The Curse of Awkward

Chapter 4

Emmy was still reeling from her encounter with Roman and her strange dream the day before when she woke up the next morning. She wasn't sure if the dream was some sort of weird premonition, or if it was just her mind playing tricks on her. Either way she decided as she rose from her bed and headed to the bathroom, it was better not to dwell on it.

Roman, on the other hand, now that was something she could dwell on. Staring in the mirror as she brushed her teeth, Emmy wondered if he was going to act differently around her now at work, since they'd had the awkward falling asleep next to you moment. Avoiding him for a while until everything cooled off was probably the best plan, she decided, as she stepped into the hot shower.

Being distracted by the all-consuming thoughts of Roman, Emmy didn't notice the door squeak as someone entered the bathroom. Reaching for the soap, suddenly a cloud of flour rained down on her, coating her body and hair with a sort of wet flour paste, from the water and flour mixing.

She released a scream that belonged among the horror movie greats, wiping the gunk from her face and reaching for her towel. A laugh that sounded distinctly like Silas came from the other side of the shower curtain.

"That's what people get when they don't come home all night or call, leaving their brothers to worry," Silas sang in a high, off-key voice, before Emmy heard loud, thudding steps rush out of the bathroom.

With a drawn out sigh, Emmy cleaned the gunk off herself, making a mental note to clean it out of her showers pipes later. She knew sooner or later Silas was bound to strike, as was his way when he was angry or frustrated, turning it into a joke; usually at her well-deserved expense. When she was eight and had destroyed his favorite GI Joe action figure in a young act of rebellion, by painting him over with teal nail polish, Silas had acted stealthy and sneakily, adding green food coloring to her shampoo. She'd had a green tint to her hair for weeks. Luckily, around that time was the lead up to Halloween, so people in her class at school thought she was just trying a new, trend setting Halloween hair style. Her parents had laughed about it, but had thought it a defect with the shampoo, trashing the bottle Silas had tainted and gotten her a new one.

She may have believed the same story her parents did if the trend of pranks after angering Silas hadn't persisted. There was the infamous 5 cm incident. When she forgot to pick him up after his soccer game one day in another town during high school, leaving him to catch a 2 hour bus ride home. For that one he moved everything in her room about 5 cm to the left, not enough for her to notice at first, but enough for her to feel disoriented and bump into her desk regularly. Finally he had admitted that one to her, after she fell one day, tripping over her rug and breaking her pinky. Not the most noteworthy of injuries.

Compared to those, this prank of Silas' was child's play, leading Emmy to hope he wasn't angry with her, just slightly annoyed.

Getting dressed in her spare uniform, she made her way to the kitchen, where she could hear Silas banging pans as he cooked.

Cautiously she approached his back, which was turned away from her facing the stove.

"Hey," she said hesitantly.

Silas just turned his head, gave her a sassy look and a slight huff, then pushed a plate with eggs and toast towards her. Getting back in Silas' good graces may be harder than she previously assumed.

Silas continued to ignore her and work on the chocolate lava cake he was baking, she assumed for the restaurant down the street where he worked as a host, working overtime baking their desserts.

She glanced at the clock and saw that she only had 20 minutes before she had to be at her shift at the palace, not nearly enough time to hash things out with Silas. Leaning over, she gave Silas a quick kiss on the cheek, grabbing the keys and heading to the car.

The drive gave her time for her thoughts to shift between Silas and a Roman in equal measure, her dream almost totally forgotten.

She decided to get the digits if the cute grocery clerk guy that Silas had been admiring lately, and drop some not-so-subtle hints about Silas' great personality after work. Hopefully that would get her back in his good graces, and get him a good date, Lord knows he needed one. Maybe if luck was on her side, he wouldn't even ask what happened to her yesterday, because, truly, she wasn't even sure herself.

With another drawn out sigh, she pushed the gas petal a little harder, speeding off down the highway.

Why did men always have to be so complicated?