Uh… yo?
Three days with the definition of minimal conversation, he comes home when I’m awake and he says, “Yo”?
Then he dropped the workout bag, turned to the counter, dumped the grocery bags on it and started to take stuff out of them.
I turned the volume down on the TV, rolled off the couch and approached the kitchen asking, “Where have you been?”
He turned slightly to me, very slightly, looked down at himself, glanced at me then turned back to the counter.
Although I knew these actions were a form of communication, he didn’t respond verbally.
I sucked in a calming breath so I didn’t unleash hellfire.
Then I started, “Ty –”
“Wiped,” he cut me off. “Gonna make a shake, hit the shower and hit the sack.”
It was then I saw he had a package of strawberries, a bunch of bananas, a pot of yogurt and a big, plastic vat of something I didn’t know what it was. He pulled the blender to him and started to peel a banana.
“Um… we need to talk,” I said, putting my hands flat on the island where I stood opposite him, the island between us, Ty at the counter at the back wall.
“’Bout what?” he asked.
About what?
“Where do you want me to start?” I asked back as he dumped the banana into the blender then opened the strawberries.
“Don’t care. Just start. Like I said, I’m wiped so, sooner we get it done, sooner I can hit the shower.”
I stared at him as he pulled the stems off of the (unwashed) berries and started to add them to the banana.
“Ty –” I whispered and he turned to me.
“Spit it out. I’m not f**kin’ with you. I’m not in the mood for this but if you got something to say, say it.”
I swallowed against a throat that was closing and this was because, suddenly, I wasn’t pissed anymore.
I was something else.
And that something else was understanding that I’d been wrong that day we’d arrived in Carnal. He hadn’t shut down after our kiss. This wasn’t the closed Ty. This was a different Ty. This was an ass**le Ty.
And it hurt to know that there was an ass**le Ty.
“I…” I started, not knowing what to say, he went back to his strawberries and then I tried to start with something easy. “I don’t know what you want me to be doing.”
He didn’t respond. He finished with the strawberries, leaned way to the side, opened a drawer, grabbed one of our awesome new spoons and went after the yogurt.
“Ty,” I called. “I can’t spend my days hanging around and watching TV. What am I supposed to be doing?”
“Starting a life,” he told the blender, spooning in yogurt.
“How?” I asked.
“How?” he asked the blender.
“Yeah, how?”
He opened the big vat, dug in with his hand, came out with a scoop full of powder and dumped it in the blender saying, “What people do. You want a job, get one. You don’t want one, I can cover you. Deal with your shit in Dallas. Buy groceries. Clean the house. Do what people do.”