Cupid's Granddaughter

14 - New Friend & New Date

The next day I arrived at Nate’s house in a bit of a sour mood. After the whole café ordeal, we only spoke when necessary. After he had a closet full of clean clothes, I left him alone for the rest of the afternoon.

Nate opened his door, looked me up and down once, and then walked away leaving the door ajar. I followed him inside his apartment ready to yell at him for being so moody. I was only doing my job after all. I prepared myself for the argument to come when I noticed that Nate and I weren’t alone.

"Good morning Peyton,” Sean greeted happily as he flipped through Nate’s TV channels.

I didn’t bother to hide my confusion as I glanced over at Nate. Did he expect me to tell Sean what I did? If he did then he was surely mistaken.

“Morning,” I finally spoke. “What are you doing here?”

“Just came to hang out,” Sean replied not even bothering making eye contact. Nate had moved into the kitchen as we spoke and I joined him quickly.

I whispered so only he could hear, “What’s going on?”

Nate shrugged. “Nothing. He stopped by and wanted to hang out here so I said it was cool.”

“Did you tell him?” Nate absentmindedly grabbed some things from the fridge.

He stopped making whatever he planned to cook and looked at me. “Does it look like I told him?”

I bit my lip and studied Sean who didn’t seem overly happy or devastated.

“I guess not.”

Nate resumed his cooking and I noticed that his attitude toward me was still a little bitter. “Are you going to tell him?” I had to ask.

“No.” Nate began preparing a pan on the stove. “But how can I hang out with him knowing that his wife could be cheating on him right now? It’s going to kill me inside.”

I let out a deep breath. “I’m sorry okay? Is that what you want to hear from me? I was just doing my job and I know this is unfair to him. You can relax; it’s going to take time before Grace tells him.”

“Before Grace tells me what?” Sean asked suddenly causing me to jump. I don’t know how he entered the kitchen so quietly.

“Before Grace tells you that we were at the café she works at yesterday,” I covered quickly as Nate threw something into his pan on the stove causing it to sizzle.

“Oh,” Sean mumbled raiding the fridge and pulling out a can of beer.  “So you met her?”

I nodded. “Yes but she didn’t know it was me that is why she won’t tell you anytime soon.”

“Cool.” Sean walked away and opened his drink. I sighed and leaned on the counter then crossed my arms over my chest while I watched Nate.

“Are you ready for your date tonight?” I asked as he did that cool thing where you throw food up in the air and catch it in the pan.

“Yeah,” he muttered while watching his food.

“Good,” I commented feeling awkward. “I expect a full report tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Nate said not bothering to face me.

I scowled at him. “What did I do to you?”

That seemed to get his attention. “You let me into your life then you pushed me away.”

“What?”

“You take me to this party where I meet the people that are in your life and you breakdown. Then you let me comfort you and then you tell me to stay out of your life?” Nate stated the last part as a question as if silently begging me to correct him.