Attraction

8.

I open my fridge and pull out spaghetti pasta and the beef I left in the fridge to thaw out before work. Paul sits in the dining room chair and watches me attentively. Feeling his eyes on me while I'm preparing the food to cook makes me feel slightly self conscious and nervous but I bite down on my bottom lip and continue what I'm doing. Paul being at my apartment once more makes me feel so safe and not so alone in this town. It's nice having someone aside from Quil who I can spend time with. Are Paul and I friends? We are, aren't we? This is what friends do, they help each other and invite one another over to have dinner. I push away my invasive thoughts and I continue with what I'm doing. Paul's words cause me to jump slightly from my deep thought.

"Would you like me to help you with anything?" He already helped rescued me from a possible psychopath tonight. I don't want to take advantage of his kindness.

I smile shyly and continue with dicing the tomatoes. "It's okay. You already helped me so much tonight. Do you want anything to drink?" Paul smirks and looks down for a moment.

"Water is fine, but I don't mind helping. I like to cook, actually." He says.

I turn around and grab a glass cup from the cupboard and fill it with a jug of water from the fridge I smile before handing it to him. Our hands brush casually as he reaches for the glass causing my heart to jump nervously.

"You can cook?" I ask changing the atmosphere of our hands brushing. I turn around and grab a onion and begin to dice it into small cubes as well.

"I'm no Gordon Ramsay," He chuckles causing me to grin. "But I can cook a few things for survival." He shrugs jokingly. His sense of humor makes me smile.

The onion begins to make my eyes watery and I mentally snap at myself for not remembering to boil the onion before chopping it to avoid this issue. I wipe my eyes with the back of my hand.

"Want me to do that?" He offers kindly.

I turn around to see Paul standing beside me, my heartbeat increases and I smile shyly passing him the knife. As he begins chopping the onion, I grab the ground beef package opening it and putting it in the pan to cook.

"I'm going to go change out of my work clothes, I'll be right back." I say and Paul gives me a reassuring smile before speaking.

"Take your time." I walk into my room and I change out of my work uniform before tossing it in the bin.

I throw on a pair of soffee shorts and a old Blink 182 shirt leaving my hair down. I go back to the kitchen to see him finishing up with the onion and I smile to myself. The spaghetti bolognese is finally finished cooking and I grab two plates and forks for Paul and myself before making our plates. I make his plate fuller than my own since I figure we don't eat the same amount of food. I sit down at the table with Paul and we begin to eat.

"This is amazing." He compliments after he finishes his first bite and I grin happily that he likes the food.

"My mom always cooked it back home, I never forgot the recipe. She's coming to visit sometime next week, actually." I respond informatively.

"How long has it been since you have seen your mom?" He puzzles.

I try to think back to moving here and packing up all of my belongings from Colorado to Forks. Half of my boxes are still waiting on being delivered to Forks, I couldn't take much on the airplane and I didn't have a lot of money to pay for all of my boxes to be shipped at once.

"It's been about three months since I've seen her, this being the third month." I tell him. He nods.

"I'm sure she will be beyond elated to see you." He gives me a smile that could make anyone's knees go weak. "You're really brave, moving back here by yourself I mean." I glance down at my plate and take a sip of my water.