Page 4 of My Ogre Husband
He nods. “I understand. I’m glad we get to meet now.” Egorr sits up straighter and adjusts the collar of his dress shirt. It’s clearly a little uncomfortable around his thick neck. “It’s not like I was doing much.”
“So you work in computers,” I say, deciding to turn the conversation toward getting to know Egorr better. “Tell me about that?”
He tenses up, like this subject makes him nervous. “Not a lot to say, I suppose. I go to the office, I write software code and hunt down bugs, then I come home.” That wide smile has fallen off his face. “It’s not very exciting.”
“I think it’s exciting,” I say. I’ve never met someone who works on computers, and I’m not all that good at using them myself. “What kind of software?”
He blinks. “Oh. Well.” Egorr clears his throat. “You know the CGI in movies and games?”
I nod. “Like when something blows up?”
“Exactly. I work on the software that other companies use to make computer-generated effects like that.”
This actuallyisvery exciting.
“So your stuff has been in movies?”
Egorr chortles. “I guess you could say that, in an indirect way. They use the tools I’ve helped develop.”
“So…” I find I’ve been twirling my hair in my nervousness, and I drop my hand immediately. “What do you do for fun, Egorr?”
The happiness falls from his face. “Oh, um. Not a ton. I play video games in the evenings, usually, to relax after work. But sometimes I work late, then just go home and go to bed.”
I cock my head. “Is that part of the job? Do your coworkers work late, too?”
Egorr shrugs. “No, they all have families they go home to, so they’re always eager to leave right at five o’clock.”
I can hear the words he isn’t saying:But I’m not.He doesn’t have a family of his own, though if I gathered anything from his application, it’s that he wants one more than anything else.
“If you had someone at home, would you still work late?” It’s an important question, because I don’t want to be left home alone all day long. I expect I’ll have to entertain myself most of the time, but it’s not worth it if we can’t see each other in the evenings.
“Oh, of course not!” Egorr’s brows are high on his forehead. “I would ditch work as soon as possible if I had, um…someoneat home.”
I think he means me, and it makes my heart beat a little faster.
But there is a sticking point. He wants afamily. I can’t give him children, not as we’re different species. Is that something he wants?
“Can I ask a blunt question?” I say. Not that I know how to ask in any other way.
He cocks his head. “Sure.”
“Why not a lady ogre?”
Egorr’s eyes go even wider, and I don’t think that’s what he was expecting me to say. His mouth opens like he’s about to answer, but then he closes it again and looks away, his green cheeks turning a darker color.
“What?” I lean forward. I know humans are incredibly desirable among monsters. We’re cute, we’re helpless, we’re small. Whatever it is about us, they want a taste. So I need to know why Egorr applied for me specifically—and I don’t want it to be because I’m small and cute and maybe a good hole for his cock.
“Well,” Egorr says, swallowing hard, “I’m not, um... I’m not very interested. In other ogres.” He raises his eyes shyly to mine. “I hope this doesn’t sound strange, but I’ve never dated one. We aren’t very common, and I’ve always been attracted to, well...” He’s sweating now, and he wipes it away with the back of his hand. “Something else, I suppose? I was in a relationship with a bigfoot for a while. After her, I dated a nymph, but that didn’t go very far.”
So he’s been with others like me? Nymphs are a little taller than humans, but similar in shape and size. They’re just lucky they have forest magic to protect them out in the world, or else they might be monster meat, too.
“Oh.” So it’s not that he’s attracted to humans, specifically, he’s just really not into his own kind. “Okay. That makes sense.”
“That was probably a lot of information you didn’t need to know,” Egorr says with a self-deprecating chuckle.
“No!” I say it a little too loud. “I mean, no, it’s helpful for me. And I sort of understand.” Should I fess up? The fact I’ve also tried to date and failed? “Part of the reason I didn’t call sooner, Egorr... is I got out of a relationship that went wrong.”
Egorr’s whole face falls. His big, bulky jaw is overtaken by his frown. “I’m so sorry.”
