Twice In A Lifetime | Book 2 (Completed)

16. ANOTHER LONG STORY

"Anything else...?" I asked.

"No, I mean... it's just that Jensen seems a bit down these days, maybe you should talk to him, clear out the air..." She suggested, and I stared at her wide-eyed.

"I- you... I don't think..." I stuttered, not knowing what to say, or where I was going with that.

Jenny laughed, "I know." She said, "you guys are not as subtle as you would like to think, plus Josh said something when he was drunk, and Kyle had told me a few things... I can put two and two together." She winked.

I couldn't help the blush that crawled up over my face, "It's nothing, I mean-..."

"No explanation required, you're too good for him anyway, he got lucky...." She wouldn't be saying that if she knew how selfish I was being, how much pain I've caused him.

"I-I should go..." I stuttered out and soon I was getting in my car and driving away from a smiling nodding Jenny.

Holy shit, that was scary!

I followed the address Jenny had texted me and soon I was standing in front of a gate to a decent sized building. It was painted white and looked well maintained.

I pressed the doorbell and waited, expecting the intercom to come alive but instead the automatic gate opened. I frowned, but stepped inside, looking around at the cropped garden and the front yard curiously. He lives here alone? This place was fit for a few dozen of people.

I stepped up to the door and tried to get one of my hand free to knock or something when the door slid open and he was standing there in front of me in a t-shirt and comfortable grey track pants.

"Jenny asked me to bring this to you," I said referring to the tray in my hands. That sounded like I'd rather be somewhere else, dammit Alex!

"Come on in," Jensen said as he took the tray from my hands, he didn't seem surprised to see me, perhaps Jenny told him I was on my way. He looked dishevelled but relaxed, his eyes were bright and he looked as handsome as ever.

"Um okay..." Not knowing what else to say, I stepped inside and looked around at his place, the automatic lights flickered on as we entered into a wide spacious place that looked like the living room. Huge couches occupied most of the space in front of a large wall-mounted TV.

A laptop sat on the coffee table at one side of the room and the walls were adorned with picture frames. The room was minimally furnished in a dark blue and grey colour scheme and looked very modern. This place didn't look like it was lived in though, or maybe it was newly furnished.

"Your place is nice." I complimented.

"Thanks. Would you like some coffee?" He asked, bringing my attention to him.

"Sure..." I said, and when he started walking towards the kitchen I followed, "I'll help."

"Making sure I won't poison you?" He joked, and I cracked a smile.

"One can never be too careful," I said as we both walked towards the kitchen.

The kitchen was huge, clean and well equipped. Again, it didn't seem like it was utilised often. He placed the tray of lasagna inside the fridge before turning towards the coffee machine.

I scanned the shelves for the coffee mugs, but couldn't find them, almost as if he could read my mind Jensen said, "The coffee mugs are in the drawer." I turned towards the drawer as he swiftly found the required ingredients.

I opened a drawer to find bowls and closed it to open another one with glasses. I was about to move on to the next one when I froze looking at a transparent box that held broken pieces of ceramic. The broken bits of ceramic didn't shock me as much as the fact that I recognised those broken bits, I remembered breaking them.

It was that plain mug with grey design down the side, the one I broke in Jensen's office all those months ago. I can't believe he kept it. I remember Kate telling me his dad got him that as a gift. Jensen saw what I was looking at and said, "It's one of the few things my dad gave me, I couldn't throw it away." He closed the drawer and grabbed two mugs from the right drawer.

"Kate told me." I said, "I never really apologized for it properly."

He smiled, and moved around making coffee, comfortable in his space as he said, "It's alright, you didn't know, and I was a jerk to you."

"You were..." I agreed, "which is why I was surprised you even noticed I got hurt." I told him genuinely.

"I didn't at first, I was just furious...but then I saw drops of blood on the floor and realised the way you were clutching your hand, I was suddenly so worried." He said, "When I found a first aid box and ran to find you I thought you were going to punch me." he laughed.

"I probably would have if you weren't my boss." I mused, as the heavenly aroma of coffee quickly filled the air. The sound of the coffee machine grew loud and we both became quiet for a moment.

Jensen spoke when the noise faded away, "I don't doubt it, but all I could think of at that moment was to fix you up and to make sure you were alright." he said while working around the coffee machine.

I nodded, thinking back and remembering how he fussed around. "The bandage you wrapped looked so dramatic as if I broke my hand or something."

"Hey, I did the best I could, I'm not a medical professional." He defended.

"I did appreciate it, just didn't know what to make of it," I said.

"Peace offering." He replied and passed me a steaming cup of coffee as we both stood there leaning against the counter smiling, sharing it.

"Thanks," I said and soon silence surrounded us. We were both suddenly quiet, enjoying the bitter-sweet hot cup of freshly made drink.

"What are you doing Alex?" He suddenly asked, breaking the loud silence.

"Enjoying a work of art..." I said slightly lifting the coffee mug. Is it just me or there's no awkwardness at all between us?

He smiled a bit, "I mean here...in my house, in my kitchen, with me, why are you doing this? Are you really going to punish both of us for what I did?"

I was punishing him... how could I be so clueless?

"It's not even about that anymore...and you've done nothing wrong." My smile dropped and shattered faster than the splashing of a falling raindrop, "I thought, maybe....we should talk." suddenly the mood was intense.

"About..." He asked.

"About us," I said.

He looked down at the floor dejected, "I thought there's no 'us'."

"There might be..." I said softly, my voice caught, "If you want it to."

He met my eyes and stole my breath with his passionate hopeful eyes, "Don't kid around with me Alex..."

"Maybe we should sit down, It's a long story..."

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