“Why you’re here.”
“Oh, no.” She was fidgeting now, tucking herhands in her back pockets and looking anywhere but at me. “It’s not work. I’m, um, working fully remote now.”
Interesting.
And entirely unhelpful.
“What is it, then?”
“Yeah, that’s…what I wanted to talk to you about, actually.” She clapped her hands together nervously, twisting them. “It’s just you keep showing up out of nowhere and catching me off guard and—” She looked around the space, like something might jump out to save her from this conversation. “I’m just going to get a drink of water. I haven’t been feeling…the best.”
I frowned, watching as she turned on her heel and strode down the hallway toward the kitchen, which was situated on the back side of the house. I followed her, studying the shade of her skin as she grabbed a glass out of the cupboard.
Now that she mentioned it, she did look a little pale.
“Did you eat today?”
“Yes. No. I mean…”
She didn’t seem to know how to answer that question, and it was a pretty fucking basic question.
“Sit down.” She was acting off, and I didn’t like it. “When my mom texted me a mile-long to-do list, she also mentioned that she stocked the fridge with a few things. I’ll make you a ham sandwich.”
“Oh, you don’t have to?—”
“Eleanor.” Her eyes snapped to mine when I said her name, and somethingsimmeredin them. Something that made me drop my voice and say, “If I’m allowed to eat you out without any complaints, then I should be allowed to make you a goddamn sandwich.”
“No, it’s just—” A pretty flush rose from her neck to her cheeks, which had me cursing internally. I shouldn’t have said what I’d said. I should have learned my lesson last night, when I’d muttered things about Boston and her eyes got all wide and inviting, like maybe she wanted me to do them again. “I’m not reallyeating…sandwiches lately,” she said as she slowly lifted herself to sit on the edge of the counter, the same way she used to when we were young.
I paused, hand on the refrigerator handle.
“You’re not eatingsandwiches?”
“Like, sandwich meat. So if there’s any peanut butter, maybe?”
“Are you vegetarian now?”
“Not totally.” She opened her mouth and then closed it again. Changed the subject. “You don’t have to do that stuff, you know.”
“What stuff?”
If she thought I wasn’t going to go back to the sandwich thing, she was dead wrong.
“The list. From your mom.”
I laughed. “Oh, I have to do it.”
Had shemetmy mom?
She shook her head. “The house seems fine as it is. There’s no reason you have to clean anything out.”
I found myself grinding my teeth. The thought of Ellie living amongst all my things was a confusing stab to the chest. Maybe it was a testament to how much she’d moved on that she didn’t seem to care about having bits of me all around her.
“Which room are you staying in?”
The question just sort of fell out of my mouth before I could really consider it.
“I…” A crease formed between her brows. “I guess I hadn’t thought about that yet.”
