THE CAMELLIA TAVERN

CHAPTER 24: CLARIFICATION

Saturday, June 27

I wake to a missed text from Warrick.

Warrick: I missed having you in my bed last night.

I start to smile, but then I remember last night and the things that Chandler said, and my smile fades away. Maybe he did miss me being in his bed, but maybe that's all he misses.

Great. Here I go again letting my paranoia get the better of me.

I'm just going to talk to him. I believe that he'll be straight with me about it. I might not always agree with Warrick, but I do believe him to be an honest person.

Me: Can we talk in person?

Almost a minute passes before his response appears on the screen.

Warrick: That doesn't sound good. When can you meet?

I look at the time on my cell. It's almost 10 am already. I sit up, push the covers off my legs and sigh.

Me: In about an hour

Warrick: I'll come to your place.

I jump in a quick shower, eat some toast and drink a cup of coffee, careful to keep tabs on the time passing. I play what I want to say over and over in my head. I'm just going to come right out and ask him if there still is or ever was anything going on between him and Chandler.

She's beautiful, poised, accomplished and comes from a family background similar to his from what I can gather. They are a perfect couple, and I really resent that fact.

Maybe I'm being neurotic. Maybe I'm letting my insecurities get the better of me, but I need to know if I'm stepping in the middle of something anywhere close to what Chandler would have me believe.

I lay outside on the hammock in our backyard waiting for him and trying to enjoy the morning sky. About half an hour later, I hear his car pull up. I climb, less than gracefully, out of the hammock and head to the front of the house.

I watch as he gets out of his car. He looks freshly showered---his hair still damp and he's wearing an old EASU t-shirt and jeans. He looks, in a word, delectable, but that doesn't much matter because we have a serious discussion at hand.

"Mornin', Milly," he says as he walks towards the house then stops when he sees the look on my face. "Well, that's not my favorite of your expressions."'

I want to hold back. I want to come across as relaxed about the matter, but I know myself and it's just not going to happen like that.

"Am I, like, some secret of yours?" It pains me to even say the words, but they come pouring out of my mouth too fast.

"What?!"

"Is that why you ordered delivery for breakfast? Because you didn't want to be seen out in public with me?"

"What?! Milly, you're being absurd. Where is this coming from?"

"Absurd, huh?"

"Yes," he says emphatically. "Absurd."

"Do you want to tell me again that nothing is going on with you and Chandler?" I say, accusingly with my hands on my hips.

He sighs. "Chandler, huh?"

"Yeah, she seemed to think the idea of you getting involved with anyone on your staff was an impossibility. And she also seems to think you two are headed down the aisle together."

"The aisle?!" he repeats then shakes his head as if I've just been spewing utter nonsense. "Chandler has been after me for the last two years, Milly. That doesn't mean that any of the fantasies in her head are true."