"Did your phone break?"The frustration wins again.
He took another massive bite and said, "A corshnot huh-ee." At my raised eyebrow, he finished his bite and repeated, "Of course not, honey. You know I don’t text and drive. Driver’s Ed one-oh-one!” He smirked at me, then shoveled in another heaping bite while I started in on mine. “And secondly, I felt really unprofessional making a phone call with a customer in the car.”That’s fair. The fajita was all mush and stuck funny in my mouth, but I was stubborn and took another bite as he explained his evening. “We ran into the usual summer construction, tried to avoid it, took a couple of wrong turns, and finally got to their house. I only wanted to get home once I was finally on my way." This explanation was followed by a final, massive bite of disaster fajita.
I pushed my unfinished dinner fiasco toward him and got up to start cleaning. I was not going to be able to choke down any more half-digested veggies for dinner. Normally, we did theI cook, you cleanrule, but Carter had spent an extra couple of hours getting a customer to his house, so out of the goodness of my heart, I did both. My halo was shiny and showing.
I was elbow deep in suds and soapy water once Carter finished both fajita adjacent food items. He let out an exaggerated groan and got up from the stool at our island. I heard more than saw him, and brought his plate to the sink to finish. Rough hands slid along the waistband of my leggings until they settled on my stomach. He yanked me back, leaving no space between our bodies, as his nose pressed into the sensitive spot behind my ear. I shivered as he spoke, “I can’t wait to—” He stopped and ran his nose along the side of my neck. “Watch someMidsomer Murderwith you and drink some tea.” Then, with a smack on my ass, he grabbed the kettle from its place beside the sink and filled it up.
I laughed and finished the dishes while he put the kettle on and then let the dogs out. The kettle glowed green while the water heated, and I selected our preferred mugs and the tea flavor of the night. Carter came in beside me and finished prepping our teas. He brought our steaming mugs out as I skipped ahead of him to turn on the TV to our favorite show. We climbed onto the sectional where I happilysnuggled into his solid frame. He passed my mug to me and sat back, manspreading and cradling his own favorite mug between his oil and grease-stained fingers. Our bodies moved in sync in our sighs of contentment.
His body next to mine was the closest to home I’d felt since I left my family to go to college so many years ago.
I honestly thought that this customer was simply a footnote in our life. I didn't see any hints of it becoming more.
Until it did.
2
THE PHONE CALL
BECKY
2 weeks earlier
"Ihave to let the dogs out, straighten my hair, and maybe brush my teeth real quick, and then we can go." I said as I was rushing to get ready for our first date in forever. In fact, it was going to be our first dinner together in forever. Apparently, things were getting busy at the shop, so Carter was needing to stay a couple hours late until things slowed down, or until they found some help.
After my failed fajitas the previous week, I'd been slumming it alone with girl dinners—chips and salsa, cereal, apple and peanut butter, popcorn, to name a few favorites—while my fiancé picked something up the nights he was working late. I already had a mild hatred for cooking, so I was not going to risk cooking and waiting for it to be cold, or tolerate eating alone, until his schedule evened out.No, thank you.Which meant I was really looking forward to a real meal not cooked by yours truly.
"I'll get the dogs, just meet me in the car if you're done before I am." Carter called out from the back door as our dogs began to bark and yip in excitement. Letting them out is a chore, because they never want to come back inside. Unfortunately, the energetic babies can't beleft outside because they headline as Houdini in their off time. Our neighbors likely hate us because of my calling out “Ellie! Daisy!”at the top of my shrill voice each time they took one of their many unknown exits and subsequent adventures from our fenced in yard.
Our dogs taken care of, I finished getting ready with my music playing slightly too loudly from the speakers. My long, dark, and unruly hair was sleek, smooth, and straight, and I traded in my usual leggings and t-shirt for some tight jeans and a tight v-neck shirt. My outfit was out of my comfort zone, but it directly highlighted Carter’s favorite features. I did one final fitcheck in the mirror and skipped—literally—out to his truck.
After pulling myself into his old beater of a truck, I went about securing my seatbelt, actively avoiding looking at the state of the truck.. The cab didn’t smell as bad as I was worried it would. In fact, it almost smelled like flowers or something else equally as pleasant. His air freshener must be powerful, yet not to the point of making me nauseous. I wanted to know, and I also knew I needed to avoid eye contact with the contents of his truck’s interior. If I didn’t want to get caught up in a quick cleanup of all the inevitable fastfood trash from the past couple of weeks.
I looked anyway.Damn my curiosity.Oddly, all I saw was a singular plastic bag with an empty Tupperware—the actual brand. I was reaching for a closer look when Carter pulled open the door on his side with a giant smile.
"Ready for far too many rolls, appetizers, and, obviously, steak for both of us?" He asked, and somehow his smile got bigger by the end of his question.
I smiled equally as wide in reply. "Hell yeah!" I even fist pumped.
Finally, we were on our way.
?????
“...and Jamie were letting me know that wehaveto come up for Thanksgiving this yearor else,and—” Carter's phone started ringing, cutting me off from its place on the dash. I saw the nameTaylorand rolled my eyes. He silenced it with a grin thrown my way.
“No buying cars or car parts tonight! I don’t care how good of adeal it is.” I told him matter-of-factly. “I’m ready to eat your hat, I’m so hangry!”
He opened his mouth to reply when the phone rang a second time. We both turned to it.Tayloragain.He frowned and shot me a look. Before I could say anything else, he answered it.
“What’s up?”Pause.“I’m on my way to dinner.”Longer pause, plus a guilty look thrown my way.“It won’t take long?”
My stomach dropped, but I held my tongue.
“Yeah, don’t worry, I gotcha,” he said it gently, and with a small smile he hung up then looked at me. The smile quickly dropped into a grimace. “Honey…”
“No, Carter, no. Please, it’s been ages. Don’t they have anyone else to help them with whatever?” I try to consider thisTaylor.However, I’d been considering Carter and him putting his many responsibilities and favors for friends over our relationship, and my own feelings, for a few weeks now. The last two weeks especially had been taking a toll on my patience and understanding.
Sure, I’d thrown a token complaint here and there to make sure he was aware that his choices were having a negative impact on me.
