Let's Play Pretend

Poisoned honey

Exactly two hours and five minutes (give or take some seconds) after Aiden had left, Jenna caved and sent him a text message. She considered this a testament to her self control, as the text in question had been written two hours earlier.

To: Aiden

Are we talking "gunman on the lawn" need you,

or more like "help, my car broke down" need you?

-Jenna-

According to her clock, he replied within minutes. According to how those minutes felt, she was lucky not to have died of old age within that time frame. "A watched phone never buzzes" she told herself, before continuing to stare at the gadget as though it would make a choir of angels appear any minute. A choir of angels telling her the cure to cancer and how to create world peace. Finally, just as she had started analyzing every word in her own message, the thing vibrated. Well, it managed to get through about half a vibration before she had it unlocked.

New message received

From: Aiden

I was thinking about ex-related emergencies,

but those 2 are important too.

Also acceptable: "need help finishing this pizza"

and "save me from boredom"

Btw: Heard from E?

She had. She had not wanted to bring it up when Aiden visited, hadn't wanted the light conversation and the jokes to turn into heavy emotions and fear, so she had locked that fact away all day. Deep in the back of her mind, she could still hear the voice message she had found Saturday morning. It was on a loop, never ending. "Jenna. You forgot I know your lying face! I don't know where you found him, but that man is not your anything. You want to make me jealous?I know things, Jenna... I know things."She didn't know what things he knew. She wasn't sure she wanted to.

To: Aiden

Heard from E Sat morning.

He didn't buy it.

Sounded pissed off.

Except... Pissed off wasn't exactly how he had sounded. Sure, there had been anger. But in a quiet, sickly sweet way. A threatening friendliness, kind of. It sounded like honey and poison, if that mix had had a sound.

New message received

From: Aiden

Fuck. Should have told me.

I'll be over in five.

And if she set the timer on her phone to count down those five minutes, just to watch every second of it pass... well, nobody needed to know. Nobody needed to know that she watched the countdown while standing ready at her door, either.

Except for Aiden, of course, who burst in without knocking just as the alarm went off. He glanced at the very, very loud object in her hand. She seemed to have forgotten completely how to turn it off. Had it always been this noisy? He took it from her, and with one simple touch blissful silence filled the room. For half a second.

-Timing me are we? I assure you, I take great pride in my punctuality.

Yeah. She was busted. So busted. Might as well confess, in lieu of other plausible explanations. "I am baking muffins. I accidentally forgot to actually make them, but if I had... they'd be done now" had more holes in it than the average shooting range target after being used as stress relief.