Page 65 of Fragile Love (Fragile 3)
“Morning,” she whispered. The bags under her eyes were purple, but much less swollen than they were last night.
He smiled, and nestled up against her. “Good morning.” Should he bring up last night or just leave it alone?
“How’d you sleep?”
“Good. How ‘bout you?”
She shrugged, and closed her eyes. He lay watching her for a few minutes, not sure what to do or say. He’d created this mess. No, wait. That crazy psycho bitch had. He’d been trying to handle the situation for weeks. There was no way he could’ve known she was going to show up last night and try to verbally attack Lil. It was ridiculous. He sighed, and rolled onto his back. This was a mess, and he had no idea how to fix it.
They barely said anything to each other while they got dressed. She went through her usual morning routine, washing her face and spraying on that good-smelling stuff. That was his favorite part.
They walked hand in hand all the way to the breakfast table. The host who greeted them, an older man with a nice accent, glanced at their interlocked fingers and smiled, saying nothing about it but treating them with extra care.
“What are you going to get?” he asked Lillian. Her eyes had been locked on the laminated page of breakfast sets for a few minutes, unmoving. His voice seemed to startle her, and she looked at him for a second before it registered what he had asked.
“I think the toast,” she said, unsure.
The waiter approached their table with a kind smile. “Good morning! Have you both decided which set you would like?”
“Yes,” Cayden said, stacking his and Lillian’s menus. “One pancake set and one waffle set. Orange juice and coffee for both. Scrambled eggs for one and over easy for the other.”
The waiter nodded, took the menus, and walked away. Lillian stared blankly at Cayden. “I think I said the toast...”
“I heard you.”
“So—”
“You need extra nourishment today.” He didn’t want to argue, but was hoping the smell of the food would get her eating. What if she had a flare-up because she wasn’t eating? “Katharina needs you to be feeling your best, and toast isn’t going to help your energy levels at all. The guest house is the same size as your place.”
Lillian frowned, and slouched just a little more. “Sorry.”
“Come on, Lil,” he groaned. “Don’t apologize. I’m taking care of you, just like I told Katharina I would.”
She looked up. “Katharina?”
“I talked to her last night right after you fell asleep. Before dinner. That—” he fought to keep from spewing out curse words or sounding angry, and Lillian knew who he was re
ferring to “—used to be friends with Katharina. It wasn’t long ago that she went crazy, trying to sabotage her.”
“Why would someone want to sabotage Katharina?”
“The industry they’re in is enough reason,” Cayden replied. “But she and Katharina had been friends for a while. Several years. Katharina helped her make it to where she is now. And one day, she just turned on her. It was a really bad situation. K wouldn’t even talk much about it.”
Lillian looked heartbroken. “What did she do about it?”
“What I tried to do. Handle it as quietly as possible. Luckily Sierra came to a pretty quick stop doing whatever it was that she was doing.” The waiter brought their orange juice and coffee, and Cayden thanked him. “Like I said, I don’t know all the details. In my opinion, Katharina handled it well, so I tried to do the same and be as mature about it as possible.”
“Because you aren’t trying to sabotage her.”
“Exactly. I could have reacted out of frustration in the heat of the moment. It would have stopped it from getting out of control, but it would have tarnished my reputation here and made me no better than her.” He poured some half and half out of a small ceramic jug. The white swirled in with his coffee, making a pretty spiral pattern. “I guess because she’s been established here longer, she thinks she has the upper hand on me.”
“So, you told Katharina about what happened?” she asked softly, cradling each word like it was an egg.
Cayden nodded. “Katharina was really upset. She said she would make sure it was taken care of, and told me to look after you this morning.”
Lillian looked at the clock on the wall. “I need to leave right after breakfast.”
“Nah, you don’t. She said the cleaners wouldn’t be done until eleven or something. Said not to rush over.”
