BREATHE FOR ME

Chapter 19: Blueberry Muffins

I wake up to a grey-painted room with one large window, a long built-in wardrobe, a large desk and a few rows of shelves full of pictures and little gadgets. The wall behind me is covered in colourful posters of motorcycles. A wave of confusion washes over me, leaving me feeling slightly disorientated for a moment, before the memories of last night come rushing back. His intense eyes. The feeling of his hair in between my fingers. The low noise he made when I pressed up closer to him. His really soft lips. The heat his hands left on my skin. Lorrie. We kissed. We kissed!

I'm suddenly flooded with an inexplicable energy that seems to replace the blood in my veins. Sitting up, I can finally see Lorrie's room in broad daylight. It looks larger than it did last night in the dark. On the bedside table, next to the double bed, a small alarm clock tells me that it's half seven, which leaves me an hour and a half before Lorrie returns from training. At the end of the bed, he seems to have left me an old pair of grey sweat pants, another pair of his boxer shorts (in black this time), some white ankle socks and a large white t-shirt. There's also a note on top of them. I lean forwards, shuddering slightly at the coolness of the room on my skin, and steal the note from the pile.

The blueberry muffins are downstairs, as promised.

-L

I smile giddily at the piece of paper in my hand, letting my contentment at life flood over me. I am so very lucky.

Getting up, I decide to get changed into his clothes. The sweat pants are way too long so I have to roll up the bottoms of them a few times before I can walk in them. The ankle socks, which aren't very ankle-like on me, fit like average length socks. The t-shirt is also too long therefore I decide to take it off, slipping his sweater back over my head. I prefer to wear the sweater anyways, it reminds me of him. I then make the bed neatly, gather-up my outfit from last night and slip it into one of his duffel bags. I then retrieve my morning pill and phone from my little clutch that I had last night. Heading to the bathroom to brush my teeth with the new tooth brush he gave me last night, I swallow my pill and quickly wash my face in the sink. I have a toothbrush at his house. How crazy.

As I wonder down the stairs, I send Mom a quick good morning text, telling her more about Lorrie's Dad and letting her know that I'll be back before lunch. I can hear the gentle thump of music from the garage next door. In the early-morning Arizona sun, the house is very vibrant. Very alive, with potted plants on every surface and pictures of Lorrie, Fran and a beautiful dark haired lady. His Mom, I realise, pausing for a second. Leaning in closer to the pictures, I can see the resemblance between Lorrie and his Mom. I wonder what happened to her... The over-whelming smell of baking hits me immediately, cutting off my thoughts and making my stomach roar to life. The sugary scent of freshly baked muffins leads me into the kitchen where, surely enough, a large pile of warm blueberry muffins are stacked on the kitchen table. I supress a sigh of contentment. With their orangey tops and perfect little bumps of blueness, they seem to call to me.

The kitchen door suddenly opens into the garage, forcing me to tear my eyes away from the muffins. The sound of jazz music flows into the kitchen, along with a grinning Fran, in his red overalls.

"Good morning Genevieve, I thought I heard someone up in the house." he says, coming over and giving me a quick, affectionate kiss on the head, like he did last night. How did he know that I was awake when he was in the garage with loud music playing? He's trained by the FBI Gen. 

"Don't you look-" he pauses, holding me at an arms-length as he tries to think of how I look. I chuckle under his inspection. "-well, like a very elegant Lorenzo, I guess." He says finally.