Flowers before Eve (on hold)

Lavender - Calm the fuck down, it's just dinner

"Eve, you're back..."

Aaron pushed himself away from the sleek marble countertop he'd been leaning against upon spotting Eve. His upturned lips had been shaped into a particular breed of delighted grin, one not so easily discerned from another, when he'd made the verbal note of her not-so-sudden return.

And Eve, Aaron's previously misplaced guest, found that she couldn't quite find it within herself to take that last vital step forward. You know, that final step that would have brought her out of the dimly lit hallway and into the warm embrace of the kitchen where he stood waiting for her.

Every single disastrous notion that Eve had managed to push down before leaving the bathroom came rushing back up again with a renewed vengeance.

..around... .. .. turn around...

..go... just go...

She shouldn't be here, he clearly didn't want her here, her mind all but screamed it. Why else would Aaron have sounded so surprised upon discovering that she'd actually returned? And that smile he'd displayed? He was just acting polite. Right?

Wrong. But none of that mattered.

Her feet stood planted on what felt like the very edge of the precipice, on what was notably the wrong side of the threshold. A fact that not only Eve herself was highly aware of but Aaron was far too observant to miss. She couldn't move, that much was painfully obvious.

Eve, she was stuck out in the hallway just looking in at him, glassy eyes wide, breath getting closer to the wrong side of shallow on each new intake, and with a bottom lip that had been tucked away between her teeth to stop, what would otherwise have been, a noticeable quiver. But the deceptive game of hide and seek that Eve's bottom lip played didn't matter in the least, Aaron saw it all. He'd mentally called her poorly crafted bluff, perhaps not regardless of her attempt to hide her internal struggle but rather because of it. Eve, she was on the brink, about to run out on him. He was sure of it, it was clear as fucking day. The curse that tethered on the edge of his tongue got swallowed down, it sure as hell wouldn't aid in this particular instance. Aaron leashed himself, for now.

Just standing there, that's all Eve could manage to do, exist on, what she undeniably felt at that moment in time to be, the wrong side of things. And she wanted out. She needed to get out. She needed to leave. Now. She couldn't stay here, he'd see, he'd notice.

I... I...

..oh... gods...

..I... I... I can't... ...

I can't...

..

It was a simple, albeit highly calculated, request from Aaron that managed to change the erratic flow inside of Eve in a near-instantaneous manner. Within the boundaries of a simple request he managed to cage her mind before it truly got a chance to run rampant.

"Be a doll. Help me set the table, will you?"

The seemingly sensible requirement from Aaron spurred Eve forth despite her insistent urge to turn around and flee instead. Her wobbly legs carried her past the very same point she'd, moments prior, found herself unable to cross, the threshold.

Aaron's directive, cloaked as a simple request, had become a beacon, guidance Eve found herself not only socially obliged but nearly desperate to follow. Doing what Aaron asked of her was a hell of a lot less awkward than just standing there like some kind of malfunctioning freak. He'd asked her to do something which made perfect sense. At least it made a lot more sense than what she herself had been doing, which was nothing.