Let's Not Stay Away Anymore (Kaimelia)

4: Pretzels and solitude

It was the next morning. 

Amelia awoke and rubbed her eyes, kicking the blankets off herself into a fluffy pile on the floor. She had a slight headache.

Emotional hangover, she whispered into the darkened room to no-one in particular. Guess I must've left my emotional stability on that chair last night, cuddled up to Kai.

After a quick shower, her wet hair brushing her shoulders and forming tiny streams down her back, she went to check her phone. With nobody around, she let herself enjoy the freedom a complete lack of clothes provided from time to time. 

There were a couple of texts from Link and one from Kai. It wasn't much of a question which one she'd open up first.

Good morning, Dr. Shepherd. Did you sleep well?

Amelia grinned at her phone. She'd be seeing them in a couple of hours, yet they'd felt the need to check in before that.

She quickly typed up a response,

After using our workplace as a make-out spot and together forming what can only be described as a pretzel shape on an awfully small chair following an emotional outburst, I really think you should be able to use my first name.

Amelia wondered if this would be too much too soon. Maybe some more time should pass, dust settle, before jumping back into our regular banter? 

She hit send though, desperately wanting to regain some normalcy in the face of the communication vacuum that had existed between them for the past couple of weeks. Her current solitude was a helpful excuse, not a single soul around to witness her giving in to them so easily. She wasn't ready to not talk for that long again anyway.

A minute later, the still unopened texts from Link were once more accompanied by Kai's message,

You didn't answer my question, Amelia.

Talk about it at the cafeteria? Amelia responded before finally opening the messages from Link.

He'd sent a photo of Scout, playing on the rug, his hair messy with the remnants of a night full of peaceful dreams, and let her know he'd taken their son safely to daycare.

She sat on her bed for a couple more minutes, wondering about all the different ways her life had changed from a year or several years ago. She let herself linger on the thoughts of establishing a new normal, keeping the peace with Link so they could both be the best parents to Scout, and Kai... Kai in the picture as well.

She didn't quite know just yet what they were, but she let herself be excited to find out.