𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐏𝐄𝐓 (joel miller) ✔️

chapter eleven: thalassophobia

"Before you judge, I've only lived here a month," Joel said with a chuckle.

"What? Oh my god no, it looks so cozy" Millie told him as she stood in his living room. It wasn't much furnished yet, but there was a small cute brown sofa in the center and across from it was a fireplace with a TV above it. And to the left of that, the entire wall was full of bookshelves, he really had a lot of books.

"Thank you, but some furniture is still missing," he replied. 
"Did you bring everything from California?"

"No, except for books, clothes and other personal things, I left everything there"

"What really? Why?"
"To avoid a lot of stress back home, plus it's not really easy to bring furniture to the other end of the country either" he replied while the two of them went into the kitchen.

Compared to the living room, the kitchen was completely furnished and there was also a small dining table with two chairs next to the counter.

"I can't offer you any coffee or tea, I'm sorry, I'm still waiting for the coffee machine to be delivered, but Steven brought me some groceries a few days ago," he explained while opening the fridge.

"That's really nice of him" Millie said with a smile.

"Yes, I'm also very grateful. And help yourself, you can take whatever you want"

"Really?"

"Yeah sure" he told her and Millie took out one of the two coke cans.

"Would you like the other one?"

"Sure why not" he answered and she put the can in his hand.

As Mr. Miller set up the chessboard, she became curious again, "Do you miss LA?"

"Not really, but maybe the weather a bit"

"I hate hot weather. I'm happy to live in New York. I can't even imagine how uncomfortable the weather would be for me in LA" she said with a chuckle.

"Yeah, it can get pretty hot, but it's still comfortable compared to Las Vegas or cities that don't have beaches"
"Hmm, I hate the ocean"
"You hate the ocean?"
"Yeah, it's so endless huge and deep and some weird ass animals live there. And i don't like sand"

"It sounds more like you're afraid of it."
"What? No, I'm not afraid of it. I just don't like it" Millie said quickly.

"Have you ever been swimming in the ocean?" he then asked with a smirk.

"No, and I don't want to either," she said and crossed her arms in front of her chest, which made Mr. Miller chuckle.

"Okay, maybe I'm scared. But as if you aren't afraid of anything?"

"I don't know"

"You don't know? That's fucking bullshit" she said laughing.

"Millie? Language" he said with a grin.

"What? Bullshit is not even a bad word. You're an university professor, not an elementary school teacher," she replied also grinning.

He didn't answer anymore and set up the chess pieces. 
"Do you want me to explain the rules again?"

"Hey, you're trying to get off topic," she said, grinning.

"What are you talking about?" he asks confused

"What are you afraid of?"

"I thought you wanted to play chess?"

"Oh come on, there must be something, now I'm curious.  Maybe height? Or spiders? Tight spaces?"