The Comfort Meal

The next day was a little smoother than the previous day. With Hugo finally taking things a little easier, and me beginning to feel accustomed to him being around, things were starting to run smoothly for me. 

Adaptation was my most prized skill, and right now, I could not have been more happy about that. Seeing new notifications on my monitor didn't surprise me anymore, and the only thing throwing me off a little bit was the progress reports that I was getting from our branches in the east and Oceania. I wasn't expecting them to report back to me so soon.

"Knock knock!" Helena sang as she pushed open my office door, coffee in both her hands. "It's four in the afternoon and you haven't had a cup of coffee other than the one you came in with this morning. Have you been brainwashed?" 

"I wish," I reached out to the cup she was handing me, words of gratitude spilling from my lips immediately. "You don't know how much this means to me, thank you so much." 

"Of course, I got you. How's it going, Vice President of Marketing?" She peeped at my monitor as she took a seat on the armchair in front of my desk. 

"It's a lot, but it's going pretty well. How are things in your department?" I asked before taking another sip of coffee. This beverage was truly heavenly. The fact that some people hated it was mind blowing to me.

"Crazy. My boss thinks she's a super hero," Helena worked in the Human Resources department, which was as stressful as a job could get. I had to commend her for her patience and good nature. 

"Is she still trying to recruit the best of the New York HR scenery?" Finding good workers who had experience in HR was as tough as breaking a rock with a feather. Everyone with good work ethics was either already hired, or working for themselves. 

"Absolutely. I can't wait to get away from all this," Helena rolled her eyes and took a sip of her coffee before peeking up. "Speaking of which, you're absolutely coming this time right? It won't be like last time when you said you would but ended up staying behind?" 

"No, I'm actually going this year," I'd had enough of staying home and trying to avoid my boss on company vacations. Miami would see me living my best life, whether it was a good idea, or not! 

"Good because I heard that there's this restaurant down on eighth street but I know nothing about LatinX food and I really want to try it but I don't want to offend anyone, so could you come with me?" She seemed to be pleading with me from the heart, so there was no way I could deny her request. Am I a pushover? Is this really what I've become?

"Sure, I'll go with you." 

Helena beamed at me and immediately got up from her seat. "Great, that's really all I came here for. Toodles!" She waved over her shoulder and walked out of my office with a small skip in her step. I shook my head with a small smile on my face. There's no way I wasn't a pushover. 

My smart watch beeped, indicating that I'd completed my minimum hours and could go home early if I wanted to. Any other week, leaving work early wouldn't have been an option because Tuesdays were my day to work late, but since today I had to go grocery shopping for a certain someone, it seemed I had no choice. 

"Hugo, I'm taking off. You should start packing up as well," I paused in front of his desk while putting on my coat. Everyone else was beginning to finish their work for the day, and they looked eager to finally go home. Hugo, on the other hand, was in the middle of organising the filing cabinet that was built into his desk, and the expression on his face was that of happiness. What was with this guy? He seemed to be happiest whenever he was organising things for me. 

"I'm almost done and I'll be on my way out, boss!" He chirped and smiled at me before returning to his work. My eyebrows met at the middle of my forehead, but there wasn't time to dwell on his strange behaviour. Groceries needed to be bought. 

The air in the parking grounds was hot and dry when I finally exited the elevator, which did nothing to stop me from sweating immediately. It didn't make sense that New York could be so hot in the summer months and so cold in the winter months. It was a stark contrast of night and day. 

My car beeped, letting me know that it had unlocked and was ready for me to step into it. What I loved the most about my SUV was the way foot pedals came down to help me climb up into it whenever a door was opened. Ever since I had been a little girl, I developed an obsession with cars that were way bigger than me, and that obsession hadn't lessened even once, 

The drive to the grocery store didn't take long, which was a miracle considering everyone wanted to get home and the streets were packed with vehicles. 

The grocery store was also, surprisingly, void of people, which wasn't all that surprising considering it was a Tuesday. Everyone did their shopping on Fridays or Sunday's, which is why I always made sure to shop on week days. 

After grabbing a cart, I entered the store and began browsing the shelves looking for things Jason would eat. The whole act was sickeningly domestic, and it made me grimace. I was really grocery shopping for my boss. I was shopping, for food, for a grown man. How embarrassing. 

How did I sink so low? 

Shaking my head, I banished the thought and continued browsing for items. Before long, the car was considerably filled with what one would consider the essentials. If I knew Jason, he was running low on food, and his version of a home cooked meal was a protein shake and a homemade nutrition bar. The man knew how to cook, he just didn't do it. 

To think, I was once the person he did the shopping for. Oh how the tables have turned. If anyone asked, never would the admittance ever leave my mouth, but Jason had been the one to teach me how to cook. After learning all the basics, my mother taught me how to make cultural dishes from her home country, and I began googling numerous recipes from numerous countries in order to challenge myself. 

The shopping effectively went on without a hitch, and after coming out of my shopping trance, I made my way to the register to pay for it. Unloading the cart took a while, but once it was over, a deep satisfaction filled my chest. It felt good to do something good for someone else, especially when it was someone like my ex. Kill them with kindness, as they say. 

The previous night, he had texted me the address to his townhouse, almost like a reminder so I wouldn't forget about my duties the next day. Unbelievable that I was so okay with acting like his personal assistant, but a part of me felt indebted to him for the promotion, so I pushed the doubt away. 

The drive to his townhouse was shorter than I thought—or maybe I just wasn't paying attention— and before I knew it, the first mix of grocery bags was in my hands. This is when the guilt set in. 

