Catching Feelings

Chapter 22

They made their way into the kitchen. Raven sat in a chair with a high back at the island counter top while he rummaged through the refrigerator. Drake stared at the semi blank space inside the cold box. There was nothing in there but some take out containers, bottled water, a few eggs, some cheese, and milk that he just knew was spoiled. Normally, he'd send someone to go grocery shopping when he was in town, but he was doing so much running around that he forgot to.

Drake closed the door to the fridge and turned around to face Raven. "There's absolutely nothing in there."

"Let me see." Raven hopped off the chair and joined him at the refrigerator. She opened it and looked inside just as he did.  After poking around, she grabbed the eggs and cheese and closed the door behind her. She sat the items down on the counter, "I need a bowl, a pan, a spatula, and a fork." said Raven.

Drake complied and gathered everything she asked for. He sat the pan on the stove and brought everything else to her. "Scrambled eggs?" he asked smirking.

"Nope, cheese omelet."

Raven mixed up the eggs, and about five minutes later, they were both sharing a cheese omelet. Drake sat on one side of the island and Raven sat on the other and they both picked off the same plate. He was liking this. It's been a while since he was able to just chill with a woman after just having sex.

Normally he'd pretend to be asleep and show them the door in the morning, but Raven was different. He always suspected that, but now he knew for sure. She had the ability to make him laugh, but not on purpose, she's smart, sarcastic when she wanted to be, beautiful, and on top of that, she had a career and wasn't just aspiring for something. He looked at her and saw no flaws, and that was too good to be true, something had to be wrong. "Can I ask you something?"

"Ask away?" she replied with a smile.

"What happened with you and your ex?" That conversation at her mom's dinner table never left his mind, he just never found the right time to bring it up again. He noticed that her smile disappeared at the mention of her ex, maybe now wasn't a good time either. "You don't have to answer that, I was just-"

"No, it's okay." Raven stopped picking at the omelet, and sat her fork down on the plate. "I met Drew in high school, but we didn't start dating until our senior year. He was the point guard on the basketball team, and I was a cheerleader, I know... cheesy right?"

Drake smiled at her sardonic eye roll that made her look like a little girl, especially sitting there in his oversized shirt. "Very." He replied, and stuffed his fork in his mouth continuing to eat as she went on.

"Anyway, I got accepted to Stella Adler, which is one of the best acting schools in LA, but he got a basketball scholarship to Syracuse here in New York. He didn't want me to move so he gave me an ultimatum, either I go to LA or I stay in NY and marry him. Once he said marriage, I forgot about everything else. I know now that he proposed to keep me from going to LA, and like a fool I fell for it. After that, I found myself making one comprise after another to keep him happy and ended up putting aside my own happiness. I stayed in New York, took classes at Alvin Ailey's and booked dance gigs to pay for the studio that I'm in now. When he got drafted, that's when all of our problems came to the forefront. He was always out of town or too busy, so I became busy. I started to travel, doing shows and tours to keep my mind off of what he was doing with his time. Pretty soon he started to get jealous and accuse me of cheating, and when a man starts doing that, he's usually doing something that he feels guilty about."

Drake laughed, but he had to admit there was some truth in this. "Is that so?"

"Yes it is." She replied. When the fingers start pointing, that's one of the biggest tell-tale signs that the relationship is going bad. "So I was doing a show in Vegas, and Drew calls me to hit me with another one of his ultimatums. He said either I come home, or he's calling off the wedding. Mind you, at this point we were engaged for almost five years, he never intended to go through with the wedding in the first place, he just wanted to use the ring as a handcuff, and I'm not gonna lie, it worked for a while. Anywho, we got into an argument and I hung up on him, but just his luck the show was cancelled, so I headed home early. I go to his place to surprise him, but instead I find him in bed with Dollicia, who happened to my roommate at the time." Raven's head tilted to the side and her eyes squinted as if she was thinking. "I guess I was the one who was surprised." She said jokingly. Looking back on it, she had no choice but to laugh. Raven picked her fork back up to finish eating. There wasn't much left on the plate because Drake ate most of it while she was talking.   

"Damn," was the only response he could form as he stared at Raven. This explained why she fought him tooth and nail in the beginning. She was jaded from her past relationship, and adding Dollicia to the mix only made matters worse.

"Yeah, after that I promised myself that I would never put my life on hold for a guy." Raven got up from her seat to take the empty plate over to the sink. She turned the faucet on and let hot water run over the dish as she poured soap onto a sponge. Her number one pet peeve was seeing dirty dishes in the sink, so she stood there washing the plate.

A smirk formed on Drake's face as he watched her looking all domesticated. They had definitely come a long way from her giving him the cold shoulder at her studio. He licked his lips and got up from his chair. "Well whoever he is, I have to thank him." Drake said as he approached her like a predator stalking its prey.

Raven still had her back to him. She rinsed the plate off and sat it in the dish rack next to the sink. "Why is that?" she asked as she dried her hands on a kitchen towel. When she turned around, she was staring directly at his bare chest.

Drake removed the towel from Raven's hand and stepped closer to her. He backed her against the counter with his body pressed against her, as his hand reached up to face to caress her cheek. Drake used his thumb to remove her messy bed hair that clouded her eyes that he loved staring in.

"Because, if he didn't do what he did, you wouldn't be here with me." Drake replied sounding so suave. Raven wanted to melt right there, but instead she stood on her toes to kiss him.

Her tongue slid against his plump bottom lip making him open up to her. His lips pressed against hers brazenly, expressing his want, when all of a sudden he pulled away from her. Raven stood there with swollen lips and wide eyes filled with confusions. Just when she was about to ask him what was wrong, a loud gasp escaped her as she was lifted up over his shoulder. 

"What are you doing?" Raven asked between laughter.

"Going back to bed now shut it up." He replied giving her bottom a smack.

"Aubrey, you better not drop me." She warned as he carried her out of the room.

"Hold on, I forgot something." Drake doubled back into the kitchen and over to the fridge.

She quirked up a curious eyebrow when she heard him moving stuff around. The next thing she heard was the door slamming. When Raven looked down, she saw a can of Reddi Whip in his hand. "What the hell did I get myself into?" she asked shaking her head from side to side.