Invisible String

Chapter 8 - It's Nice to Have a Friend

I fell asleep in Alex's arms after talking and crying about the night's events. When I woke up in the morning, we were in my bed. He was already awake, flipping through a book from my nightstand. When he felt me move, he looked over and smiled. My eyes opened tiredly, and a yawn escaped from my mouth, but my hand blocked the odor from reaching him.

He leaned forward and kissed me on the lips, not caring about my morning breath, "Good morning, Sunshine."

"Morning," I smiled weakly, the feelings of the previous night's debacle still glued to the back of my mind. "Do you want breakfast?"

"I ordered some already. It should be here... well, now-ish," he said while looking down at his phone for the time.

He got out of bed with only tiny boxer-briefs on. He stretched his arms as I asked, "Where did you order breakfast from?"

"IHOP, I remembered how much you liked them and figured you'd want some comfort food when you woke up."

"Ew, IHOP delivers? Won't it be soggy?" I made a choking face and he laughed.

"No, the sauces are all on the sides. Nothing is soaked, just cooked, and ready to be served. I'm sure I could pay the delivery boy to stay and set it up, too."

"No, it's okay. I can set up my own food, Alex."

"Are you mad?"

"I'm not mad. I'm... confused. Why didn't you cook something here? I have plenty of food."

"I don't cook, Hannah."

"Really?" I thought back to when we'd dated before. We'd gone on at least twenty dates when we were together. He's right, though, not once had he ever cooked for me. "You can't cook, or you don't?"

"Both," he smiled. "It's terrible when I try. We're talking 'Cajun' everything."

We both laughed and he got dressed in his black button-up shirt and grey dress pants from yesterday. I stood up, still in my pajamas from last night and shed them immediately. I didn't want to remember. Not right now.

I walked into my closet while Alex leaned against the doorframe and watched me walk around in my underwear. Finally, I settled on a simple but pretty day dress. It was silky and light blue with pink flowers covering it. I'd always really liked this dress, but like the others, I'd only worn it once previously.

It slid over my skin quickly and Alex smirked, then said, "I like you in your underwear, but that dress is very nice, too."

I blushed and went to walk by him, but he stopped me and kissed me softly on the lips, his hand behind my head and his fingers in my hair. He pulled back and kissed me on the forehead before wrapping his arms around my shoulder and walking with me out into my living room.

The room was... different. There wasn't a food container to be seen. No garbage lying around, no clothes draped over furniture, no bottles scattered about, nothing. The room was spotless.

"Please don't tell me that you had some person that I don't know, come to my house and clean it while we were asleep? Because I will not be happy." I turned to face him and removed his arm from around me.

"Hannah, I did it. Last night, after you fell asleep, I carried you into your bedroom and put you in your bed. I wasn't tired yet, so I came out here, and I cleaned up. It was a mess."

"I know," I looked around the room, happy that it was clean but sad that he did it. "You really cleaned yourself?"

"Yes, cleaning happens to be something I do quite well."