Her Safety

Chapter Six

The next morning DeAngelo, or Angelo, as I liked to call him, woke me up with a knock at my front door. Luckily for me, my family were all heavy sleepers. Grabbing my robe and wrapping it tightly around me, I groggily answered the door to an impatient business-man who was relentlessly barking orders through his phone. Pretty typical, right? Once I finally caught his attention, he let out a laugh.

"Morning sunshine," He pulled me against him.

"Whoa there buddy, too soon. We're not there just yet." I pushed him away. Don't mess with me in the morning.

Angelo took in my appearance. Knotty hair, pink pajamas, and fuzzy slippers, "Why don't you get freshened up? We have a lot to do today."

"Excuse me?" I whined, trudging into the kitchen with my "fiancé" in tow.

"You agreed to marry me, love. We have some work to do like, you know, plan a wedding?"

Slamming the kettle onto the stove, I whipped around, "Slow your roll Angelo. I accepted, but we have to discuss terms and rules and come to an agreement."

"What is it with you complicating everything?" He groaned, "Women."

"In case you forgot, I met you a month ago." I scowled at him.

He smoothed out the crease between my eyebrows, smiling down at me, "It feels like I've known you way longer."

I scoffed, "Why?"

"Mainly because I've already seen you with bedhead and you don't seem to care."

I suddenly felt self-conscious and with an order, I made my way to the shower, "Put the teabags in the kettle when it starts whistling."

Twenty minutes later I was a new person, with combed out hair, perfume and daytime attire on, rather than embarrassing slippers. I entered the kitchen to a struggling DeAngelo trying to wipe up a wet mess on the floor and at the same time trying to ice his hand. I burst out laughing, "I leave you alone for twenty minutes?"

He glared at me from the floor and it was a sight to see. Big, bossy Angelo in an expensive getup, cleaning tea from my kitchen floor, "Never touching a tea kettle again." He muttered, cradling his hand.

I pulled on his arm to see his red, swollen fingers and looked up at his angry face, "I burned myself."

"I see that," I pulled out more ice from the freezer and wrapped it in a rag, applying it to his hand. "Hold onto that for a moment." I walked into the bathroom, searching for the Neosporin to take care of the burns, to no avail. I walked back into the kitchen to see two tea cups filled with black tea and sugar alongside.

I tasted the tea cautiously, but I was surprised to find it perfectly made, "So you redeemed yourself," I smiled, impressed. Maybe he wasn't such a pretty boy after all.

"I told you, Nina. If there's something I want, nothing stops me from getting it."

And for some odd reason, his words lit a fire in my soul.

After we had some tea, Angelo decided to take me to his favorite breakfast spot. We entered the small, warm cafe, but all it did was remind me of my old job. The job that Angelo threatened my boss to fire me from. I suddenly felt angry,

"Do you like it?" Angelo asked.

"It reminds of this one place..." I said into the air, not looking at him, but speaking slowly, carefully.