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Wednesday morning was a cold foggy morning. Violet was up early as she always was, and by the time he was done with his run, she was downstairs in his kitchen. She leaned over the counters, reading a cookbook with such focus she didn’t even notice he was there.
“Hey," he said softly, but she jumped anyways.
“Hey," she replied, standing straighter. “How would you feel about trying this for breakfast?” She pointed in the recipe book to an oatmeal bar that did, in fact, look good. “If not, I can make it for myself. But it looks easy.”
“It sounds great," Charlie replied. “Let me go shower and change. I’ll be back.”
Violet nodded, going to the pantry to get ingredients together. Charlie smiled, glad she finally felt more comfortable using the kitchen.
He made his shower quick, still enjoying the hot water knob that Violet had fixed a long time ago. He still didn’t know how she did it.
When he got done, she was doing dishes as the oatmeal bars were in the oven. Charlie watched her, glad living with her came so easy.
She did things without being asked to. She melted into his life as if she always meant to be there, and he didn’t know what to do about it. He should be struggling with this transition, and yet he wasn’t.
There was a knock at the door Violet didn’t seem to hear. Charlie frowned, knowing he didn’t usually have many people knock on the door. He opened it and froze when he saw his mother.
Charlie wanted to curse everything he knew. His mom rarely came over unannounced, and when she did, he never had anyone over.
And now Violet was here.
“Hey, kiddo," his mom said. “Whose car is in the driveway?”
“Uh, what are you doing here, mom?” Charlie asked.
“I thought I’d check up on you since you were down the last time we talked. Do you have someone over?”
“Uh, kind of?”
“Who? Is Lewis back from his honeymoon?”
“Uh, not really," Charlie replied, unsure of what to say. He hadn’t told his mom Violet was staying with him. He hadn’t even told her Violet’s name. And now she was about to meet her.
Of course, it was that moment Violet came around the corner.
She was dressed in her leggings and a long sleeve T-shirt, but the pants were the ones he had let her borrow when she first came to stay, and the shirt looked like a sleep shirt. She looked like … well, that she lived here.
This looked bad. Really bad.
“Hey, where is the parchment-“ She stopped when she saw his mother. “Oh, hi. I didn’t know anyone was coming over.”
Violet rubbed her hands on her pants awkwardly, and his mother’s eyebrows rose. She gave Charlie a look that he sent fear straight into his heart. “I’m Charlie’s mom,” she said to Violet.
“Oh,” Violet said. “I … did not know you were coming over. I can make myself scarce.”
“No!” His mother said. “It’s that he rarely has overnight guests, is all. Are you in the middle of … breakfast?”
“Yeah, I was cooking oatmeal bars for Charlie and I.”
“Really? He let you into the kitchen?”
“With a little bit of force on his part,” Violet joked. “Seriously though, I can leave if you two need to talk-“
“No, I’m not going to kick out Charlie’s friend if you were here first. I didn’t know he even had friends other than Lewis and his wife.”
“Oh, I’m friends with his wife. That’s how we know each other.”
Charlie caught Violet eye’s and tried to communicate not to mention their past. He could only hope she got the message.
