Page 132 of Paradox
“You mean this?” I ask, holding up the plate, then panning up Eden’s body until our eyes meet.
He’s still sipping on the brown sugar coffee I made him, and looking fine as hell while doing it. He’s layered the almost threadbare black and red flannel over a plain henley tee, and he looks good enough to eat.
His dark hair is pulled back and the shaved part has grown enough that most of the spiderweb is covered. And annoyingly, now that I can’t see it, I miss the damn thing.
“I don’t think it’s fair that you’ve gotten to eat two whole cakes.”
With an apathetic shrug, I put the plate back down and re-open my book. “I told you you weren’t getting any, and because you thought it would be a disaster, you were happy with that deal. And, it’s not like I’ve been eating all the other meals, too. This has been my breakfast the past, what… four days?”
“You know I could have just gotten myself a piece?”
I grin the sweetest, most innocent looking grin I can. “But you wouldn’t do that, now would you?”
With his free hand, Eden holds on to my chin and leans down to kiss me.
He tastes like coffee, and I taste like pancakes.
Ending it with a chaste peck on my lips, he drags up the words I’ve been wanting to tell him for days—but I quickly press my lips together.
I’ve talked myself in and out of how he feels so many times at this point.
One minute I can feel the same words dancing on his tongue, then, the next, he’s unnervingly composed and almost indifferent.
But his hands never lie.
The way they touch, and grab me. It’s getting fiercer, like he’s reached the limit of what he can handle as well.
“A… Are… I meandoyou have much you need to get done this morning?”
Eden walks backwards to the kitchen and puts his mug in the sink. “Why? Are you gonna help me?”
“Wasn’t planning on it.” I hold up the latest mediocre book in Shawn’s collection. “Gotta force my way through this one.”
“So why read it if you don’t like it?”
“I don’t know.” I shrug. “I guess it’s not about that. I mean, they wouldn’t have all been published if someone didn’t like them.”
Eden takes his coat off the hook by the door, and puts it on. “Yeah, but that’s just like saying all music deserves to be listened to.”
“It does. It doesn’t mean you have to like it. But sticking to the one thing forever without seeing if there is something else you like—”
“Are you trying to tell me something?”
I shoot him a cheeky grin. “Well, seeing you asked. Would it kill you to play something other than eighties metal?”
“Yes, I think it might.”
“Hmmm.” I nod thoughtfully, and raise the book again. “Then I think it might kill me to share my last piece of cake.”
“Better not make any mess, then,” he blurts out, and before I can do anything to stop him, he’s shoving the cake in his mouth.
“You prick!” I shout and spring after him, but he’s already slammed the cabin door shut. Running back to the sofa, I jump on it and bang on the side window to get his attention. “You’ll pay for that!”
Turning towards me, he cups his hand behind his ear like he can’t hear me, and I flip him the bird. Then, like I’ve blown him a kiss, he pretends to pull my finger off and shoves it in his mouth. So I slam my other middle finger against the glass, and this time he shoves it up his nose before disappearing inside the shed.
With a twist, I flop down into the soft sofa cushions, and sulk, because, screw him for making that something I find endearing.
Pivoting again when I hear the shed door close, I watch Eden carry the broom and ladder towards the back of the cabin.
