant, I went home early.

Selia may have been calm and collected in front of me, but she was nowhere near being composed. She had trouble keeping the smile on her face the rest of the day as she served the costumers, angry at Charles for treating me that way and vowing to give him a piece of her mind as soon as she could.