Together Tomorrow

Chapter Thirteen: Together

The chocolate chips rattled against the large mixing bowl as Lea added them into the cookie dough with the walnuts, providing a little extra sweet to offset the salt of the nuts. Lea swayed along to the radio song as she happily made cookies. Thankfully, the migraine had vanished early in the morning so she had been able to work, but the bruising from the day before had certainly darkened. Her neck looked like a mottled canvas of greens, yellows, and grays. If she decided to leave the house any time soon, she was going to have to put make up on to cover its spectacular array of coloring.

Just as the oven beeped at her to tell her it was up to temperature, someone knocked at the door. Taking the bowl with her Lea mixed it as she walked to the front door expecting to see the UPS deliveryman with her new book. However, when she opened the door, she found Steve standing there with a smile and a dozen red roses in his hands. Her mind froze.

"Oh, Hi! I didn't realize you were back." Lea grinned, but couldn't keep the question out of her eyes at the sight of the flowers.

"I thought you might like these." He held up the flowers. "And maybe this." He moved to hand her a ticket of some sort, but halted as his eyes fell on her throat.

"What happened? Are you alright?" He asked, lifting her chin with his cupped hand to get a better view of the bruising.

"Oh, nothing. It was just an accident from a defense demo at D.A.R..E. yesterday." Lea shrugged, her adams apple bobbing as she spoke. She was still looking at the ceiling because he was holding her face so he could carefully examine the extent of the damage.

"This isn't nothing, Lea. How'd this happen in a demo?" He asked sharply, and lowered her face so he could look her square in the eye. His were stern and exceptionally serious, but it was primarily concern that radiated from his body language.

"Steve, don't worry about it. Seriously. I'm fine." She took his hand in hers and gently guided it away from her cheek. "Besides, I want to know what this ticket is." She mischievously cocked her eyebrows and snatched it away from him. Steve let the topic drop, for the time being at least. She knew it would be coming up again.

Holding the large bowl on her hip with one arm, Lea quickly read the ticket stub before she laughed. It was a reservation for two at Bistro Cacao at 7:30pm.

"What's so funny?" He cocked his head, the suspicious concern still lingering in his eyes.

"Oh, nothing... it's just that Rachel, my friend at D.A.R.E., asked if I had a hot date any time soon. I told her no because I didn't know that I did." She smiled and held up the ticket. "It sounds like a lot of fun. Come on in." She opened the door all the way and took a few steps back.

"Isn't Rachel the one that send you food last time you were in bed for a few days with a migraine? Or was that Sarah?" Steve asked.

Damn, he had a good memory. She had mentioned that only once, and it had happened while he was gone... "It was Sarah. She is one of the girls that comes part time. She is technically a student, but she volunteers with a lot of the set up and organization, so I see her pretty often. Rachel is one of the founders; she's been here a few times before actually. Middle aged, graying brown hair." Lea held her hand up to indicate the height of her friend.

"Oh, that one. She seems very nice." Steve nodded as he remembered Rachel. They hadn't met, but he had seen her when she had stopped by.

"Rachel's marvelous." Lea agreed as they entered the kitchen. She set down the cookie dough and fetched a vase for the flowers. She couldn't stop smiling as she put the roses in it and set it on island in her kitchen.