made the decision to keep off the hair dryer but to prevent me from looking like the hung over mess I was—I pulled my hair into an intricate twist on top of my head. Once finished, I made my way out to join Corey.
The smells emanating from the kitchen were intoxicating; fluffy pancakes, warm syrup and crunchy bacon awaited me. There was a flashback of the first day he was here and made the same breakfast—oh how things had changed. I was shocked when the tequila mess was picked up, the dishes were already in the dishwasher, and my plate was served. The only evidence from last night were the yellow daisies sitting in the exact same place I left them. They looked wilted, pathetic and out of place.
“It smells delicious.” I added timidly.
“Thank you; I put a couple Advil out for you.” He said, motioning to the white pills next to a fresh glass of orange juice.
“Okay, thanks.” Corey was already finishing his breakfast, as I took my first bite. Okay, so he was very upset about something if he didn’t even want to wait for me.
We continued in silence, the only sounds were the dishes clanking as Corey placed them into the dishwasher. He then moved over to the flowers and picked them up as if they were poison ivy.
“What are you doing with these?” The defensive side of me kicked in. I wanted to say, whatever the hell I want— they’re my flowers, but I didn’t. Corey wasn’t mad at me—he was wounded. Maybe because I inquired about his past hookups and requested Jayme not be one of them. Maybe because he was forced to drive over here last night and take care of me. But of course, he could just as easily be mad that I went on a date with another man.
“I meant to put them in a vase last night.” He nodded and tossed them back onto the counter; a few petals fell off with the force. Turning away from me, I saw how tensed up his shoulders were. His body was rigid and stressed— never a way he usually left my place.
“Well, I’m going to head home and just get ready for work there.”
“Oh, alright.” I whispered, feeling the air leave my lungs. Whoever this was—it wasn’t the Corey I loved being around.
He made it about five steps toward the door before he whipped around. The agony in his eyes had been replaced with fury as he stared me down.
“What the hell are we doing, Danielle?” I sat there, stunned. Not only was I not expecting a fight—I had no idea where this was coming from.
“Eating breakfast?” I responded coyly.
“No,” he threw down his jacket and keys on the side table by the front door. “Between you and me. What is this?”
“You mean what are we?” Corey gave me an incredulous look before nodding.
“Yes, Dani—what are we? Because I sure as hell couldn’t be more confused.”
“What…how….why are you confused?” I stuttered out. Trying my damndest to smolder the defensive flames before they shot up out of control.
“One minute I think I have a handle on what we are. We’re extremely close, spending every free minute together. We’re sleeping together but I feel like here I sit—waiting patiently for you to open up to the idea of more. Then next thing I know, you’re going on dates with other guys; they’re buying you flowers, bringing you to a nice dinner, and kissing you goodnight. What am I supposed to do with all that?”
“I don’t know, Corey. We talked about this in the beginning—we’re nothing serious and I don’t know when any of that changed!”
“When did we talk about this?” He asked, thrusting his hands on his hips.
“A while ago—I thought we made that clear?” I desperately needed to back down—to apologize. This was already twisting my body up into knots. We were on the verge of treading a very dangerous path and I didn’t know if we were going to make it out intact.
“So wait—you don’t want anything serious, or you don’t want anything serious with me?” “What do you mean?” My defenses quickly rose; they were all I had.
“You’ll let that punk take you on a date, but I get to clean up the mess afterwards?” My jaw dropped.
“I never asked you to come over last night and clean up my mess, Corey!” I yelled.
“Yeah, but you sure as shit didn’t push me away either.”
“You’re right, my bad. But now I am—thank you