“Hello, Arch. It’s nice to see you.” My sarcasm game was on point as he barged in. “Would you like to come in? Oh, good. You’d like to.”
“We’ve been worried!” he replied as he yanked his phone out of his pocket. “I’ve got to text the guys and let them know you’re fine.” His fingers flew across his phone as he presumably notified his friends of my safety status.
“My phone hasn’t made a peep!” I marched into the bedroom to find Todd trying to perch himself on the bed to peer out of the bedroom. He jerked back as soon as I stormed in. “Hand me my phone, Todd,please.”
He complied. I tapped the home button to find three missed calls and seven missed texts. All three of them had tried repeatedly to get a hold of me. I pulled down the settings menu to find the phone silenced.
“It’s on silent. I didn’t hear any of this, did you?” Todd shook his head. I turned to find Arch approaching my bedroom. “Honestly, don’t you think you’re overreacting a little?” I asked Arch.
Arch stood in my doorway, speechless. The fading bruises around his eyes were prominent, and his mouth slack-jawed. “Overreacting?” he spat out. “Anything could’ve happened to you. Wes hears from you one moment, then the next you drop off the face of the earth. We thought you were dead.”
It was my turn to be speechless and gawk at him. “What if I was asleep? Or, you know, my phone was on silent? It seems like you borrowed a little trouble today. Besides, who says it’s your job to worry about me?” I was incensed. “First of all, I’m not anyone’s to worry about, yet. Maybe someday, but not at this point. I won’t be smothered, not for one moment.”
“But—”
“Second of all, next time, call Todd. Or, I have a landline here. You could’ve called that number. It’s in all the paperwork I filled out at your office. You didn’t think about that, did you?” He freaked out, over nothing.
Arch gazed back and forth between Todd and me. Then, his face shut down, and he whirled around and marched out of the apartment, slamming the front door behind him. Todd scrambled off the bed and joined me in time to watch him storm out.
“Daaamn. Boy ispissed.” Todd tugged me to the bed. “Let’s get you finished.”
That surprised me. “Shouldn’t I go after him?”
“Nope. We don’t know why in the world he’s overreacting. You’ll argue. When he calms down, he’ll realize he overreacted, and he’ll come talk to you. Let it ride.”
“I guess.” I worried I ran him off for good with my talk of smothering, but I figured Todd had more experience with upset men than I did. The TV show lost its appeal, so I brooded while he finished my makeup. I ended up looking fantastic, but as though I hadn’t put in any effort. He really was a genius.
We packed up the mess we’d made all afternoon, and Todd left with a huge chunk of chilled lasagna. With only about thirty minutes left until Wes arrived, I put the lasagna in the oven on a low temp to warm. I then proceeded to pace my apartment until the knock from Wes came.
My nerves were shot. I’d already spent a significant amount of time with these guys. I had no reason to be apprehensive. But my altercation with Arch wasn’t sitting right with me. Something was majorly off about the whole encounter.
Wes knocked a second time before I came out of my contemplations. When the second rap sounded, I scurried over to open it. “I’m sorry, Wes! Please, come in.”
“No problem! It smells delicious in here.”
“Thank you. We’re eating simple tonight, but I think you’ll like it.” He’d better like it. I didn’t know how to make anything better.
“I’m sure I will if you made it. What’re we having?”
“Lasagna with garlic bread and Italian wine. And if you’d like, a salad while the lasagna finishes up.”
“I’d love a salad. One question though. Do you put fruit in your salads?”
What a ridiculous question. “Fruit goes into fruit salad. Vegetables go into salad. I don’t mix the two.”
“Marry me.” The twinkle in his gray-blue eyes told me he joked, but a rock still dropped into my gut. The imaginary rock vibrated and sent tingles all over me.
“Maybe after I see how well you cook.”
“Deal.” He followed me into the kitchen and helped me put a salad together. We were compatible in the salad-prep department. We agreed on every ingredient except celery.
“I’m sorry, Ellie. Your taste in salads is ruined by the celery. It’s an abomination.” He laughed at his little joke and turned toward the fridge to grab the salad dressing to put on top of his carefully prepared stack of veggies. While his back was turned, I dumped the entire pile of celery I’d chopped for my salad into his bowl.
“What the heck?” He glared at me, eyes narrow.
I tried to stay straight faced, but couldn’t stop the laughter. Wes picked the celery out one by one and threw it at me. Little did he know, over the years, Todd and I practiced the art of catching food in our mouths until we mastered it. Celery was no challenge. After I caught three in a row he became more impressed.
“That’s quite the hidden talent you have there!”
