I Watched Our Marriage Expire

"Professor Bennett, Mara—I can't believe I ran into you here."

Piper Turner came over with a cat in her arms and a friendly smile.

I couldn't make myself smile back.

When she'd wanted to join Ethan's research group, I was the one who'd gone soft and begged him again and again to take her.

Now that kindness had become a blade turned against me.

"Mara likes cats, so we came in to look around."

Ethan must have noticed my expression, because he reached for my hand.

"Then pick out any cat you like, Mara. I'll give you the staff discount."

I was about to shake my head when Ethan said, "Do you have any calmer ones you'd recommend?"

My fingers clamped around his wrist.

I'd brought up getting a cat before.

Ethan had always refused.

He was a neat freak and didn't like animals.

And I'd been born with a heightened sensitivity to smell. Pet hair gave me headaches and made my eyes water, so a cat had never really made sense for us anyway.

Piper started to introduce the cat Ethan had just petted.

I yanked my hand free, turned, and hurried out of the cafe.

The mall's air-conditioning hit my face, but it couldn't cool the heat building inside me.

Ethan caught up and grabbed my arm.

"What's wrong?"

He was a little out of breath, but his voice was as gentle as ever.

I looked straight at him, my eyes red.

"I thought you didn't want a cat."

He sighed helplessly and lifted a hand to wipe away my tears.

"You've always wanted one, haven't you? I thought I'd go along with it for you."

I turned my face away from his touch.

"Are you having a reaction?"

Tears were one of my symptoms when my sensitivity flared up.

"Forget it. We won't get one."

He let his hand drop and pulled me into his arms instead.

I barely slept that night.

In my dream, our marriage's shelf life dropped to zero.

And Ethan left me forever.

I woke up drenched in sweat.

Ethan had already left for campus.

My heart wouldn't stop pounding.

I pulled myself together and headed to campus too.

Outside the building, I ran into a colleague.

He grinned and teased, "Mara, you don't even have class today and you're still bringing him lunch? You two are so sweet."

I forced a half-hearted smile and hurried into the lab building.

Ethan was bent over Piper, walking her through how to run an instrument. Their heads were almost touching.

In just one night, the number had dropped another five points. Only eighty-five percent was left.

"Mrs. Bennett, you're here!" The other students in the lab greeted me one after another.

One of them noticed where I was looking and scoffed.

"Professor Bennett spoils Piper rotten.

"When we mess up an experiment, he chews us out on the spot.

"But when it's Piper, it's like he doesn't even have a temper.

"She pulled an all-nighter on an experiment once, and he stayed with her the whole night."

My heart clenched.

That was the day the shelf life had first dropped.

So he'd spent that entire night with Piper.

"He always gives her the soup you make for him. None of us have ever gotten a taste."

I followed the student's gaze.

On a nearby table sat an open insulated container. The soup had gone completely cold.

Piper walked over, picked it up, and said offhandedly, "It's cold."

"Then just dump it. Nobody wants cold soup," Ethan replied flatly.

The pieces of duck I'd carefully simmered went straight into the trash.

The thud of the meat hitting the side of the bin was like a dull knife sawing at me, over and over.

Was everything I did for him really worth so little?