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“So I can be her loaded baked potato with all the toppings.”
Alannah looks at me with her eyebrows raised.
Derek continues. “So I can continue to be forty four thousand and sixty nine out of ten on the sex skills scale.”
Alannah’s thrown. She grabs the counter to steady herself.
Derek isn’t done. “So I can be everything she should have instead of that bland, self-absorbed, journalist.” Derek puts a fresh cup under the coffee maker, opens the machine and pulls out the used pod then tosses it as if it’s a basketball. It lands in the trash can in the corner of the kitchen. He opens the drawer under the machine. “Pick your poison,” he offers, ironically, smiling as he says it before he glances at the side of the pancake mix box, then opens the egg carton and cracks an egg into the large mixing bowl.
Alannah helps herself to a breakfast blend pod and brews a cup, saying, “You’re forcing her to be here with you.”
“She’ll be happy. Don’t worry.” He cracks another egg.
Alannah gives him a skeptical look.
“By the way,” Derek says, lifting Alannah’s cell phone, which she set on the counter to make her coffee, “I’ll just turn this off.” He does what he did the day I came in here with my phone recording the conversation.
Alannah’s back straightens, and she immediately pulls a butcher knife from the knife block on the counter. She points it at Derek. “Give me my fucking phone.”
He finishes what he’s doing without showing a reaction, then puts the phone down and reaches into the cupboard and pulls down a Pyrex glass measuring cup.
“Go relax with your drinks while I do this,” Derek says, pretending Alannah isn’t standing in front of me with a knife in her hand.
“I’d rather take her home with me,” Alannah tells him. “She doesn’t want what you’re offering and there’s a lot wrong with you.”
“Chloe stays here,” Derek says calmly, measuring milk. He pours it into the bowl and reaches for the pancake mix. “Nothing has to change between you and her. Actually, something will change. You’ll get to see how happy I make her. A transformation that’ll make you ecstatic. I’d like it to be fast but as I’m getting to know her better I see how many layers I’ll have to get through until she believes she’s worthy of all I’m offering.”
Alannah and I exchange looks. Derek pulls a whisk out of a drawer and starts mixing the batter.
“Seriously?” Alannah asks him.
Derek’s eyes move over me and fill with warmth. “I’m gonna be one of your favorite people, Alannah. Guaranteed. Because you’re gonna see that your best friend has what she deserves. Finally. A man who will go out of his way to make sure she’s blissfully happy.”
“You expect me to believe you’re for real? That you’re not some psycho killer who could go postal and hurt my friend irreparably?”
“I’m for real. You wanna put the knife down? If you weren’t who you are to my girl, I wouldn’t be too happy right now at the fact you’re between her and I with a knife pointing at me.” He continues mixing the pancake batter. “Go on. Sit down. Enjoy your coffee while I get this going.”
He bends and pulls a griddle out of a lower kitchen cupboard.
Alannah stares at me for a beat before she puts the knife back into the block, grabs her phone and pockets it before nabbing the coffee cup and tagging my hand, pulling me to the couch. We both set our coffees down.
There’s some clanging in the kitchen as Derek roots around. Then he resumes talking, gesticulating with a spatula.
“I didn’t like where things were with her and Hallman, so last night I picked her up after having a chat with him. He agreed to withdraw his marriage proposal and take full responsibility. Which is good, because all this is his fault.”
Derek opens a bacon package with a pair of scissors and separates pieces of meat, dropping them into a frying pan on the stove.
“His fault?” Alannah queries.
“If he were doing right by Chloe, you two wouldn’t have had that conversation that I overheard that night in Downtown. That conversation lit a match in me and once that happens only I decide to put the flame out. Nobody else. So you won’t talk me out of what’s happening here, for your information, because due to his behavior I’ve taken it upon myself to relieve him of his duties while taking full responsibility for the breakup. Chloe won’t have to feel judged by people who might think poorly of a woman who’d end her unhappy relationship because the guy lost use of his legs. As if that gives him a free pass to treat her like a piece of the furniture.” He rolls his eyes.
Alannah gives me a strange look before she continues. “I’ve heard concerning things about your family, but also some rumors about you. How do I know you’re going to be any better? How do we know you won’t suddenly snap and hurt Chloe? You’ve got a pretty warped view from everything you’re saying so far. And I’ve heard you have some pretty extreme reactions when you feel people wrong you.”
“Have you heard of me having a history of hurting women?” he asks.
“No,” Alannah replies.
“So you’re letting rumors cloud your judgment?”
