What Little Worlds

Twenty-Nine

Amelie slipped out of bed the next morning without awaking Adrien. Her feelings about the previous night were too confusing to face him yet.

She padded around the kitchen in socks to muffle her footsteps, and slipped out the door. Once in the hallway, she put her shoes on and made her way out of the building, feeling pleased and incredibly ashamed of successfully thwarting Adrien.

She began to walk and silently thanked all the gods that the sun was out and she could comfortably walk to work and use the time and motion to clear her head. The Boston air was getting colder and she made a mental note to map out the subway schedule for when she eventually needed to take it to work to avoid the cold.

Amelie leaned back and looked at the crisp blue sky while she walked. How had last night escalated so badly? What had even happened?

Her skin felt itchy thinking about laying with him last night and she shuddered. Why would she shudder thinking about Adrien? She loved him. She understood that she had said no, but she was saying no to something they had done plenty of times before.

She couldn't even be that angry at him for not listening when she had said no, as technically she had been saying yes the entire night up until that point.

But, she also had felt his anger while they made love, and his jealousy towards Theo. Sex over anger meant something different than making love. But didn't he deserve to be angry? She had kept a monumental secret from him. He had explicitly told her to avoid Theo because he was dangerous. Even if she still believed him to be wrong, she should not have hidden her relationship with Theo from him.

He had only been trying to protect her. She should have tried to talk to him more before going to Theo. Maybe Adrien would have listened if she had just tried harder.

But every time they had tried to speak about it he had dismissed her. Could she really be faulted for finding other means to achieve her goals if he would not help her?

Amelie arrived at her office two minutes later, still confused about everything in her relationship.

The morning passed by uneventfully. She decided not to go to then gym during her lunch break that day. Being there would probably only confuse her feelings more.

That afternoon Jesse stopped by and they hung out for a bit while Cathy was out. When they heard her classic rushing pace down the hallway, he scattered from Amelie's office. She was beginning to like Jesse a lot. He was funny once he de-stressed a bit, and had been a nice distraction today from the distress that had been taking over her head.

The afternoon slowly rolled by, and around three pm, she received a text from Charlotte.

Charlotte: Hey Girlie! Any chance you're free for dinner tonight? I'm off for the weekend but going home to visit family tomorrow.

Relieved for the distraction, Amelie responded yes immediately. It was only after pressing send that she halted and realized that Adrien would worry. She had left without saying goodbye and was not coming home tonight. That was very out of character for their relationship. She had already received one check-in text from him that morning to which she had replied with a blasé answer about work taking up her energy that day.

At the same time, she was grateful to put off confronting her feelings about Adrien for a little longer.

At five pm she waved goodbye to Jesse, who was still at work at his desk and left to take a slow walk to the restaurant Charlotte had suggested. They were not meeting until six, so Amelie had some time to sort through her feelings on the walk.