Looking down at my tingly nipples, I scold them softly, “Traitors,” before following him down the hallway.
“Seriously,” I say to his back, “you can’t just show up here.”
He grabs one of the white cups of coffee, turning and handing it to me. “If I would have called you and asked you to have breakfast, would you have said yes?”
“No,” I reply, crossing my arms over my chest in protest.
“Exactly, so I improvised.” He holds the cup up even higher so I can take it from him.
“Perhaps you shouldn’t,” I retort between clenched teeth as I grab the white cup from him.
“I got an everything bagel with egg and sausage or sesame seed with egg and bacon,” he states, opening the bag.
“You can take both those and eat them in your car.” I point over at the door, but he just laughs as he takes both sandwiches out of the bag and opens them on the counter.
“We can each have both.”
“I don’t want to have breakfast with you, Matthew,” I tell him point-blank. Yeah, she doesn’t want to have breakfast with you because she wants you to eat her vagina for breakfast, my head screams. I’m so afraid I’ve said those words out loud, I hold my lips together tightly.
“It’s just breakfast.” Matthew pulls out a stool for me and then another one for himself as he sits on it.
“You aren’t going to leave, are you?” I ask the question as my feet move toward the stool, and I get on it.
“Not until you eat, and we have a talk,” he says, pushing the food toward me.
“I don’t think there is anything left to talk about,” I say, picking up one half of a bagel and taking a bite.
“We need to talk about last night,” he counters, taking a bite of his own sandwich.
“Which part should we discuss?” I ask. “Should we discuss that you never told your fiancée about me, or maybe we should discuss the fact you kissed me without even thinking twice.”
“If you want me to tell Helena about you, I will, and that kiss was good.” He takes a bite. “Great even.” He chews. “It’s the best kiss we’ve ever had.”
I shake my head. “Unbelievable,” I mumble before my mouth agrees that the kiss was the best we’ve ever had.
“When I saw you for the first time again,” he starts, “it felt like a box I locked two years ago was suddenly opened, and I saw the light again.”
“Hold on while I go get the violin and you sing me a sad song,” I mock him. “You were fucking engaged to another woman.” My anger now comes out. “You literally asked another woman to spend the rest of her life with you.”
“No, I didn’t.” He shakes his head and all I can do is gasp at him.
“I met your fiancée!” I shout, pushing away from the island. “Literally, I was planning your wedding.”
“But I never asked her to marry me.” I stare at him, not sure what the hell he is saying to me. “It was just like she said we should get married, and I was like, yeah okay. Then we were engaged.” My mouth hangs open. “It was just sort of the next step.” He shrugs his shoulders. “Truth be told, we should have moved in with each other first.”
“You weren’t living with her?” I ask, my head spinning with this information.
“Nope. She sometimes stayed over, but not really,” he explains and I don’t know what to say. The minute we became a couple, we spent almost every night together, if I didn’t go to him, he would come to me. I can count on one hand the nights we didn’t spend together. “I thought it was the logical next step, but I quickly saw that it was a mistake. I’m sorry I hurt her.” He looks up at me now. “I’ll be forever sorry for that, but I can’t hate it too much because it brought you back into my life.” He taps his fingers on the counter nervously. “The minute I saw you, I knew it was wrong.”
“What if you hadn’t seen me?” I ask, my voice no more than a whisper. “If you never saw me again, you would have married her.”
“I don’t think so,” he says as if nothing happened. “Something felt off from the beginning, but it really came to light when I saw you.”
“This is not happening right now.” I put my hand on my forehead, trying to see if I have a fever and am delirious.
“My family is coming down this weekend to attend the game, and I’d like you to come also,” he informs me as if he didn’t just drop a bomb in my lap.