The fight to get back to you. (Book 3)

Chapter 7

The next day when Elliot got in from work I had his dinner ready and waiting on the table for him. When he walked through the door and saw his favourite foods in dishes strewn across the table his face broke into a smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

I continued what I was doing anyway and moved towards him and wrapped my arms around his waist as I brought him in for a kiss. I loved that I was in the house before him every day, I loved to be able to welcome him home, offer him a drink and then cuddle up with him.

Tonight we sat at the table and I watched him as he spooned huge amounts of the traditional Mexican food I had learned to cook from my mother. I stood up and moved to the fridge, I could feel his eyes following me and when I had grabbed the beers and turned back he was looking wistfully at me.

I smiled back hoping to kick start some kind of conversation with him but he looked back down at his food and didn’t speak until he was finished eating. He leant back against his chair sighing in satisfaction and grabbed his beer, muttering a thank you before he took a long drink.

Once he had finished, he began to clear away and I got up to help but he kissed me quick and told me to sit back down. I watched him as I sipped on my beer, he never looked at me once and I tried several times to catch his eyes. It was like he knew and was deliberately avoiding me but I wouldn’t give up on him, I had waited years to be able to call Elliot mine and I wasn’t prepared to stop.

“Elliot.”

There was no answer he just continued to potter around the kitchen, clearing the dishes, rinsing them and popping them into the dish washer.

“Elliot babe.”

Nothing again. I got up and moved to the sink to look at him but it was like he couldn’t even see me, he was in a world of his own.

“Elliot?” I said softly touching his back.

Suddenly, and this happened so quick I barely saw it coming, he turned with eyes that were blank and twisted me so his arm was around my neck and squeezing. With what breath I had left I begged him to wake up and realise what he was doing to me.

It felt like his arm was just getting tighter, like a boa constrictor with each breath I took he squeezed, so that I was losing consciousness. I tried gently pinching his arm to snap him out of it but I was beginning to panic as I lost more and more of the air in my lungs, so by the end I was clawing at his arms.

He was whispering things, words I couldn’t understand in my panic. Just when I thought I wouldn’t be able to get him off and that I might actually choke to death, he let go and pushed me away. I fell to the floor coughing and spluttering looking up at him I noticed he had turned around.

His arms were resting on the sink, his muscles tensed and his body was shaking. When I caught my breath I stood up and carefully approached him, keeping my distance as I reached out and touched his back. It was then I realised he was crying so I stood behind him wrapping both of my arms around his waist and up his chest.