Once the water is warm, not as hot as I usually like it but Ben was insistent, he carefully strips off the sweat-soaked clothes I wore to bed and helps me into the tub. He lights my favorite candles and then instructs me to “Relax.”
He comes back about fifteen minutes later with two towels folded in his arms. “Fresh out of the dryer, but if you aren’t ready to get out yet, I can pop them back in.”
I pull my legs in close to my chest and observe him. “Why are you doing this?”
Ben sets the towels on the counter and then has a seat on the edge of the tub. With a sigh, he says, “What are you really asking, Red?”
“I—” I’m not sure. “I’m still mad at you for that stunt you pulled yesterday.”
“Obviously,” he smirks.
“Has your family said anything about your… announcement?”
“My sister and Jules called me an idiot, and Mom is the one who sent over the recipe for the soup because she’s so worried I fucked everything up with you.”
“Hmm.” I sink lower into the bath, unsure what to make of that.
Ben lets me think, gives me space to examine all of the thoughts running through my head. He’s antsy though because a few minutes later he asks, “Did I?”
“Did you what?”
“Fuck everything up.”
“What would you do if I said yes?” I look up at him, a lock of his chestnut hair falling across his forehead. He’s so handsome, it makes every molecule in my body buzz.
He contemplates my question for a moment. Tentatively, he reaches out to trace my jawline, over my cheekbones, around the shell of my ear. His touch makes me feel…precious. Like I’m precious to him.
“If you said yes…” he starts. “If you decided that I had fucked everything up, I would have to come to terms with going back to how it was before. I would respect your decision and loathe the fact that it would send me back to square one.” He twists my ponytail around his fist, tilting my chin toward him. “I’ve been at square one with you before, Colette. I’m not itching to go back, but I will. I would do it all over again if I could earn even just one more minute in your presence. One more of your scathing glances.”
His lips quirk. And damn, that answer was perfect.
I lay my forearms across the edge of the tub, resting my head on top and looking up at Ben. “No.”
“No?” he questions.
“No, you didn’t fuck everything up, Benoit.”
“I… I’m glad, Colette.” He smirks.
“Can I have some more soup now?”
“Yeah, sweetheart,” he concedes. “You can have more soup now.”
After a week of what turned out to be a nasty sinus infection, I’m finally starting to feel like a human again instead of a tin can in one of those large crusher machines. As satisfying as those videos are, I would like to never feel that way again.
Not only did I have an absolutely horrendous week, I also completely missed the entire first week of classes for the fall semester. Ben offered to go sit in all my classes and record the lectures, but I would rather have another full week of tin-can-crushing headaches than sending him into my classes like that.A full body shiver runs through me just thinking about how I would explain that to my professors.
The fact that he offered, though…
And that damn soup. It was really good soup with the perfect kind of noodles.
It’s been one date and I’m already entirely too close to just saying “Fuck it!” and accepting his proposal for real.
Which would be idiotic. Rash. Insane.
Right?
Right.
