There was a knock on the front door, and Elias knew it was Javier and Nesiah. They were meeting at Marco’s to choose a venue for the event. His cousin had narrowed it down to five, and from there, they would choose one together that they thought would best suit what they were trying to accomplish. It would also be the first event that the shop put on, and Elias knew Marco wanted everything to be perfect and go off without a hitch.
13
Elias exited his car and headed up the stairs. He paused briefly, debating whether to knock. He wasn’t typically one for pop-ups, but he wanted to speak to Eri face-to-face since she’d been giving him that same standoffish energy since his conversation with Marco. It may not have been enough for someone else to tell, but Elias wasn’t someone else, and he figured the best way to understand it was to see her.
He knocked on the door, and it was only a minute later when he heard shuffling from the other side. There was a brief beat of silence, and then the door opened.
“Elias, hey. What are you doing here?”
“You’ve been avoiding me,” he responded. He didn’t see any reason to beat around the bush. And sure, she hadn’t been avoiding him per se, but her energy towards him had changed, and he would classify them as the same thing. “If you don’t want to see me, tell me, and I’ll leave.”
Eri shook her head. “Will you come in?” she asked as she stepped aside and opened the door wider.
He stepped inside, and she gestured to the couch as she closed the door. Two textbooks, her laptop, and a notebook were on the coffee table. He took a seat on the couch, and she sat on its arm a few seconds later.
“I haven’t been avoiding you.”
“You have.”
“I haven’t, not really. If I were avoiding you, I wouldn’t text you back at all or answer the phone, and I wouldn’t have opened the door,” she countered.
She had him there. Elias changed his words to be more direct. “Okay, you haven’t been avoiding me, but you’ve been acting differently, keeping me at bay. More than you did before we started dating. You want to tell me why that is and be honest with me, Eris.”
He could tell he’d caught her off guard. It was the first time he’d used her government name since meeting her. She probably wasn’t even aware he knew it.
She sighed. “I was…a little overwhelmed by the effort you put into changing my mind about the holiday. That you even wanted to.” She paused briefly. “It was a lot, and the nicest thing anyone outside of my dad and Avian has ever done for me in a while. I wasn’t sure how to accept it and what it might have meant. I needed time to process.”
Elias studied her momentarily as she fidgeted with her fingers. There was something she wasn’t telling him. He assumed it was why she disliked the holiday to begin with, but he wouldn’t push her on it. She would tell him when she was ready to.
“Come here,” he requested, and she moved to sit beside him, but he pulled her onto his lap. “I can understand you feeling overwhelmed. But when and if something like that happens again, talk to me about it. Let me know. Don’t start giving me different energy, closing off, or pushing me away unless youwantme to go. And if you want me to, tell me that. We’re both adults.”
“Okay. Yeah, I can do that,” she agreed.
She didn’t sound too confident about it, but he’d take her at her word. Elias moved her off his lap. “I’ll go so you can get back to what you were doing.”
Eri grabbed his wrist. “You could stay. I’m finished for the day. I can make us dinner, and then we can watch a movie together. It could be the rain check I asked you for.”
“I’ll stay.” He refrained from pointing out that it didn’t have to be the rain check she asked for. That if she wanted him to stay, she didn’t need a reason to ask him to. “You want some help cooking?”
“No,” she responded while closing her books and notebook. “I’ve got it. You can choose a movie for us to watch.” She stacked everything on her laptop and disappeared down the hall.
Elias was scrolling through movies when Eri returned a minute later and entered the kitchen. After a few more minutes of scrolling, he decided on a random horror movie for after dinner.
From where he sat, he watched her move around the kitchen, pulling out different ingredients. It would be the first time in a while that someone he was dating cooked for him. That thought made him think of his conversation with his cousin a few days ago. They hadn’t established what they were doing, what they were, and Elias knew they needed to, but he was fine waiting a little longer. If he’d overwhelmed her on their Valentine’s Day date, he didn’t want to push her.
He’d told Marco that he wouldn’t have an issue with starting over if her wall went back up, and while he’d meant it, he would prefer not to. He was making slow and steady progress, and he wanted to continue that way. He wanted to earn her trust so that she would know he was willing to do so, but he also knew that she could easily withdraw if their current situation had been anything to go by.
Eri must have felt him looking at her because she turned over her shoulder, eyes locking with his. Those syrup-colored doe eyes always seemed to draw him in.
“Did you need something?” she asked.
“No, I’m just enjoying the view,” he responded.
He didn’t have to be closer to her to know that red bloomed over those cinnamon cheeks from his words. She opened her mouth to respond before closing it and turning back around, and Elias refrained from chuckling. Unsure whether she had because she couldn’t think of a comeback or because shewantedhim to look.
He moved over to the dining table. He kept her company since she’d refused his help.
“Did Avian tell you we chose a venue?” he asked.
