How Do You Like Your Eggs?

Emma~

I’m absolutely worn out after today. My bones ache, my head hurts, but there’s a smile on my face.

It’s a surprise to feel it there, but I can’t deny how much I’ve missed having people eat my food, never mind how nice it is to spend time around other faces again. I didn’t realize how used to a full house I was until I found myself so isolated.

Speaking of my isolation, Orion was quiet while we ate, which was unusual for him. He’s usually shoving words like 'Wife' or 'Mine' down my throat every chance he gets, but since waking up, he seems to be trying to give me the space I need. I’m not used to this side of him.

A few nights ago I was running from a man who treated women like lesser creatures, threatened my family, and had murdered countless people. I wake up to find that he’s not quite as I remember him, and I didn’t think this change to be possible.

Is it foolish of me to hope? Will any of this discount all of the horrors that he’s committed in the past?

I’m too tired to think of this in any real detail, so instead I stare at the moon while we walk back together in silence. He’s a few feet to my left and seems to be lost in just as much thought as I am. What could bother an all-powerful man like him? It’s not like his world has been flipped upside down recently.

Rather than ask, I decide that it’s better to keep walking, and I allow myself to look forward to the feeling of my head finally hitting a pillow. Any pillow.

The lights are off in the house (if I can call it that) when we return. It makes it seem humbler, less in your face, and more comfortable to come back to. Orion unlocks the door swiftly and opens it wide to allow me to walk ahead.

Just like the view from the outside, the entryway appears empty and lifeless, which causes a shiver to run through my spine. After the stunt I pulled the other night, I’m not expecting him to leave me alone in our room, and this will be the first time I’ll fall asleep while knowing that he’s right there next to me.

What’s the point in taking the couch when knowing he’ll just carry me back over again in my sleep? Besides, it’s cold tonight.

I bite my lip as I consider how I’ve gone from point-blank refusing to share his bed, to now glumly accepting my fate. I know I shouldn’t give up so easily, but what’s the point? I can’t leave, and I’m still weak from the accident.

“I’ve had Donovan make you up a room,” Orion breaks the silence with the last words I expected to hear coming from his mouth.

“You’re letting me sleep on my own?”

I don’t know why I’m questioning it; this is exactly what I wanted, but I’m just so shocked that he’s said this unprompted.

Can he read my mind? I ask myself half-jokingly.

“You want to share my bed?” He questions, and I know that I brought that comment upon myself there.

“No, I’m just... surprised,” I reply honestly with no particular tone, only stating my thoughts out loud.

His eyes roam over me for a second, and I feel naked under his intense gaze when he finishes on my face.

“You look tired, you should get some sleep,” is all he says before he leaves me here to process this recent development.

***

I tried for hours to sleep last night, but as tired as I was, rest would not come to me. It was like the more I thought about going to sleep, the more conscious I was of wanting to, and my body just wouldn’t relax.

It can’t be because I was missing Orion, can it? I mean, can my body want something my heart doesn’t crave?

My personal opinions aside, I can’t help but pour a large cup of black coffee spiced with cinnamon as I sit myself at the kitchen island. I want all the caffeine I can get today.

It’s early still, so I don’t know why I keep expecting him to follow me downstairs. After the third time of looking over my shoulder to the door, I decide that I am officially insane and that I need to distract myself before I do something stupid like go and look for him.

What better way than to cook up some breakfast?

There’s bacon, eggs, and other breakfast goods amongst the food stored in the kitchen, and while it’s a quick fry-up, it smells amazing. After all of the pie I had yesterday, I didn’t expect myself to be so hungry so soon, but here I am, drooling over fried mushrooms.

Basing my judgment on what a hungry crime boss would eat off of my father back home (as I reluctantly now accept him), I try to plate Orion’s breakfast as high as possible. I might have gone a bit over the top with the eggs, but will it be enough to satisfy him?

There wasn’t anything left the last time I made him waffles.

I sit there with the complete meal while eyeing it pathetically. There has been no sign of footsteps, no movement, and I’m sat here alone with enough food to feed an army.

Go and get him.

My conscience whispers to me, and for a second I even consider walking about up there and knocking on the door. But no, that would defeat the purpose of wanting space, that or I’m too scared to risk it and what I might find up there.

Ignoring any more overthinking, I eat my portion in silence and slide his plate into the oven in order to keep it warm. There’s nothing around here to write on, so for lack of any better ideas, I sprinkle flour on the countertop and write a note there.

Breakfast’s in the oven.

At least this way it won’t all go to waste, and the flour was going out of date anyway.