A small green basket dangles from her arm. She’s wearing a gray T-shirt and black leggings. A stark contrast to the chef jacket I’m used to seeing her wear when she’s at work.
She shrugs, slinking back in on herself. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“It’s fine.” I smirk, thinking back to my conversation with Max earlier. I feel slightly guilty for speaking about her the way I did. But the guilt passes, knowing that in the culinary world, business is business. You can’t make it personal.
“How was the rest of the lunch shift?” she asks.
She’s making small talk. Great.
“It was steady. About the usual.”
“Good.” She averts her gaze, glancing around the shelves behind me. She’s nervous but I’m not sure why. Her distraction reminds me of how she’s been the past few times I’ve worked with her. “I got an email from Max a few minutes ago.”
“You did?” I swallow, hoping he didn’t bring up the conversation I had with him about her being distracted during our training.
“He said there was a change to my schedule next week. You’re going to train me to close every night.”
I nod. “Yes. We’re preparing for the event with Gavin James. We want to make sure you’re comfortable closing before we begin planning on the event.”
“Well,” She raises her shoulders, releasing out a heavy sigh. “I’m ready.”
“I hope so.” I smirk, hoping to lighten the mood. “I’m going to need your full focus.”
“Always.”
I fight back the urge to stare her down. What does she mean by ‘always’? As far as I could tell, she wasn’t paying attention at all.
“Anyway, I—” Natalie awkwardly steps forward. For a moment, I’m confused by her movement toward me. She’s eerily close and in what’s considered my personal space. She flinches back slightly before she steps forward again, reaching her arm out. I step to the side as she reaches behind me, grabbing a bundle of parsley. She checks the label wrapped around their stems then shows it to me before dropping them into her nearly empty basket. Her cheeks flush with red. “I need some parsley for lasagna. Wouldn’t taste as good with cilantro.”
“True.” It’s the only word I seem to be able to say right now. The awkward moment with Natalie doesn’t end. It suspends in the air between us. I can tell Natalie wants to stay and talk but I can’t and even if I could, I’m not sure I would want to.
“I should get going.”
“Oh, okay.” Natalie blinks, somehow surprised by my not-so-subtle exit.
“I’ll see you at work.” I give Natalie a goodbye smile, heading straight for the self-checkout. The faster I get out of here, the better.
An inexplicable feeling comes over me as I scan my three items and drop them into the paper bag I’ve set off to the side. I try not to glance up, seeing if Natalie is still hanging around. When I don’t see her, I chalk my feeling up to nothing. It’s been an odd day to say the least. All I feel like doing is going home to my wife, hoping she’ll be okay with us skipping dinner and going straight to bed.
Nine
Logan
All the sunlight has left the sky by the time I make it home. I didn’t intentionally try to be late. There was unusual traffic on the way home and no matter which way I’d tried to find a quicker way out, I was stuck.
The storm clouds that flooded the sky in the afternoon are now completely gone. The full moon hangs above, shining like a bright white orb.
I grab my paper bag and punch in the code to our security system. It beeps three times, signaling to Lena that I’m home.
The living room and hallway are dark. The only source of light peeks out from the top of the stairs, coming from the direction of our bedroom. I drop the bag on the kitchen counter and look up the stairs to find Lena standing at the top.
“I’m home.” I smile at her.
She hesitates, her chest moving in and out. I can’t tell from where I’m standing but she looks like she’s almost struggling for a breath, like she just ran the Boston marathon.
Finally, she gives me a small smile, the corners of her full lips turning up at the corners. She’s wearing a thin strapped tank top that hugs her curves, accentuating her full chest. Her gray sweatpants stop at her calves, the ends rolled up along the smooth skin of her legs.
She doesn’t say a word, unmoving from the top of the stairs.
“I was going to make some dinner if you’re hungry.” I keep my smile plastered on my face like a love drunk idiot. I’m not sure why, but it’s the same feeling I had when I had first met Lena. Nervous and scared to make the wrong move.
Only this time, instead of it being first date jitters, it’s because she’s been acting different ever since she stopped by for lunch today.
She places her hand on her stomach and clears her throat. “Actually, I’m still pretty full from lunch.”
I tilt my head to the side and rub my fingers against the scruff lining my jaw. I walk toward the bottom of the stairs, tipping my chin up to get a better view of her. She’s covered in shadows. The light coming from our room illuminates behind her. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Yeah.” She brushes her hair back away from her face. Her smile has faded. “Of course. I’m just not that hungry and I was watching some TV in bed.”
“Do you want me to come up there and join you?”
“If you want.” She shrugs.
“Okay. I’ll be up in a minute.”
With that, she disappears down the hall, back to our bedroom.
I start cleaning up a bit of the downstairs, taking the time
