Birdie

17. Clean

She was loud.

She couldn't control her mouth.

She had attitude out the ass.

At home, when she sneezed she didn't cover her mouth, or even sneeze into her elbow.

And she had the mouth of a sailor.

She talked in her sleep.

She needed to smile more.

She slipped in the shower almost every day.

She was the sweetest thing Chance had ever met, and she was smart too.

All of this ran through his head at any moment of the day, there was rarely a time when he wasn't thinking about Carmen. That woman pissed him off and got on his nerves like no other, but she treated him like he was her king, and Chance had never experienced that from a woman that wasn't his mother. It was about time he started treating her like his queen.

But this was Carmen he was talking about, and nothing about Carmen was easy.

CARMEN

When she got home from work, all that she wanted was to climb into the bed. She was tired, and by the end of the week, the built up fatigue made her want to crawl under her bed and not appear until she could go ten minutes without staring randomly off into space.

She was still adjusting.

Almost a year and a half in jail, with no job fucked her up when she was released. Yes, Carmen had been excited to get back to work, and she still was, but to go from spending most of your day just reading, or talking, or testing out a new hobby, to being on your feet for up to ten hours had started to take its toll.

But Carmen didn't like to complain.

She was blessed enough to get her job back without too much repercussion, she had her car now, and she lived with a man that got offended when she paid a bill or two.

Other people were and had been in way worse predicaments. Carmen was just still adjusting.

Things like dinner she looked forward to everyday, getting to sit and talk with Chance, not having to guard her food, and eat with an arm around her plate because people did steal off trays in jail, being able to converse freely with someone she wasn't forced into knowing, it was amazing, but that also might have been because it was Chance.

That's why it hurt her feelings so much when he'd stopped eating with her.

When she unlocked the front door, and walked in, she was immediately hit with the smell of chicken mixing with other scents. Her mouth started to water.

She didn't even know that he could cook, honestly. That was Carmen's job.

"Did you make dinner, Chancellor?" Carmen called as she kicked off her shoes, and padded to the kitchen, yawning loudly as she did so.

He was standing at the stove, stirring rice when she climbed on the counter, and when he saw her, he nodded, then took a step over to her, and went to press his lips to the underside of her jaw. Carmen landed a punch in the center of his chest, which he took with a wince before speaking, "Damn it, you hit hard, but yeah. I'm about to make the plates, go sit down."