Stoking The Fire

Chapter Five

About five hours of sleep later and I'm up with the sun, as usual. Even when I'm exhausted and injured, being in a new place does nothing to help me sleep soundly. I note that his door is closed and I hear no sounds of movement in the house as I creep to the shower, but by the time I'm done I smell coffee brewing in the kitchen. Once I make my way down there, I see that it's just an automatic timer on the pot, and I breathe a sigh of relief. While I was feeling better about some things now than I had been last night, there's no way I'm ready to hash anything else out with him at this moment.

I consider pouring myself a cup of coffee, but I decide that it's probably a bad idea. I doubt he had any safe non-dairy milk for me to drink, and I highly doubt that he used anything other than refined white sugar. I wasn't about to tell him how they refined it though. Nope. With a sigh I turn and walk over to the patio doors, hugging my arms against my chest as I watch the sun fully wake up. Gods, the view from his back garden is breathtaking. I'd step outside, but I don't know how his alarm system works and I'm not about to wake him up by setting it off like an idiot.

"Awe inspiring, isn't it?" As his voice comes from my left, I realize I've been so lost in the view that I didn't hear him walk up behind me. I also realize he's so close to me that I can feel the heat from the blankets still radiating off of him. One quick glance to the left confirms that he sleeps in pajama bottoms only, and I quickly avert my gaze back out the window. For a man in his early fifties, holy shit.

"Coffee?" I start to shake my head, but he continues speaking before I can. "I don't have any oatmilk, but I do have some soymilk creamer I decided to try on a whim, the flavor looked interesting. Also, I have Sugar in the Raw." Since when did he start using creamer? He always struck me as a coffee black kind of guy, and usually sugar only when he was having a rough day.

"Uh, sure, I guess? Thanks?" I sputter, as he walks away chuckling.

"Oh don't thank me just yet Kari, I'm blatantly bribing you here." I can hear the grin in his voice.

"With coffee? What kind of bribe do you possibly think you can get with that?" I retort, as I watch him pour the coffee and just add random amounts of cream and sugar to mine. Thanks for asking, my dude. Of course, when I try it, it's pretty damned close to how I actually like to drink it, and once again I'm perplexed. At this point, the level of things he knows and remembers about my personal preferences is either very endearing, or oddly creepy. I'm on the fence about which one wins out, though.

"Well for one, I hope you're not going to throw anything else at me before I'm truly awake." I snort my coffee and choke a bit, before laughing.

"Oh my god dude it was a tiny electronic bug, it didn't even hit you. Fuck's sake, Nick." I jest, and my heart soars just a little to see the smile he gives me.

"That's very true, but I also happen to have this whole kitchen just full of things I wouldn't like to get hit with. The cup of coffee you're currently holding tops the immediate list, at the moment."

I set the cup down on the counter, and raise my hands in an 'I surrender' gesture. "Okay, that's fair. However, I feel a 'but' in there."

"Not exactly a 'but', but there are things we need to discuss and I would like to have a rational, honest, adult conversation about them. One where you don't pace and act all twitchy, and I'm not frustrated and angry and taking it out on you." I lean against the counter and cross one ankle over the other as I raise one eyebrow sardonically, giving him the 'go ahead' gesture before I cross my arms over my chest.

He matches my eyebrow energy before walking past me, beckoning me to come around the counter and sit. I comply, and he slides the case file over to me, and flips it over. I see that my name is blazened across it, and I sigh heavily as I look at him. He nods down to it again, and I make an 'okay, whatever' gesture with my hands before I open it up.