* * *
Maybe I should have thoughtthis through a little more.
What am I referring to? I’ll tell ya. I’m currently stuck outside of Alec’s apartment without my phone or a key to let myself in. You see, I decided to surprise him by making meatloaf for supper, only he didn’t have any of the ingredients needed. I remembered where the grocery store was, only a block or two away, so I grabbed my purse and went shopping. Only, I didn’t bother taking any keys with me, and I apparently left my phone inside as well. So, now I’m standing outside his apartment holding several bags of groceries trying to decide if I should keep banging on the door or just sit outside and wait. Surely he’ll wake up soon and notice me gone. He'll open the door and, voilà, there I’ll be. I mean, it’s been hours since he went in to lie down. Hours.
My choice? I’ll bang on the door one more time. If that doesn’t work, I’ll sit and wait, knowing the ice cream I purchased will melt even more than it already has. Texas is hot, even in November.
I give the door three hard knocks with my fist and wait. Placing an ear to the door, I hear it. Footsteps. More like stomps, but that’s okay. When the door is pulled open, the look on his face is fierce. “What the fuck, Matilda?”
I’m not sure what he means, but I can see from his expression and the volume and tone of his voice that Grumpy is still in the house. Choosing to ignore it, I move past him and head to the kitchen. “I went to the store and locked myself out. Sorry if I woke you up.”
“You walked to the fucking store?”
I look up at him, because this time, he sounds even angrier, and I don’t like it. “Yes.”
“In this neighborhood?”
Setting the bags down, I glare at him. His apartment complex is in an area of Killeen I’d call industrial. It’s not terrible, though. “You do know I live in Chicago, right?”
“You should have woken me up if you thought you needed to go somewhere.”
“Why?”
“Why what?” He looks confused.
“Why would I need to wake you up? I remembered where the store was.”
“Matilda.” He snaps my name like I’m a disobedient puppy.
“Yes, Alec?”
“Nothing.” He turns in the direction of the bedrooms.
When I hear his bedroom door close, I fight back the urge to cry. I’d call that our first fight, if that makes any sense, which it doesn’t because to say something like that, you need to be in a relationship with someone, and we aren’t, so I’ll just call it what it is. Alec’s being a jerk.
As I mix the meat up with the rest of the ingredients, I hear his door open and then footsteps. I half expect him to apologize, but what I get is Alec in his uniform. “I’ve got to go in to work for a while.”
“You do?” He told me he was off the rest of the time.
“Something came up.” He pats the counter. “I’ll be back later. You gonna be okay here?”
“Sure.” I shrug. “I know my way around the area pretty well.”
“Matilda,” he growls. “Please don’t go anywhere else by yourself.”
“I won’t. I’ll watch some television until you get back.”
“Good.”
And then he’s gone.
ChapterThirty-Five
Alec
“I’m fuckingthis up so bad.”
“Sounds like it.” Jim’s sitting across from me at a local coffee shop, the one across the street from the post, sipping his cappuccino. “The question is,whyare you fucking up so badly?”