I used the key he gave me to open the door, and was met with a deafening silence and expansive foyer. This house looked smaller from the outside. 

'Of course it did, Amaria, this is New York. Everything needs to look small on the outside.' 

My heels clicked against the marble floor, which made a sound similar to that of a grenade for me. It was so silent in here, and then there was me, with my stilettos and grocery bags, making all the noise in the world. 

After coming into a certain room that made me sure it was the kitchen area, I placed some of the bags on the floor and felt around for the light. Seeing the kitchen made me gasp. It was so… expensive looking! The stove was a flawless stainless steel and the extractor on top had a sleek design with a flat keypad on the Center of the lip. The refrigerator was absolutely huge, and just about a few inches taller than me. 

After opening the cupboards and confirming that they were empty and I hadn't bought way too much, I began placing the bags on the island and headed outside for the second trip. 

The second batch of grocery bags was lighter than the first, and thank goodness, it was also the last trip. After all of the bags were on the island, I began to unpack them and place the items in their corresponding places in the cupboards. 

I'd been so busy trying to organise the groceries to their corresponding places, that when I felt a breath on the back of my neck, I screamed and jumped over the counter, reaching for the knives.

"Woah there!" Hands gripped my waist and pulled me back down to the ground. Upon hearing the familiar voice, my heart came back down from my throat and I felt relief flood over and relax the tension that had built in my lower back. 

Immediately after turning around, the feeling of a cold water being dumped over my head chilled my bones. "Oh fuck," 

"You okay?" He stared right into my eyeballs, which felt a little too intimate, so I pushed away from him a little for some distance. In this moment, the need to clarify something to myself became so overwhelming that I had to bite my lip to stop myself from chanting out loud 

"I'm fine," the strained smile was making my cheeks hurt. Being around this man was painful, and not emotionally. 

'Being attracted to him does not equal being hung up on him. Being attracted to him does not equal being hung up on him. Being attracted to him does not equal being hung up on him.' 

"You don't look fine," he wiped his forehead with the towel draped over his bare shoulders. "Sorry for scaring you." 

'Bullshit.' 

"It's fine, I overreacted. Can't believe I was about to stab you," a nervous high pitched laugh left me, which just made me purse my lips and succumb to silence. The more I spoke, the dumber I made myself look. 

"Instinct," he shrugged and looked at the half unpacked groceries on the counter. "Thanks for shopping for me. I know I'm asking for a lot from you lately." 

'Haven't changed at all, have you?' 

"I'm happy to help, don't worry about it," I tentatively returned to the island—on the other side this time—and began removing the fruits from their bags so I could begin to put them in the refrigerator. "I didn't see your car outside, I thought you were working late." 

"I always park my car in the garage," he pointed in the general area of where the garage seemed to be, and I nodded in understanding. "How much did all this cost?"

"Don't worry about it." 

The fact that I had accepted to buy this man's groceries for no reason was baffling. What exactly was I doing? Was I trying to be friends? He had asked, and I minimally hesitated to say no. What was wrong with me? 

The entire time that I was finishing up with the unpacking of the groceries, Jason was standing there, watching me, with a towel wrapped around his waist, and his shower water slowly drying on him. The effort that it took to avoid looking at him was insane. I hated being so weak, but it made sense. I had once been head over heels for this guy, and the way my physical form reacted to him was not something I could control, but I could try. 

"Hey, make me dinner."

"I beg your pardon?" My right eyebrow raised up into the sky. Was he out of his mind? 

"I haven't eaten yet. I'm hungry," he simply stated, staring at me like it was all so simple to understand. 

"It's ten pm," his eyes followed my finger, which was pointing at the stove clock. "Isn't it a little late?" 

"Call it a midnight snack," his smirk made me look away, because there was an intensity in his eyes that made me uncomfortable. "I like Mac and cheese, by the way." 

I watched silently as he went back upstairs, presumably to get dressed, and sighed. I was getting myself into something really deep here, and my gut was screaming that pulling myself out of it would be virtually Impossible.

Cooking the mac and cheese was the easy part, but something told me that if I didn't leave immediately, something would happen, and I'd end up regretting it immensely, so the moment the food was finished, I grabbed my bag and went back out to my car. 

The fact that I made it to my vehicle and he hadn't come back down yet made me sigh in relief. After shooting him a text explaining that I needed to leave, I turned my car back on and took off to my uptown apartment. The more distance between that house and my location, the more the knot in my stomach loosened. 

Only when the door to my apartment closed behind me did the full weight of the earlier events lift from my shoulders. The need to kneel down and pray was overwhelming, because once again, my heart was beating like a marathon had just been run.

Sabrina was right, there was a boulder of unethical-ness coming my way and it had the word 'whore' slapped on it in big fat neon red letters. 

My phone chimed in my purse, pulling my attention away from the destructive thoughts circling around in my head. I pulled it out and smiled once the notification showed a new text from Jack. 

'You busy this weekend?' 

I considered telling him no, but then the club meeting with Sabrina came up into my head and I decided to ask if he had anything in mind first. 

'Nope. Wanna catch a movie maybe?' 

How was I going to say yes to him and still keep up with my promise to Sab? Could I invite him to come with me? 

'Actually, I have a meeting at club Elev8. Do you want to come with?' 

While waiting for his response, I went into my bathroom and began to change into my pyjamas. My phone chimed again and seeing his confirmation made me smile. Maybe today was rocky, but it ended on a high note. The thought of seeing Jack again was exciting.