Cry Until You Bleed

32- Embarrassing Moments

*Blue Jackets dominated tonight! If you have a fave NHL team, let me know and I'll root for them*

“So you’re sure that you don’t mind helping me out?” Niles wonders as he parks Sophie’s car in the driveway of an upper-middle class house with a small garden that lines the front of the porch with tulips and carnations but they look like not much effort was put into upkeep on the flowers but they haven’t given up yet.

“If I minded, then I wouldn’t have come,” I tell him with a small laugh as we both get out of the car and I follow Niles up the stairs of the porch and then he unlocks the front door, swinging it open. “Really, it’s just some calculus, I can handle it.”

“Okay then,” He sighs. “Well, welcome to my house. Do you want to eat now or later?”

I walk through the front door behind him into a wide open living room. There’s a large black couch against one wall and a black TV hanging on the wall across from the couch. The rest of the crème walls are decorated with framed pictures of the family- some of two parents and Niles and Sophie, some of just Sophie and some of just Niles. There’s a dark wooden coffee table and a matching side table by the couch. It’s very homey. “Can we eat now? I’m incredibly starving.”

“Okay, sure. Nobody will be home for a few hours, so we’ve got the place to ourselves,” Niles explains to me as I follow him through the living room and into the kitchen, which is just as homey as the living room. Black marble counter tops with a wide dinner table and utensils placed on the counters. “Do you still want grilled cheese?”

“Of course I still want grilled cheese,” I chuckle. “And by the way, while we’re talking about it, I’m just going to say that the fact that you don’t know how to make grilled cheese is incredibly sad.”

“I always burn it,” Niles tells me with a laugh as he opens the door that’s obviously a pantry and pulls out a loaf of white bread. “But like I said, you can go at it.”

“I will,” I chirp, going over to the fridge to find the cheese and the butter. “Would you like one?”

“Yeah, sure,” He says. “Do you want any help?”

“It’s a one man job,” I assure him. “I’ve got it.”

“Well, I can make milkshakes,” He offers. “Do you like those?”

“That sounds delicious,” I grin. “Grilled cheese and chocolate shakes.”

And so we both get to work- me at the stove making us some awesome grilled cheese sandwiches and Niles at the counter beside me blending together ice cream and chocolate and milk and everything that goes into a milkshake. Not much conversation was made considering I was concentrating on not burning my sandwiches and Niles had the blender going so it was kind of tough to hear anything anyway.

When I finish both of our sandwiches, I put everything away and grab the ketchup from the fridge while Niles pours two glasses of chocolaty shakes and gets out two plates.

“Why do you have ketchup?” He wonders with raised eyebrows as I squeeze a generous amount of the red stuff onto the plate beside my golden sandwich.

“Because it tastes better with ketchup. Obviously,” I say. “You’ve never tried that?”

“No, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of somebody doing that,” He laughs and then we sit at the dining room table with our sandwiches and shakes and start eating.

“Well you should try it. It’s really good,” I assure him. “And you’re really missing out here.”

“Okay then, Ana,” He says but he doesn’t actually dip his sandwich into the ketchup. His loss. “Anyway, I heard that Renée came back. You’re friends with her, aren’t you?”