"Heeellloooo" dan greeted me at his front door, and waved me into his lounge into the sofa crease.
"How was work?" Dan asked, sitting down next to me, and placing a hand on my knee.
"Uh, Good, I guess, I heard all about Sophie"
Dans eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and panic flashed his eyes, then went back to their normal woody colour.
"Not form Sophie I hope" dan didn't make eye contact, instead he looked at his hands whilst he twiddled his thumbs.
"No, from phil actually"
Dan swore inaudibly under his breath at phil.
"How did he...what did he say she was like?"
"A bitch" I said plainly.
"Of course he did. He didn't like her, he thought she was using me."
"Was she?"
"No, no...I don't think so, we weren't together for that long"
"That's not reassuring"
"No, your getting the wrong idea. She was kind, and beautiful..." I shivered. I don't know why It bothered me, maybe it was he fact that he was calling another woman beautiful, and it wasn't me.
"...and romantic and-" I cut him off.
"Good in bed?"
"Phil you son of a bitch" he cursed under his breath.
He covered his face with this hands, to keep me from seeing him cheeky smile.
"Dan! You dick!" I said, only slightly pissed off because it wasn't like he was cheating on me.
"She was!" He said, and I punched him in the shoulder.
"Not as good as you though" he smiled a crooked smile.
"Nice save Cupid" he cupped my hands and kissed my knuckles.
I glared at him, in a playful way.
"Of course Sophie and I fought a lot" dan said, holding eye contact now.
"About what?...if you don't mind me asking that is"
"No, it's fine. We...I...I had a bit of drinking problem just after we broke up." He said it with caution, and looked at me with his head bowed, like he was ashamed of it.
I felt my face fall from a smile to a look of worry. He must have seen it too.
"I'm okay now though"
I leant over to him, and hugged him tight, and he pressed his face to my neck.
"Are you though?"
"Yes, I promise Im okay"
I let go of my arms from around his shoulders, and looked into his eyes.
"This is why I love you" dan broke the silence.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"You care. I mean, even though I'm okay now, and you couldn't have known at the time, you still worry"
He laughed but I was still worried. It was my fault that he drank, if it wasn't, he wouldn't have said it with so much caution.
"Emma, I'm okay"
"I'm sorry dan"
"I'm okay! I promise!"
He took my hands between his and smiled.
"What was phil doing at the art gallery anyway?" Dan asked, tying to change the subject.
"Uh, I don't actually know, he said he wanted to keep me company, so we just talked"
"What did you talk about? If you don't mind me asking"
I smiled and looked at the hard wood floor, remembering what phil said dan was like after I left last night.
"What?"
I continued smiling at the floor, remembering the conversation.
"What! You are so mean!"
I looked up at him, and continued smiling, teasing him.
Dan lunged forward, tickling my stomach, unmercifully. I tried to push his hands away, but I was laughing to hard.
"What did he say?" Dan said through playful laughter.
I couldn't answer him if I wanted to, I could barely breath from laughing too hard.
"Leave that fair maiden alone!" Phil burst through the door of the living room, and dan stopped tickling me to look at phil.
"You dick!" Dan said smiling. He pointed a finger at phil, referring to phil exploiting his and Sophie's relationship to me.
Phil just smiled, his teeth showing, and biting his tongue.
I lay on the couch laughing innocently, pulling my top down over my stomach from where dan tickled me.
"I have no idea what you are talking about" phil said, obviously knowing, and walking down the hallway. I heard the door of the kitchen open.
Dan turned back to me, smiling a toothy smile. "I shall deal to you later my fair maiden" I laughed, and with that, dan left the room to go after phil, leaving me grinning on their awful couch.
