Water Like Blood by Terry Persun

Author:Terry Persun [Persun, Terry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 28

After walking home from the bus stop in the rain, Kenny got inside his apartment and heard a knock at the door before making it to his bedroom. Now what? He walked back and opened the door and Linda stepped inside, kissed him quickly, then turned away as though she’d made a mistake.

“You can’t be alone all the time,” she said.

“I can’t do this.”

“We’re not doing anything.” She stepped around him. “Did you eat today? Besides breakfast? I smelled bacon this morning.”

“I forgot to take a sandwich to work.”

“Good. I’m making you dinner. Maybe it’ll taste better if you’re hungry.”

“What about Ari?”

“Mom is watching her. She suggested this. She and Ari are fine. I think I told you that Ari would rather hang out with Mom than me most of the time. So, if you won’t let me take you to work, I’ll make you dinner.” She turned around slowly and looked at him, her face flush, cheeks tight. “I’m sorry I kissed you. I probably smell like the diner. It must have been awful. It just happened.”

“It was nice.” He shrugged. “I don’t know what to say.”

“What do you have in here to eat?”

“There’s chicken in the freezer.”

She opened cabinets until she found a box of instant rice. “Do you like stir fries?”

“It’s been a while, but yeah.”

“I can microwave the chicken to thaw it.” She opened the refrigerator. “I see you have plenty of vegetables.”

“More in the crisper.”

“You’d better change out of those wet cloths,” she said.

“Yeah.” He left her in the kitchen, closed his bedroom door after entering, and sat on the corner of his bed. He peeled his clothes off. He could still feel her kiss and didn’t know what to make of it. It was nice, though, and his body had reacted to her mouth being over his. So much so that he had to let his parts settle before getting dressed in dry clothes. He walked from the bedroom to his bathroom and relieved himself then brushed his teeth and hair. He looked tired in the mirror, thinner, if that was possible.

“Feel better,” she asked when he exited the bathroom. A pan sizzled in front of her, and she held raw chicken in one hand and kitchen scissors in the other, cutting pieces into the pan. Another pot sat on the stove.

“I can help.” He walked over to stand beside her.

She stared into the pan while she worked. “You can chop vegetables, mushrooms, carrots, whatever you like in your stir fry.”

He opened the refrigerator and collected items to chop. “You really don’t—”

“You can stop saying that,” she interrupted. “Because I’m going to do it.”

“So, where’d you learn to cook? The diner?”

“No. Mom taught me. I liked helping her when I was little. Ari helps her now.”

“You work a lot.”

“As much as I can. And when I’m not working, I’m with Ari. I don’t want to miss her growing up.”

He stood behind her, back-to-back, using the counter to chop vegetables while she worked at the stovetop.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.