AllFreeNovel
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“Can I come in or what?” she asked.
“Sure. What’s in the basket?”
“Just food. Not handcuffs. Don’t get excited.”
“I can work with food.”
“I’m sure you can work with anything,” she said, walking past him and into the house. “But first, eat.”
“All right, let’s go to the table.”
“I brought a blanket,” she said.
“For?”
“An indoor picnic.” Suddenly the idea seemed stupid. It had seemed fine while she was getting it all together. It had seemed like happy times, smiles and sex on the floor. But now Caleb was looking at her like she’d grown a third boob and she was starting to feel like she’d made some grave misstep.
“Well, it’ll hardly seem like a real picnic without the ants,” he said dryly. “But hey, could be fun.” His tone said it most definitely wouldn’t be fun.
And now she just felt like some deluded, romantic idiot. She wanted to melt down into the cracks between the tiles and slither out.
“Let’s just eat at the table,” she said. “Better still, let’s just fuck. That’s what you like.”
He put his hand on her arm and gripped it tight, drawing her to him. “What the hell?”
“You could not have made your disapproval of the whole thing more clear if you’d screamed and run from the room. It’s just a picnic. Not a declaration.”
“We’ll eat on the floor then,” he said.
“No. Now I don’t want to eat on the floor.”
“Too bad,” he said, grabbing the blanket from her hands and stalking into the living area. He spread it out, awkwardly, and then sat, his knees drawn up, forearms resting on them.
She let out an exasperated sigh and went and sat down across from him, placing the basket in between them. “I hope you like seared tuna and fine wine.”
“Who doesn’t?”
“The same people who hate picnics indoors. And draw strength from the tears of children.”
“So…me,” he said, opening the basket and pulling out two wine glasses, and the wine bottle.
“I guess so. I hadn’t picked you for that sort of person but, you know…”
He forced a smile and pulled a corkscrew out of the basket, jamming it into the cork. “Sorry,” he said, not sounding any more genuine in his apology than he had in his sudden enthusiasm for the picnic. “It’s not been the best day.”
“Why?”
He paused, his eyebrows locking together. “No big deal.”
“Then why are you acting like that cork has done you wrong and you need to kill it?” She snatched the bottle from him and proceeded to pull out the cork, then poured them two healthy glasses of wine.
Caleb picked his up and took a much healthier first sip than she expected. “Because.”
“Caleb…”
“Do we share now?” he asked, arching a brow.
“I think we share.”
