Ulysses Paradox (a Will Lenney fanfiction.)

chapter two

The apartment smelled like Chinese food when Ruby got home. She had initially been frustrated, wishing that Jake would offer to cook her dinner for once, but by the time she'd walked back to her apartment in the frigid rain, warm, well-cooked Chinese food was sounding much better than whatever Jake's halfhearted attempt at a meal would've been.

"Hey babe, you're lookin right soaked. Wanna grab a shower?" Jake said, taking in the sight of her entering the apartment.

"I'm just going to change, I'm crazy hungry."

She ran into her room and changed into some dry clothes, and layered on an extra sweater and tied up her very frizzy hair. Jake came in after a few moments and looped an arm around her waist.

"You look hot, y'know. 'specially coming in from that mess." He nodded to the window, where it was still pouring rain outside. Ruby laughed, knowing full well she wasn't looking particularly attractive.

"Stop it," she teased, "I need to eat food and you've reeled me in with your take out antics once more." Jake smirked and gave her a kiss before they walked back into the kitchen, where a few takeout boxes were scattered on the counter.

"New client then, yeah? You had a meeting today?" Ruby was in the middle of shoveling noodles in her mouth, and she nodded awkwardly, still chewing.

"I um, yeah," she swallowed. "It was a little last minute, but yeah."

"You'll be working more." Jake said.

"Well, I'm sure it won't be much more than I'm already working," Ruby said.

"I'm just sayin, Rubs, you already work a helluva lot as is. You sure you want to be takin on more clients right now?" Ruby's workload had increasingly become a point of tension in their relationship, and in the recent months Jake hadn't tried to hide that he was frustrated. "All you do now is sit at your desk with your nose in your computer, or you're off in meetings. Or you're with your friends."

"Don't start this Jake, we've already had this conversation." Jake shook his head.

"I'm not trying to start anything, love," he stepped in closer, and his voice was more sympathetic. "You're working yourself to the bone right now, that's all. I miss spendin time with you and fucking around town and just having fun." Ruby put down her food.

"It just doesn't feel like that's your problem. It feels like you're mad at me for working so much. I have boundaries for myself, and I know how to turn down projects I don't have time or space to take on." After a little overnight stint in the hospital last summer due to stress and lack of sleep, Ruby was forced to learn the art of saying no very quickly, and how to lay boundaries and create proper expectations with her clients. Jake had been the one to sit there with her while the doctor reviewed her symptoms and determined that, for lack of a better explanation, she was overworking herself. Jake had been the one to watch her lose twenty pounds in just a couple months when she was working on three different brand campaigns and a collaboration with a local nonprofit. She knew he was just worried about her.

"Ruby babe, you know where I'm coming from. I just want you to be alright, and I want you to be my little carefree hippie again. You're turning into that bitchy CEO lass from Devil Wears Prada," Jake leaned in to plant a few kisses on her neck as he joked. Ruby laughed and tried to pull away from his ticklish lips. "If you're going to be any Meryl Streep character I want you to be the lady from that one musical, the one with all the ABBA songs... y'know?" Jake started humming the first few notes from Mamma Mia, and added a bit of air guitar to bring it all home. Ruby laughed.

"Haha, very funny, I can only hope to have the range that Meryl Streep has." she gave Jake just enough of a smile to let him know that she wasn't upset with him, and he gave her one last kiss before pulling himself up to sit on the counter. She leaned in the other corner and gave him a once over. He was a sturdily built guy, big and tall enough that Ruby didn't feel abnormally large at five ten, but not tall enough that she had to stand on her tip toes to reach him for a kiss. For a brief second she considered how she'd had to look up to make eye contact with the guy from the coffee shop, Will. She shook away the thought, height doesn't make someone more attractive, she thought to herself. Jake was tucked into some fried rice, not paying her much mind, and she blinked a few times, trying to gather her thoughts, because somehow she'd skipped straight to whether or not she found this stranger more attractive than her own boyfriend. That caught her off guard.