Leah scrubs at an already-clean dish with the soapy rag. She's been scrubbing at it for way too long now, her mind stuck on repeat. She keeps thinking about the scene from Robert's house. She cried over it for a good hour and a half after she got home. Now she's all cried, and all she has left of it is the heartache that has yet to go away.
Just as she turns the plate over to wash the underside (again), a hand comes in and takes it from her.
She blinks out of her trance. When she sees the faucet water running, she looks at her hands. Her fingers have turned to raisins, and all the joints in her hands are sore. She drops the rag in the sink and shuts off the water. She looks to the direction where the hand came from.
Chris is placing the plate in the drying rack. "Scrub at that any more, and there won't be any of it left."
Leah would've smiled any other day, maybe even giggled, but not today. Her heart just isn't in it. Instead, she turns around and goes looking for something else to do.
"You didn't tell me how it went with Robert. You just came home and went right to your room."
She still doesn't say anything. She goes to the little coffee table and picks up a stack of unopened letters from the day before.
"What is wrong with you? What happened over there?"
"Nothing," she replies. She's not even reading the letters. She just drops them, one by one, back onto the table. "Don't worry about it." She drops the rest down impatiently. She turns to the long couch behind her and starts straightening out the pillows and cushions.
"Alright. Whatever." He heads to the bathroom.
When Leah hears the door shut, she becomes strangely offended. She stands up straight. "Seriously?" she says in a loud, high-pitched voice. "You can't fucking tell I really am mad?" She watches the door, waiting for Chris to come out and apologize. But the door remains closed. Guess I'll just suffer in silence, she thinks.
Then, unexpectedly, a pair of thick, strong arms wraps around her waist.
She flinches in surprise, then relaxes into them easily. She places her hands over his, their fingers eventually intertwining. She lets her head fall back onto his shoulder. "You scared me," she admits.
"I'm sorry. But I knew you were bullshitting me. I've been in that situation before."
"Your ex-girlfriend?"
"Unfortunately, yes. I put myself right in the dog house when I said the same thing to her."
She smiles weakly. She turns her head a little bit and gives him a kiss on the cheek.
Still holding onto one of her hands, He pulls away and moves to the couch. He sits down and leads her down to sit with him.
She gives in easily and sits down right next to him. She nestles into him as he brings his arm down and around her shoulders. She rests her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. For some reason, she finds it calming.
"So what happened over there? It had to have been something bad. Unless it was your own random decision to spend three hours as a zombie."
"Well, it wasn't my own decision. I can tell you that." She traces a line across his stomach with the tip of her index finger, trailing down to his lower abdomen.
"Stop doing that. You're gonna give me a boner."
Leah rolls her eyes. "You're so classy, Chris." She ignores him and continues tracing.
