In the Shadows

IV

Previous night

"I'm back!" I closed the door behind my back and kicked my booties into the shoe rack near the door.

"Good!" Phebs yelled from the kitchen "dinner's almost ready"

My stomach roared with the smell of the different mixed up spices and I heard soft music playing from the radio on the living room. Since it had been pouring for a while outside I walked to my room and put some comfortable dry clothes on before going to the small office I shared with my best friend to leave my handbag – which contained some work I had planned to do after dinner - on my desk. As I was laying my laptop at the marble surface of the desk I saw something out the corner of my eye and out the window that caught my attention.

"Phebs?" I yelled.

"Dinner's ready Annie!" she yelled back "can you come help me?"

I walked back to the kitchen and I put the table on as Phoebe served the dishes.

"We seem to have new neighbours" I said "I saw the lights turned on at the flat beside ours"

"That means he's back" Phoebe muttered.

"Who's back?" I asked with my voice leaking curiosity.

"My-" she stuttered "a really old friend"

"You never mentioned him before"

"That's because we haven't talked in a really long time" she said "to be honest I thought he would stay in the States"

"Then how would you know he lives there?" I suspected there was something she wasn't telling me.

"From our common friends; I heard them talking about it once" Phoebe explained "they told me when I mentioned that I would be moving here"

"Oh" I said before taking a big bite of the food in front of me "hmm... delicious"

"You like it?" she said smiling towards me "it's a new recipe I found on the internet in one of those cooking blogs I like to read"

Phoebe's other passion besides art was cooking. And she was pretty good at it while my forte was bakery – hence why I had gotten the job at Elora's shop –.

"It's a pretty good one Phebs" I smiled back at her.

"So..." she smirked "I heard there's a new guy in town"

I decided to play dumb just to annoy her.

"Oh really?" I faked surprise.

Phoebe rolled her eyes.

"I know you know Ann" she pointed directly at me with her fork.

"What do think you know I know?" I said knowing that it pissed her off when I did that.

"Stop it Annie!" she was getting annoyed "I know you've met him already"

"I've met whom?" I was trying not to burst out laughing "and how do you know?"

"ANNIE!" she exclaimed in a high pitched voice like a five-year-old with a tantrum "you told me this morning via text that you had bumped into a guy that was headed to Elora's store"

"Right" internally I face-palmed "and you assumed he was there this afternoon when I went to the store?"

"Annie Foster!" she said slamming his fist on the table and making me jump mid-chewing.

Of course I started to choke on the food right away. I looked at Phoebe pleading her to give me some water by pointing at the jar between us.

"You deserve that" Phoebe handed me my glass full of the liquid.