For What It's Worth

Chapter Sixteen : Baby Steps

B A B Y S T E P S

Thomas

I awaken in my bed, stretching my long limbs out as I groan. Blinking a few times, I repeatedly hit the screen of my phone to press snooze. My hand knocks an empty cup to the floor, my watch and my phone along with it. The alarm still blares and I scramble myself up to reach it.

"Fuck." My hands meet the floor and after a few attempts I manage to turn it off.

Already awake, I decide to get up instead of sit in my bed for the next hour, scrolling through my phone. I jump into a pair of black sweatpants before going into the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face.

Out in the hall, a delicious smell wafts through the apartment. I pick up the faint sound of something sizzling in the kitchen. Sliding in there, Isabelle is already up and cooking. She's knotted her hair back and is swamped in the hoodie that I gave her to wear that only just covers a pair of grey short shorts.

"What are you cooking?" I ask, waiting until she isn't holding anything she can drop and potentially break. She whips around with a sparkling grin on her face. She looks so cute in the morning – her baby hairs frizz up and her face is still a little puffy from her night sleep.

"Bacon, eggs, sausage and some toast." I step towards her with each word she says until I can comfortably wrap an arm around her waist, pulling her close. She stables herself, pressing her finger tips to the muscles of my bare chest while staring up at me.

"Good morning." I whisper, gently giving her a little squeeze.

"Good morning. I hope you're hungry." I nod and she steps away, retrieving the toast that's jumped out of the toaster.

"Starving." I answer. I pour out a drink of orange juice before sitting down at the island. Within the next five minutes, she's plated it all up and we've started eating. Everything has been cooked to perfection, the eggs have a runny yolk, the bacon has just the right amount of crispiness.

"So, I've been thinking..." She begins after we've been eating for a few minutes.

"Uh oh." I wince. "Is it good or bad? Please don't be bad."

"It's not... bad bad. But I want to talk about it." I nod along with her. "Before I start, I want to say it sounds stupid and selfish, I'm aware, but I know what your reputation is-."

"That's not fair." I interrupt. I don't want to be judged on people's perception of me when they don't know me at all. Most of all, I don't want her to judge me.

"Let me finish. Let me say what I want to say, please." She holds both of her hands up to stop me and I nod my head to agree.  "Whether it's true or not, that's how people see you. It's how other girls see you."

"But-." I can't help but interject.

"Sorry, are my lips moving?" She scowls.

"Yes." I answer, biting back a smile at the obvious opportunity to stare at her lips.

"Then that means I'm talking. So listen -." Her bossiness does something to me.

"I'm not saying that's how I see you. However, you are notorious for hooking up with a lot of girls. I'm not asking you to wait around for me but I also don't really like the idea of seeing you with anyone else, does that make sense?"

"So what you're saying is..." I wave my fork around in the air as I speak. "You can't commit to me right now but you want me to commit to you?"

"God, it does sound like that doesn't it?" She crumples her face up into her hands and I edge my seat closer to comfort her almost with a laugh.