Claudia studied the board and pretended to analyze his non-existent technique.
“Nah, don’t think so.”
“Bummer.”
He started putting the pieces back into their box.
“So, what’s up?”
That was another thing Claudia liked about Matt. He never beat around the bush.
“I wanted to ask you something…” She bit the inside of her lip, unsure of how to express herself as to not make him think she was desperate.
“Ask away.”
“Is… mmm… Karl okay?”
Matt looked up from what he was doing. “What do you mean?”
“Well… he hasn’t been answering my calls or my text messages. So, I was thinking… maybe something happened?”
Matt averted his gaze and shrugged. “Nothing happened. He’s fine.”
“How do you know that? Have you talked to him?”
Suddenly, the Beta wasn’t as chatty as before.
“Matt, have you talked to him?”
“Yes.”
His answer was more of a whisper. It was quite clear her question had made him uncomfortable.
“When?”
“Pretty much every day.”
“Of course. Of course,” she whispered silently.
Her body was burning with anger. She felt as though if she didn’t control her voice, her words would turn into small, sharp daggers that would stab Matt right in the chest. But she wasn’t angry at him, she was angry at her stupid husband. The good part was that now she didn’t care anymore what Matt thought about her. This marriage was clearly not working, so maybe it was better if she found her way back to Alma Venus. Soon.
“So, what do you guys talk about?”
Matt stole a quick glance at her to assess how angry she was. The look on her face made him shudder, and he realized he had never felt threatened by a woman before. Claudia was pure Alpha female material. No wonder Karl was so smitten with her. If only she had known…
“Stuff… he’s mostly complaining about Councilor Voinom.”
“I see. Stuff.”
“Mhm.”
“Do you… ever talk about me?”
Matt’s eyes went wide. “Oh no, not at all!” The hurt in Claudia’s eyes told him that was the wrong answer. “I mean… not like that. Not like… you know…”
“What?”
“Well, you know… gossip? We don’t gossip, we never gossip.”