HEADLINE ✓

TRACK 30

"Ow! Mother fucker!"

I heard a voice yell, followed by the sound of crashing dishes, once I entered my home. I dropped my luggage by the front door and slowly approached the kitchen, where audible curses were still heard.

TJ stood by the oven, shaking her hand widely with a grimace expression. She was wearing an apron over her clothing that was splattered with flour. 

"What are you doing at home already?"

"My flight came in early," I said, approaching her as I noticed the oven door was still wide open. "What are you doing in my house? How did you get in here?"

"I was-" her voice was muffled by the fact that her hand was now in her mouth, soothing what I assumed was a burn.

I went to her side, guiding her body away from the oven and towards the sink. Running the cold water, I checked to ensure it was freezing before I removed her hand from her mouth and ran it under the water. "Sorry, care to try that again?"

She gave me a sheepish smile. "I was going to surprise you with dinner," she said, removing her hand from the water to point at the oven. "But that thing is a fucking evil machine!"

"TJ, you need to keep your hand under the water."

"But it's cold!" she whined.

I rolled my eyes and leaned forward. "That's the point."

She placed her hand back under the water and pouted her bottom lip. "Kiss."

I quickly pecked her lips, mumbling, "hi" against them, before giving her another kiss.

"Hi," she repeated, kissing me once again. "How was your flight. Oh- shit wait, can you put that chicken in the oven?"

I nodded, releasing my grip on her hand, giving her a warning look to not move it and made my way over to the supposedly evil machine. I placed the item into the oven, safely closed the door and turned to her, pleased to see her hand had not moved. "Timer?"

"It's already set. You just need to press start."

I followed her instructions and noticed a certain dessert on top of the stove. "Did you make apple pie?"

Following her nod in response, I asked, "Did you guess that was my favourite?"

"I, uh, called your mom."

"You did?" I walked back over to her. "So, you broke into my house and somehow got Ma's phone number?"

"Well, Ryan gave me the number and helped me get inside today," she said, biting the inside of her cheek. "Are you mad?"

"Mad? Not at all." I reached my hand up, wiping away the swipe of flour that had ended up on her cheek. "This is the nicest welcome home surprise I've ever had."

TJ let out a sigh of relief. "Thank god. I even made you a lame welcome home sign."

I looked over my shoulder, noticing the large piece of poster board that was taped to the wall, centred right behind the dining room table. I wondered if she chose that spot intentionally - however, to save a possible awkward encounter of remembering past memories, I decided to ignore my urge to ask.

"You did that?" I asked, turning back to face her. "God, I missed you."

"I missed you too," she said, her face lighting up with a smile.

When she had left that Friday afternoon, it was hard to let her go, even though - at that point in time - I was supposed to be home only a few days later. She had given me her phone number before she got on the plane, making a joke about how her boyfriend didn't even have a way of calling her. At least I now had clarity over the fact that TJ never blocked me - she explained how her phone had broken and Hank took the opportunity to get them all new devices and numbers.