Crumbling Cakes

Part XXIII (23) *POV Bonus*

A/N: Another chapter, another bonus! To my stateside readers, Happy Thanksgiving! To everyone else, Happy Thursday! Let me know what ya think so far if you have feelings to share and Enjoy!

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"Leaving somewhere?" My head sank into my shoulders, a silly attempt to disappear in place. Dalia, one day you really must learn how to sneak away successfully from Ronaldo. I used to be good at this, now I couldn't walk out of my room without him knowing it before I even passed through the door.

That's because you're in tune to each other, you know exactly when he's moving about too...

Yea about that... let's not dwell about our one mind just yet. The shmelding—that would be smoosh and meld—can wait for another day. I straightened out in preparation for his curiosity and what I could possibly tell him. Turning around with my teeth showing in what I hoped was remotely close to a smile, I faced my interrogator. I was pretty sure I looked constipated...

"Oh, nowhere exactly..." My head jerked slightly to make up for my "smile", somehow I don't think it helped. "Just a bit of grocery shopping." Not entirely untruthful.

"You just went grocery shopping earlier this week." He eyed me, eyes squinting in disbelief. Crap, right he was. But how was I to tell him that I binge ate all my soups since my little confession about the past? Or that there was a very formidable shop owner that had worse glaring eyes than him when I didn't make an appearance from time to time. On second thought, I rather confess about the soups. Lei would take a day and a half to explain.

"Fine you got me, I'm going to get more cups if you must now." I sagged against the wall, the surface bracing my shoulder and head; my world now tilted on an angle. Sebastian looked amused and exasperated.

"Those soups," He shook his head loosely. "Didn't you have a mountain of them?"

"I know, it's a possible addiction, but it's been a stressful week and no I did not have a mountain of them." My affronted airs were a ploy to keep him distracted. "I'll break away from them. Eventually."

See Sebastian did not particularly hold the same penchant for my instant soup pals. Why? Because they're filled with sodium and don't hold the nutritional value you need. At least that's what he said to me when he watched me haul my "mountain" into the kitchen, where I proceeded to hide them. I also suspected, to him they were a reminder that I was sleeping in a storage unit about a fortnight ago. It was sweet, his concern, but I couldn't exactly cut cold turkey. That was just ridiculous.

The quick cups were the one thing that always stayed the same no matter where I was at a given point in my life. So when things get tough, they are there for me to drown in. Maybe one day I'll explain it to him. Right now I needed to scoot out the door because I was already late and Lei would make sure I knew it.

"Alright, give me a sec. I'll go with you. Otherwise, you'll topple over with the stockpile you're bound to come back with." He turned away to go grab his keys. "Moderation is key to weaning you off of them anyway."

Crap. He couldn't come with. Lei would eat me alive! Nothing says dirty liar like showing up with the man you said you weren't dating then dropping the bomb that you lived together. But, you know, you're not together... "Wait! It's really fine you don't need to go out of your way to-"

"It's no trouble, Shorts." He said over his shoulder before freezing, rotating just enough to get a good look at me. "Unless that's not where you're really going." Bollocks. How does he do this? How does he work his way in in a matter of seconds and basically extract information I had vowed to keep to myself? He wasn't even trying that's what made this whole thing absurd.