The next morning, I woke to the sound of knocking on my door. I scrambled to it, and opened it to reveal Edwin.
"Good morning sunshine." He cheesed, obviously enjoying my embarrassment.
"What time is it?" I panted.
"I think it's sometime around 9. You weren't up?"
"No, I had a rough night last night. Come on in." I opened to door more to let him in.
"I'll just give you some time to change. I'll start cooking."
"That would be wonderful. I'll be back in 5." I smiled at him and started heading towards my room. After changing at lightning speed, brushing my hair and my teeth, I returned to the kitchen where I found Edwin scrambling eggs in one pan, and letting a pancake bubble in another.
"Look at you, a regular chef." I teased him, taking a seat at the dining table in the middle of the room.
"I started out as a chef in the army, but they needed more soldiers. So I got all of the schooling, none of the experience."
"That's so cool. The chef part, not the combat part."
"No, the combat part was pretty cool, too. You get this sense of 'I'm protecting people.' It kind of makes you feel like a super hero." He flipped the pancake, stirring his eggs a little bit more.
"That sounds a little like a story, not a war."
"Well it started out as a dream, but then our guys were dying. It put things in perspective." His jaw tightened, but I was still nosey.
"Why did they send you home?"
"There was a bomb. My entire squad was killed, I'm the only one that lived. No squad equals no reason to stay, plus I was injured. So they sent me home. Called it an honorable discharge. It didn't feel honorable to me."
"Wow. I'm so sorry." I looked at my folded hands on the table.
"Don't be. Everything happens for a reason. Anyways, enough about me. Let's talk about you."
"Well, what do you want to know?"
"Everything." He smiled at me.
"Alright, well I'm 18, my favorite color is blue, I love to draw, my parents live in New Jersey, I can play guitar, what else do you want to know?"
"Things that have substance. What's your back story? What makes you who you are?"
"Well I can't give it all away right now, can I?"
"That's what first dates are for, aren't they?"
"Date? This is a date?"
"Isn't it? I'm cooking for you, we're getting to know each other, it's obvious that I like you. Seems like a date to me." He shrugged.
"Fair enough. I'm still not giving you my entire life just yet."
"That's fine. I've got nothing but time."
I hadn't been paying attention, but he had 6 pancakes done and the eggs were finished as well. I grabbed two plates from the cupboard and set them on the counter.
"Ladies first." He gestured to the food, so I got some and sat back down at the table. He did the same, and we ate in silence for a bit.
"So, now that you're home, what are you going to do?" I asked in between bites.
"I'm not sure, and right now I can't do much. The injury is going to take some time to heal. But when it does I think I might try to get back into cooking. Or maybe go back to school. I'm not completely sure."
"Well that's a good place to start. And you've got some time to think some more."
"Yeah. What about you? What do you do?"
"I'm a nurse right now."
"That's cool, so if I get hurt I can just call you?" He winked, and I looked down to hide a blush on my cheeks.
"I suppose that's true. But no special treatment for you, I'm going to treat you just as any other patient."
"Dang it." He laughed, and I joined him.
"You know, usually people are scared of me." He said, taking a piece of pancake like he just told me the sky was blue.
"Scared?" I cocked an eyebrow.
"Yeah, because I've been through the war. They're afraid to offend me, and they're scared that I'm a jerk who doesn't care about anyone because I've been trained not to. It's nice to have found someone that's not scared."
"I couldn't be scared of you, I don't think. You're a big ole teddy bear." I smiled at him, hating myself for letting him get close to me. I didn't want to hurt him, but I really couldn't stay away.
"Not true, I can be mean when I want to."
"Doubt it."
"Well, what if I just leave, right now. Leave you all the dishes, and leaving you wishing I would've kissed you."
"Okay, first of all, I'm not wishing you'd kiss me. And second of all, I live alone. I do dishes all the time. That's not mean." I tried to change the subject away from the kissing thing, because I was definitely wishing he would.
"Well, I guess I'll just leave then. You're welcome for breakfast." He winked, getting up out of his chair and left through the front door.
I sat for a few minutes, thinking about how this man would definitely be the death of me, and processing him as a whole. When I finally got up, there was another knock at my door. Rolling my eyes, I trudged to it and opened it.
"You weren't thinking about me kissing you, but I was." He blurted before grabbing my face and doing just that. It was quick, over just as it had started. But it was passionate, and I could tell that I was in a whole bunch more trouble than I had originally thought.
"I was thinking about it. The whole time." I told him after a moment of standing in the doorway like an idiot at a loss for words.
"I'm glad, because I was really hoping that I didn't just make an ass of myself." He ran his hands through his hair, fingers shaking faintly.
"Well, maybe a little bit." I joked.
"Yeah, yeah." He waved me off.
We both laughed for a few minutes before he said goodbye and left, as if the whole ordeal had never happened.
I stood in the same spot for a while, shoulders hunched over like a lovesick school girl. What was I going to do?
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Hey guys! I'm so sorry for the super late update. I tore my ACL so I've been going to a lot of doctors and stuff. But since I'm not allowed to walk hardly at all, I should be able to write a lot more and update more than once a month. I don't really have a schedule planned but I try to write as often as I can and publish when I feel I have a good chapter. I hope you're enjoying so far!
