Chapter 2
Natalie
“Honey. I’m home.” Chris called out jokingly when he walked through the front door.
I shake my head and laugh, stirring the pot of Mac and Cheese on the stove. I’m no chef but Chris doesn’t seem to mind. He’s grateful when I cook dinner for us rather than ordering take-out night after night.
A home cooked meal is a nice treat for both of us even if it is just boxed macaroni, canned green beans and fried pork chops. Neither of us had many home cooked meals growing up. His mom was murdered by his dad when he was young and he had a very unconventional childhood after that. Of all the things Brad Davis did, cooking for his two sons certainly wasn’t on the list.
My mom had raised me up to seventeen when I ran away to live with a friend. She was too busy to act very motherly. She worked two jobs to pay the bills and every spare minute she had was spent trying to find me a new step-dad.
I grew up on a healthy diet of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches, bologna sandwiches and ham and cheese sandwiches. Needless to say, I was over any type of meal involving dairy or protein between two slices of bread.
“Smells good.” He says, coming up behind me and inhaling the scent of the pork chops as they sizzled in the pan.
“Thanks. How was tonight?”
“It was…good. A little weird going to a meeting but it wasn’t bad.”
He pulls out two plates from the cabinets and sets the table for me while I finish dinner. We work in companionable silence. I’ll never stop being grateful that Chris doesn’t feel the need to fill silence with useless, meaningless chatter. Some girls liked that kind of thing. I wasn’t one of them.
I place the finished pork chops on a folded paper towel to soak some of the grease. He takes over draining the noodles and adding powdered cheese with a splash of milk to the pot.
He hip bumps me. “Go sit, Nat. I got it from here.”
I smile and do as he says, watching him spoon out the cheesy noodles on each of our plates. He gives me an extra spoonful, knowing how much I love Mac and Cheese. It’s my comfort food and if I wasn’t paying attention, or rather when I was by myself and safe from any judging eyes, I could devour the whole box single handedly.
Surely he had noticed a few discarded boxes in our trash can, knowing damn good and well I hadn’t shared any with him. Thankfully he was polite enough to not mention it.
I pick up a pork chop with my fork and bypass the green beans. The healthy shit was for Chris. He had started running with his brother Max a few months ago and needed all the greens he could get.
When we settle in he tosses something on the kitchen table between us. I reach for it and turn it over in my hand in examination. It’s his two year chip.
“Congratulations, Chris. You worked hard for this.”
That was all I said on the matter. I know he didn’t like the emphasized attention on his sobriety. He was so much more than just a recovering addict and I didn’t want him to feel like that was part of his identity. As far as I was concerned it wasn’t.
“This is so good.” He sighed after swallowing his first bite of pork chop. “I’m starving. Max is trying to kill me on this new diet.” He points his fork at me. “Don’t tell him I ate this. Fried is definitely not on the list of approved food.”
I laugh. “You’re sneaking around eating pork chops now?”
“Fried pork chops.” He corrected. “I guess if you grilled these things they would be fine with him. They would taste like shit though so I’m glad you didn’t. This is delicious, Nat. Really.”
“You’re so deprived of decent food you’re practically drooling over seasoned salt and batter.”
He closed his eyes in pleasure and my stomach twisted in response.
Is that what he looks like when he comes?
I grabbed my water and chugged down the cool liquid to shake off those thoughts. Tingling pulses between my legs and I cross them under the table in the hopes it’ll go away. I couldn’t afford to think about sex. I had spent so much time erasing it from my life over the past year and a half.
The last man I slept with was a paying customer for fuck sake.
Yes. You heard me right.
I had sold my body to countless men. And that was probably why I had absolutely no interest in sex or men anymore.
Tell that to your libido, Natalie. It’s going haywire right now.
It seemed to flare up from time to time when I looked too closely at Chris. He was actually one of the few men I hadn’t slept with at some point in my life. Why ruin that now?
He was a close friend.
Supportive.
Understanding.
We lived together. If I fucked him I would lose my only real friend besides Lacey and find myself homeless all over again. Look what happened last time I was alone and wandering around without a friend or a place to live. I had ended up in the Davis mansion as the newest girl in Brad’s little collection.
We finish dinner and he smirks across the table at me.
“You know what sounds good right now?”
“What?”
“Ice cream. Rocky Road ice cream.”
I looked down at my clothes. I already changed into my pajama pants and really didn’t see myself getting dressed. I tell him as much but, Chris being Chris, he always has a solution.
“Just ride with me to the store. You can wait in the car while I go inside.”
“Deal.”
We climb in his car and when he starts backing out of the parking spot I look over at him.
“Put your seatbelt on.”
He rolls his eyes but does as I ask. Within seconds he’s pulling onto the main road, seatbelt fastened, heading to pick up our favorite ice cream.
“You better not tell Max about this ice cream run.” He gave me the side eye and I caught a glimpse of the humor in his eyes.
I giggled at his irrational worry about his little brother finding out he ate fried pork chops and shared a pint of Rocky Road with me. “I won’t.”