Page 22 of Fragile Kiss (Fragile 2)
He smiled. “Mom’s recipe. I’d give it to you, but you don’t cook like this, so...”
Lillian chuckled through another bite. “It wouldn’t be any good. If I end up with someone who cooks, I’ll probably get you to hand it over.”
She expected him to laugh and make some snide remark back, but he just smiled down at his plate and chewed a mouthful.
Maybe I shouldn’t mention relationships around him. She got the vibe that Andrew’s feelings were a little more fragile than she had expected.
“Well, anyway,” he said after a few moments, “tell me about this call.”
Her stomach lurched. “The thought of it just made my whole appetite disappear.”
“Never mind. Finish eating, then tell me.”
She nodded dully, ignoring that the energy between them had totally shifted since she made the recipe comment. Drama with Andrew is the last thing I need right now.
They made light conversation over the rest of the meal and cleaned the kitchen together. He poured her more wine and wouldn’t let her wipe the table, commanding her to go sit down in the living room by the heater. She knew he was trying to spoil her, but she wasn’t used to not doing anything when there was company over.
Come to think of it, she wasn’t used to not doing anything ever.
“Phew,” Andrew sighed, plopping down on the couch. “All clean. Now we can relax.”
All she could think about from her position in her reading chair was that Cayden had lounged in the exact spot where Andrew sat now.
“You look upset.”
“I wish I could have helped you cook,” she replied quickly.
“Don’t worry about it.” He propped his feet up on the ottoman and folded his arms behind his head. “Tell me about earlier. Cayden called?”
She took a deep breath and curled up in the corner of the big chair. “It wasn’t Cayden who called. But he arranged the call.”
Lillian could see the gears spinning in Andrew’s head. “I don’t get it.” Andrew glanced toward the window. “Cayden’s in Los Angeles, right?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I thought that after the breakup and telling him to move on and see other people, I wouldn’t hear anything from him. At most, I expected to hear something if he came back to get his stuff from his house and move out there.”
“Why would he need to talk to you if he came back to move away?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I organized all his shit when he first moved away, so maybe he would need to ask me something. That’s beside the point. The point is, he’s still talking about me.”
“About you?”
“I told him to move on. I think he is, with some client of his. She has an accent, I think from Europe. I know nothing about this chick.”
“And you’re upset that he’s moving on?”
“No, not at all.” She rubbed her neck. Her body felt tense. “But, this woman calls me up.”
Andrew’s eyes lit up. “Oh. She told you off?”
“The opposite. I think that’s why I’m kind of wigged out right now.”
“What’s the opposite of telling off? Did she profess her love for you or something?”
Lillian scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous. Cayden apparently told her about what I do. She just moved and can’t get organized. By the sound of it, her house is in an awful mess right now and she needs help.”
“And Cayden has to do what with this?”
“Don’t you get it?” She sat up and stared Andrew in the face. “Cayden is supposed to be disconnecting from me. I broke up with him and told him to move on. To see other people. I told him that I would, too. I’ve tried everything to get him to forget about me, and yet here he is, talking about what I do to one of his hookups, who happens to need someone help her settle into her house.”
