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He leaned down and got into her face. To her credit, she didn’t move away. “Gee, I don’t know, Hayley,” he snarled. At that, she did flinch back, as quickly as if he’d actually hit her and Chris walked out of the room.
Hayley sat on the bed, fighting back tears. The front door hadn’t opened. The bike hadn’t been started. Or the truck. Chris was still in the house, it seemed. Unfortunately, despite his proximity, it also seemed like they couldn’t be further apart.
**************************
Chris slept on the couch. Which wasn’t nearly as comfortable without Hayley on top of him. In the morning he couldn’t tell whether she was actually asleep in bed or just faking because she didn’t want to talk to him. He showered and dressed quickly and headed to the garage. It was Saturday but neither one of them seemed to be in a mood to be around each other. The mood continued all weekend.
He knew he’d fucked up, many times. He just wasn’t sure what to do to fix it. He’d made it as far as the couch, but couldn’t seem to make it as far as the bedroom. Frankly, he couldn’t remember who exactly was more mad at whom. And it was wearing on him. On Monday, Slick was still doing what he now was certain was a decent imitation of a opossum. He left her pretending to sleep and headed to work.
His temper was evident from the moment he walked in the door. Everyone but Tex pretended not to notice. Tex, though, leaned against the counter. “Told her about Deanna,” he surmised. But at seeing Chris’s expression he changed his mind. “Ah. You didn’t tell her about Deanna. And she found out anyway.” He sighed. “Got an ETA on the makeup sex?”
Chris snorted. “Not any time soon. We had a blowout about it. I slept on the couch.”
“Damn,” Jimmy said, glancing at the sofa. “Must’ve been some fight. You’re the one who fucked up, bro, what did you have to fight about?”
Chris leveled his gaze at his youngest teammate. “She tried to slap me.”
Easy laughed, but Tex and Hawk frowned. “Downright uncivilized,” Tex muttered.
Easy laughed even harder. “Man, seriously?” he asked Tex. “You spank the bejesus out of them!”
Tex shot him a look. “Whoa there, grasshopper. First off, I don’t hit a woman anywhere when I’m pissed off. That’s a recipe for disaster. And no matter who’s done what to whom, there’s no call for anyone to be hitting anyone else in the face. That’s just abuse, no matter who’s doing the swinging.” He turned to look at Chris. “Hope you set her straight on that score.”
Chris nodded. “I did. Won’t put up with that kind of shit under my own god damn roof, that’s for sure.”
Tex sighed. “Well, she’s young. She’s got time to learn.”
*************************
Hayley got off work early that afternoon and decided, for both of them, that enough was enough. It didn’t even matter who’d screwed up or who was angry. She missed him and she knew he missed her. And she’d be goddamned if the thing that broke them up would be Deanna. She bought some peaches, some steaks, and some potatoes and hurried home. It was time to get back together.
Chris came home on time. Which was a relief and told her he at least wasn’t trying to avoid her. She’d changed her flour-mussed clothes for a knee length sundress and brushed out her hair. Chris was pretty observant, as a general rule and he definitely didn’t miss the table being set, or the candles in the middle, or Hayley’s attempt at looking presentable.
He nodded, almost to himself, and headed off to the bedroom without saying anything to her. She couldn’t be certain, but Hayley had a good idea that they were going to patch things up tonight. As Chris showered, she took the pie out of the oven and set it on a rack to cool. She struggled with opening a bottle of wine she’d gotten at the store but kicked herself when she realized that Chris didn’t actually own any wine glasses. She settled for two tumblers and poured.
A small smile graced the corners of his mouth when he returned, clean and clean shaven and smelling in exactly that way that she’d been missing these last few days.
“Sorry I don’t have any wine glasses.”
“It’s okay,” she replied. “I should have checked. But I went to the store straight from work and I didn’t have time to go back out.”
“We’ll go to mall this weekend and get some.”
A giggle escaped her lips. Hayley couldn’t help it.
“What?”
“Nothing. I’m just….picturing you at the mall.”
“I’ve been to the mall.”
She raised an eyebrow at him.
“I’ve been over there,” he insisted. “I’ve been- Look, I know where it is!”
She laughed and he joined in. After a few moments she caught his gaze. “So can we start over?”
