The Wait (On Hold)

Day 29

I woke the next morning with a smile. Atlas Kyle—the Almighty Rule Stickler and Master of Boundaries—kissed a girl while still confusedly in love with another. And it was me he kissed...the girl that he had put into a neat box that he had probably promised himself he'd never open. Much less explore. I sit up, still smiling. Hmm. Today was going to be a good day.

I brush my teeth, pull my hair into a bun at the top of my head and head down to the kitchen, humming under my breath. When I enter the kitchen, I freeze, my brows raised. The constant star of my thoughts was in the kitchen in my house brewing perfectly smelling coffee. His back is to me, so I use this opportunity to take a few minutes to check him out from behind. He's wearing some old grey track pants and has no shirt on. His muscles bunch and smoothen with every movement of his.

"You going to keep staring or join me?" he asks me without turning around.

"I'm debating." I say to him.

He turns around then, his dark hair brushing against the shining indigo of his eyes as they watch me from across the room. He's holding my yellow mug (that has a little lady bug on it) in his hand and when he bends to take a sip, I've bounded across the room in less than four seconds and snatched the cup from his hand.

"Stay away from my coffee." I say as I take a sip of the divine brew.

Perfect. How does he brew it so well? My eyes are closed as I savour the drink and settle down on one of the chairs near the small antique round wooden table my brother and I had purchased a year ago.

"Friends share coffee."

"They also wear shirts." I quip back, keeping my eyes on the iPad on the table that had the news opened on it. But when I hear a chuckle, I'm looking up at him as he brings his own mug that was black with an animated head of a lion (that I may or may not have got for him) and settles across from me. He pulls the iPad away, because we both know I'm not reading the news.

"Will I be less distracting to you if I put on a shirt?"

I snort, he would be attractive to me wearing a potato sack. Shirt or shirtless doesn't matter. He looks like he knows exactly what I'm thinking, because his eyes smile at me. I roll my eyes at him, but eventually I'm smiling back. We silently sip our coffees as we both ponder in our minds. Me, about the million things I wanted answers for. Him....well it was anyone's guess.

We open our mouths at the same time. Then, grin.

"You first." I say, gesturing with my mug at him.

"Sleep well?" he asks, smiling around the rim of his cup.

"Mmmm hmmm." I say, my own smile ratcheting up as I recall how my night had ended.

His eyes narrow at my smile and his own tightens. He places his mug down and leans forward, placing his arms on his thighs. I continue to sip from my mug, watching him carefully, already knowing what he was going to say.

"We need to talk."

Understatement of the year.

"Like how you went to Derek's house and threatened him when we were dating?" I ask.

One eyebrow raises and I can't help but catch a breath at how attractive he looks when he does that.

"Like how we kissed last night." he says in response.

I hum softly, finishing my coffee and get up to walk to the sink to wash my mug. I turn on the tap and rinse the mug and start soaping it up. 


"There's nothing to talk about." I say as I dry the mug with the cloth hanging above, to the right of, the sink.