for, liar

Chapter 21

I'm able to sleep a quarter past eleven in the morning and I've never felt more rested in my life. The sun peeking through my curtains is just enough light to make it where I don't have to turn my lamp on. I drag my fatigued body off the mattress and push my ratted hair out of my face. The room smells like sugar as if a candle had been burning for a while. I look around, thrown off by the scent but realize that it's actually coming from outside of my room.

I squint my eyes curiously and leave my bedroom to the living room and kitchen area. Maddy shuts the oven door and places a pan of muffins on top of the stove.

"Am I dreaming or is Madeline Marie Hennith baking muffins?"

She chuckles and removes the oven mitt from her hand to throw at me. I catch it and laugh.

"It was supposed to be a breakfast in bed thing, then I slept way too late, and then you got up before I could bring them to you. Did you just wake up?"

I set the mitt on the counter and press my back against the edge of the counter. I don't know what flavor those muffins are but they smell incredible. I don't care that it goes against my diet. I'm allowed to treat myself.

"Yeah. Surprising, right?"

Hell must have frozen over last night because I never sleep this late. As much as I complain about working early, my body has been conditioned to withstand the little amount of sleep I do get. That's why I figured working at a coffee shop would be ideal because it's early in the morning, the time I'm already awake, and I get free coffee. Maddy on the other hand has the nocturnal gene where she'll stay up all night that you won't even see her during the day. She was only able to survive college classes and a job from the coffee bags I often gave her. She doesn't even like coffee so I know she was desperate for caffeine.

She walks over to the coffee pot and pours us both a cup. "Cream or sugar?" she asks and fills half of her cup with half and half.

"Nope."

"Oh, right. You drink it black like a psychopath." she teases and hands my mug over.

I roll my eyes and smile before taking a sip of the steaming dark roast. My grandfather drank his cup of joe just like this, which most older men do. He was the one who got me hooked on the stuff anyway. Every time I'd visit my grandparents he would always fix me a cup of coffee and we'd sit and watch some of his favorite westerns.

"Because I actually enjoy the taste of coffee and not an entire cup of milk with sugar?" I fire.

She shrugs, taking the smallest sip of her coffee. I smirk a little and look back at the muffins.

"What kind did you make?" I ask and lean forward to observe them.

"Half have blueberries and the others have chocolate chips. I figured it's better to have a fruity one and then something sweet to even it out. I like my muffins the way I like my coffee, y'know?" She jokes.

"Fruity coffee? Gross."

I chuckle and carefully pull one of the blueberry muffins out of the pan. I know the first bite is going to be way too hot so I blow on it a little to cool it off. As I take a bite my phone starts ringing from the dining room table.

"Oh yeah! You got some voicemail from a guy. You were asleep and I was being nosy, sorry." Maddy confesses and takes a seat at the table.

I grab it and answer, forgetting I had my mouth full. "Hello?"

Holy shit you can totally tell I have my mouth full.

"Bree? Hey, it's Miles. What're you up to?"

This guy is relentless! It is kind of endearing though. Usually guys would give up after my first three rejections.

"Eating breakfast. What's up?"

Maddy crosses her arms and mouths "Who is it?"

I hold my index finger up to her to keep her quiet while he talks. "Would you still be interested in seeing me today? I remember you said you had a couple of days off."

Maddy's nosy ass rushes over and pushes her ear up near my phone to listen in on the conversation.

"Um...yeah! What did you have in mind?"

She makes a face when she hears that it's a guy speaking. I roll my eyes and smile. She makes kissy faces at me and laughs into her hands like a toddler.

"Well we can start with dinner and go from there, yeah? I can pick you up around six or whenever you prefer."

"Six is good. I'll text you the address. See you then." I tell him and hang up the phone.

Maddy squeals and jumps up in the air. "No way! Are you going out? With a guy? Like on a date?"

I laugh and take another bite out of my muffin. It's less hot this time but I still should have waited another minute or two.

"Yeah...why is that so surprising? I can be pretty irresistible." I joke with yet another mouthful.

"Oh yes, so very sexy. How could I forget?"

She takes a paper towel and hands it to me to wipe the crumbs off my face. I chuckle, tossing it in the trash can when I'm finished.

"So what's his name? How'd you meet him? Is he cute? Do I know him? Does he have hot friends? Where does he work? How old is he? Has he ever-"

I interrupt her hoard of questions. "Holy hell, Maddy! I haven't even been out with him yet! His name is Miles and I met him at work."

"He works with you? You're dating an employee? That's scandalous."

I nudge her shoulder and drag my hands down my cheeks. "No! He was a customer. He thought I was cute apparently, so he wanted to take me out. Not much else to it."

I wasn't against telling Maddy about saving Miles when he was about to be mugged, but I definitely didn't think now was the best time for the backstory. I figured I'd see how this thing went before giving her all of the details. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't matter. If it does then there's no harm being done anyway. The only thing I'm risking is her being a little pissy because I temporarily kept one little thing from her. It's not like she's never lied to me about anything.

"How do you think Ben would feel?" She asks and crosses her arms.

What a weird question. I never would have expected Maddy of all people to ask me that.

"Why would I care what Ben thinks?"

She bites her lip and shoves both of her hands in her sweatshirt pocket. "I sort of went through your texts while you were sleeping. It was accidental though! I saw the one from Miles pop up and then I saw Ben's name on the side and I was kind of surprised so I clicked on it and read the ones from the party. Please don't be mad!" She blurts.

This just gives me a valid reason to not tell her everything because she'll snoop and find out no matter what I do. I'm not going to be angry about this. I can let things go if they're unimportant for the moment. Well, I can try to at least. 

Revised;