INSIDE THEIR MINDS

Embarrass

Phil
I quickly made a plate for myself and took a seat across from her at the table.

"Phil..."
"Kate, eat then talk."

Her face glows as she takes her first bite. After that first bite she proceeded to scarfed it all down. She consumed three pancakes before I had even finished one!

"How did you know?" She slightly slurred.
"About what." I say with bits of pancake still in my mouth.

"The pancakes." She says as if it was an obvious answer.

"I saw them in your cupboard and by the looks of the half empty box you like them."

"It's my comfort food." She says almost grinning then replacing it with a frown and moving even farther in her chair away from me.

"Kate, I can leave if you want me to..."
"No you can stay, I'm sorry about last night, that waiter just sent me over the edge."
"Guess I should have him fired." I say half laughing.
"It's not his fault its not like I would complain to the manager or anything."
"Well you kinda already have."

"What?" She asks finally looking at me.
"Well I'm not so much a manager as I am an investor. Can I take your plate?"

She nods and I walk over to her and reach for her plate already holding mine. I grab it carefully, making sure to avoid the syrupy pools the place it in the sink along with the other dishes. I then suds up and start cleaning them.

"You don't have to do that." I hear her say from behind me.

She now was now joining me in the kitchen and from the sounds of it was making some coffee.

"I know, I like to. It's something about the bubbles I've always liked, the remind me of a simpler time."

"If you insist." She says now sounding more cheerful.

"You wanna cup?" She asks as I finish the last dish.

"Sure." I say taking the offered cup from her hands letting her soft fingers softly rub mine as I take it from her. .

She pours herself a glass and sits back at the table. A few sips in and she already looked 1000 times better.

"How do you feel?" I ask sipping from the chipped white mug.

"Embarrassed, pathetic, cold, and angry at myself." She says looking into her dark brown caffinated abyss.

"I meant your head." I ask feeling bad about what she had just shared.

"Oh sorry...it's better.. thanks...for what you did."She says and for a moment I see that bright glimmer in her eye again.

"Kate, I would do anything for you."

Kate
In that moment I believed him. I still felt embarrassed of my apparently awful drunken show last night but now I felt better.

I catch him smiling at me and it makes me again question everything. Why me? After last night? Or even right now I probably looked like crap and he still seemed into me.

And putting everything else aside I was, am, into him.

I finish the cup of now room temperature coffee and stand from my seat at the table. Phil follows suit and gestures to take my cup but instead of handing it to him I place it on the table, move the several inches towards him and kiss him, forcefully.

I hear him set his mug down on the table then immediatly his hands are around my waist.

"Kate, I can't take advantage of you." He says in between the parting of our lips.

"Oh, you won't be the one taking advantage." Then I take his hand and quickly guide him to my bedroom.