Chapter 13
"Who the hell is this?" Darius asked standing in the doorway, with his gym bag in his hand hanging loosely from his shoulder, still in his workout clothes. His eyes fixed on Matthew with a sharpness that instantly made the bakery feel very intense.
"I can explain" I blurted out quickly as I sprung up from the chair nearly knocking my knee against the table in the process. My hands in the air like I was just caught robbing a bank, my gaze flickering between Darius and Matthew.
Matthew's eyebrows knotted in confusion, his eyes on moving between the two of us, sitting there in utter shock as his eyes widened. The realisation slowly settling in as his expression shifted completely.
"I didn't know you had a boyfriend" he said as he stood up hurriedly, his voice coming off taut, almost knocking the coffee mug coasters off the table.
I whipped my head to him immediately.
"Oh no, he's not–" I began hoping to correct the misunderstanding but was interrupted by Darius again.
"Who is this Andrea?" he asked getting pissed off that I was ignoring him, I didn't blame him I was with a strange man he had never seen and he had the urge to protect me.
Matthew grabbed his coat from behind the chair as he began to leave, his mouth etched in a frown with furrowed brows.
Why did he look mad?
Was he jealous?
The thought hit me so suddenly that I actually laughed in my head after thinking about it.
Why the hell would he be jealous?
"Wait Matthew–"
I tried to stop him but he just brushed past me not even looking me in the eye, nodding at Darius without saying a word before he left.
The bell at the bakery door choking slowly as he closed it.
"What are you doing here?" I turned to Darius, wondering what he was doing here on a Saturday as I tried to recover from that interaction.
"And why are you dry?" I asked as I patted him down. He was wearing running shorts and Jersey. I usually went to the gym on Saturdays and he went for his running club and then after that we both went home, so I was surprised as to why he didn't just go home after running.
"What are you talking about" he frowned at me "It stopped raining like 30 minutes ago" he replied walking to switch on the lights, instantly illuminating the bakery in all of its glory.
"I forgot my air pods" he plopped his bag on the counter "Now will you stop ignoring my fucking question"
I exhaled slowly, I did have to answer him at some point.
"That's um…."I scratched the side of my face awkwardly. "Matthew."
"Who?" He asked staring at me aloof
"You remember that date I went on" I paused, my eyes now on the ground. "The one my mum set me up for"
His eyes narrowing as he tried to to remember.
"I'm sorry, what" he said as he reached for a chair to sit like he suddenly realised his legs needed support.
"The same date you walked out of because he said something stupid"
"Yes" I winced.
"The same person you said bullied you in high school and you were just going for because you were bored and needed a an excuse to dress pretty"
I sighed dramatically "When you repeat everything back to me like that you make it sound way worse"
"Because it is bad" he deadpanned immediately.
"You amaze me sometimes Andrea" he said as he let out a sad chuckle dragging his fingers across his face lazily.
"I know right" I laughed weakly along with him.
We sat there for a while in total silence and in those few seconds I couldn't lay my finger on what was going through his head, was he judging me, was he pitying me, I couldn't tell.
"Why didn't you tell me though" he finally asked quietly.
The hurt in his eyes made me feel guilty instantly.
I made a mistake.
"We tell each other everything Rea"
"I know," I admitted softly "I'm sorry. I should have told you"
"I just" I sighed "I just needed to do this for myself"
Darius stayed silent, staring at me.
"And I knew you would talk me out of it"
"Well obviously I would because that is the sane thing to do"
"Maybe I shouldn't have stopped seeing my therapist" I joked
"You stopped seeing your therapist" he shouted as his voice echoed in the empty shop as he looked at me with shock.
"Jesus Christ, it's not that big of deal, you don't need to scream"
I stopped seeing my therapist a month ago simply because I didn't think it made sense to keep spending money on sessions that weren't guaranteed to make me feel better. All my therapist did was listen to me, I know that's literally what they're supposed to do but atleast say something goddammit.
"Why would you do that" he asked throwing his hands in the air, looking at me in disbelief.
"I needed the money for something else, plus it was not really doing anything for me" I shrugged
"Oh my God Andrea, it is not a fucking Netflix subscription plan" he said throwing his hands into the air "It's not going to start working immediately you start going for it"
"You know what we'll talk about that later, let's focus on the other dumb thing you did" he said blowing out air as he readjusted in his seat.
"You don't think it's kinda weird that he agreed to meet with you?" He asked
"It did until I heard what he had to say" I said my eyes gleaming with excitement from holding it in this whole time.
"What?"
"He proposed a contract marriage" I said my eyes locked with his.
His mouth fully agape by the time the words had fully dropped from my mouth.