Page 17 of Agony

I heard the door close and the sound of footsteps as they walked into the kitchen.

The silence that followed would have been uncomfortable had I been a willing participant in it.

Arsen jingled his keys in his hand.

Addie cleared her throat.

I swiped to the next news story.

“You can sit next to sour puss,” Addie told Arsen. “She’s been a grouch all morning, so don’t worry about it.”

I could sense the hesitation in his steps as he walked over and sat down in the stool next to me.

“Hi,” he said softly.

“Morning,” I replied curtly.

“There’s no reason to be such a bitch, Neve,” Addie said.

“You’re right. There isn’t. So if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to head out now. Have a great breakfast guys! Try not fuck each other,” I said brightly as I went into the living room and slipped on my flip flops.

“Neve Grace Dutton! You stop right there!” Adesynne yelled as I got to the door.

I had only ever heard her that angry one time before. It was the first and last time I went out with her. Some guy had been aggressively hitting on me and I kept trying to shove him away. When he grabbed my ass and tried to kiss me, all hell broke loose in the form of Addie. She freaked out on the guy so bad that he and his friends left.

I turned to face her and she grabbed me by the arm and dragged me back into the kitchen.

“I never expected you to be the kind of person that would make assumptions based on what someone does for a living. You were raised better than that. You don’t have to be accepting of what Arsen does but you don’t have to be condescending either. Apologize. Now,” she said, scolding me.

I hung my head. She was right; I was raised better than this. I was always told to never judge a person by what they did or a book by its cover. I glanced at Arsen with tears in my eyes and he was looking down at his hands on the counter.

“I’m sorry, Arsen,” I whispered.

He cleared his throat before he talked, “I don’t want an apology, Neve. I wouldn’t be here right now if I didn’t feel so strongly that something great could happen between us; I’ve already told you that. What I do want is for you to try to put what I do in the back of your mind and not think about it.”

“That’s a fair request, Cuz,” Addie said, putting an arm around my shoulders. “Besides, it’s obvious that you two like each other. And you look damn cute together,” she whispered into my ear.

I laughed and she grinned. I took a deep breath and let it out before I went back to sit next to Arsen who was still looking at his hands. I turned myself so that I was slightly facing him and he turned to look at me.

I crossed my eyes and stuck my tongue out. He laughed and stopped fiddling with his hands.

Addie placed two loaded plates in front of us before she fixed herself a plate and leaned against the counter.

“You should probably tell me your full name too, in case I ever need to yell at you,” she said playfully to Arsen.

“Arsen Caldwell,” he replied with a laugh.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Addie replied with a grin.

I sat quietly eating my breakfast while the two of them talked. Addie asked him how long he had lived in Odessa Valley and she told him what New York, the real New York, was like.

The house phone suddenly rang and I got up to answer it.

“Hello?”

“I’m looking for Neve Dutton,” a deep voice said pleasantly on the other end.

“Speaking,” I replied curiously.

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