Chef's Kiss

Attention

Violet

The first few days of my meal week went well with the food. The boys liked what I'd come up with, and they were curious about everything. Well, Chris and Nick were. Standing over the stove or chopping up some vegetable or other, I could be peppered with questions and inquiries at any moment. And I was grateful for them. They made my work interesting, and it gave me a chance to talk about and teach my favourite thing. Nick had the most questions about what I was doing and why, while Chris wanted to know what happened if I sliced the carrots the other way, or if I used red wine instead of cooking wine in my recipe. They were curious in different ways.

And then there was Matt.

The bane of my mother fucking existence, that boy. Skulking around the house, not looking at me, not talking to me. You'd think I'd rejected him and slapped him in the face with the way he was shutting me out and honestly...it made me sick to my stomach. I felt incredibly stupid. The night of the grocery run, we brought all the groceries up together, put them away in the quiet evening of the house and I set out for home. No more kisses or hugs, but no less flirting.

The next morning, it was like everything went back to the way it'd been and I can't say it didn't make me completely livid. If I thought of it from his perspective, I assumed he felt bad about breaking a promise he'd forced his brother to make, or maybe he regretted crossing the line with me, but this wasn't the way to handle it. The exact reason I'd wanted to stop dating was because of shit like this. I was always thinking of things from their perspective...What's he thinking? Why would he do this? Why would he say that? EUGH makes me sick! I'd had enough of that shit. And Matt was no different. But I was different than I used to be. I wasn't accepting that kind of treatment anymore. If he didn't want anything to do with me, he could tell me himself. And if he couldn't muster the guts to do that, I'd force him to find the words.

My opportunity came on Wednesday afternoon. The boys had gone to their warehouse shortly after breakfast and I'd been in the house alone most of the day. I'd agreed to make their lunch and drive it over around 1. By 12:30, the food was well on its way to being done when I heard the front door creak open. I walked over to the stairs to take a peek down at the door, slightly out of fear since I wasn't expecting anyone at to the house.

When I leaned over the half wall to see the entrance, my eyes landed on the very boy of the hour. Fucking Matt. He didn't look up the stairs, just dropped his bag at the door, his big baby blue hoodie draping around his wrists, the hood curling perfectly around his neck and hair. Fucking hot Matt. It made me sick how attractive I found him, even in the midst of being ignored. No man should have that level of power over you, I thought, walking back to the stove and adjusting the heat on the pan. My favourite song played at a decent volume through the speaker on the counter and I decided not to adjust it. I'd give our moody Matthew a taste of his own medicine. I'd ignore him back.

I heard him reach the top of the stairs and let out a small sigh. I swayed to my music, this afro beats song I'd heard on Spotify a few days before and had been playing on repeat since. He went to the fridge, opened it to take a look inside and I pointedly ignored him as I continued to sing quietly and move to my music. I don't see you Matty boy, I don't see youuu, I tried to convince myself.

"What are you listening to?" He asked, interrupting my incredibly successful attempt at ignoring him.

I turned slowly to look at him, no trace of a smile on my face. Only daggers in my eyes. I knew we weren't anything, so this reaction might seem crazy. But I wasn't expected the treatment of a boyfriend. I wasn't expecting him to continue flirting with me or kissing me after that night, no matter how much I might've hoped he would. And I wasn't expecting him to fall at my feet and profess his love for me. What I expected was to be treated with respect, with consideration, like a real person with very real feelings.