crème glacée [the fate of coincidences 1]

21: Glen

"I still can't believe you fed poor Velvet rat poison," Jade said for the nth time today.

They were sitting on Glen's black couch in the living room, eating chocolate ice cream out of the carton. Velvet was curled up on Jade's lap, peacefully asleep.

Glen sighed. "I told you, it was an accident. It had a gray kitten on the packaging."

"And you didn't see the big red letters that said RAT POISON?"

They came back from the vet an hour ago, from which they found out that he accidentally poisoned Velvet. That moment was the closest he had ever come to a heart attack. Now, since Velvet was okay, they were a lot more relaxed, although Jade wouldn't stop nagging.

"In my defense, you only told me to look at the picture and not the label," Glen said, staring at his sleeping cat blankly, still recovering from the shock. "But then in your defense, I should have used my common sense."

Jade licked her spoon clean. "We're both at fault here. I just can't believe she almost died."

"I'm sorry, kitty," Glen murmured to the kitten. "I'll try not to do anything that can kill you ever again."

"By the way, you said you were leaving to New York for some important meeting next week, right? Drop Velvet off at my house when you leave and don't forget to give her the stomach medicine everyday before that." Jade scratched behind the kitten's ears. "Did you write down what kind of cat food you have to buy for her?"

"Yeah," he sighed, rubbing his eyes. "Taking care of her is at least ten times more stressful than my job."

Jade gave him a worried look. "I'm sorry. I thought it would do the opposite... I read somewhere that cats are very calming."

"No." Glen shook his head and smiled. "I like having her around. Thank you."

Jade ducked her head. "I'm glad. It's the least I could do after the whole accident thing."

Glen moved her wrist so he could take a spoonful of the ice cream she was holding, a little confused at the sudden mood shift.

She peeked behind a strand of her hair and continued. "I'm sorry that Vendi broke up with you."

Glen started at that. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know." She shrugged. "Since my brother is involved I kind of feel responsible."

There was a lengthy pause before he replied. He haven't thought of Vendi or their broken engagement for the past two weeks. "It has nothing to do with you. Or your brother, even."

He remembered just how upset and bitter he was when it happened. It felt like a year had passed since.

Jade still wasn't looking at him, focusing on petting Velvet. She never mentioned Vendi before this and the sudden awkwardness, which never existed between them before, was definitely not welcome.

"I-- The way everything worked out is for the best," he said, truly meaning it. "She never loved me. And I never told her that I loved her because I was afraid it would ruin everything." He wasn't even sure why he was telling her all this when he hadn't even told Zack and Ella. "I wanted to stay with her, even like that, you know? I thought that maybe that way she'd grow feelings for me and it would work out somehow. But..." He wasn't looking at her, his voice soft. "But I think now I'm realizing that if I couldn't even express those feelings, then they weren't anywhere strong enough. If I was scared to do something as simple as that then I didn't deserve her. She didn't deserve a love like that."

He expected Jade to tell him he was a horrible person, or at least give him a judging look, but when he got enough courage to turn and look at her, she was staring up at him with huge watering eyes, startling him.

"You remember Cam, right?" she sniffled and Glen nodded. "Well, I used to have the hugest crush on him in high school, but he didn't like me back. He even said it to my face. In the nicest way possible, of course, and he felt terribly guilty about it, because he's Cam. After that I pretended that I got over him. I asked him to go to prom under the excuse that I had no one else to go with and that it would be fun to go as friends. And for the longest time I kept on thinking he would start liking me if I was friends with him, but he never did. I liked him for years after prom but I never wanted to tell him again because it would mess up our friendship and I wouldn't be able to hang out with him anymore."

And this was exactly why he shared with her and not with Zack and Ella, who would have tried to comfort him with food (in Zack's case) or told him to stop being pathetic (in Ella's case). Glen loved his friends, but they dealt with situations like this in very different ways.

"Wait, do you still like Cam?" Glen asked. He wouldn't blame her if she did, because from what little Glen had seen of him, Cam seemed like a really good guy to like.

"No, no, not anymore." She flailed a bit, one arm almost hitting him in the face. "Now he's like a brother to me. I think I got over him that one night he got drunk and ate a whole chicken by himself while singing every Celine Dion song he knew with his mouth full."

"Yikes."

"Yeah, talk about a deal breaker."

Glen chuckled lightly, feeling completely relaxed for the first time in days. The cat really did have a calming effect because it was an excuse to talk to Jade. And every time he talked to Jade, everything felt right again.

He buried that thought in the back of his mind, choosing not to deal with its implications for the time being.

"Let's watch a movie?" Jade suggested. "A dog movie. Or a horse movie."

Glen was already reaching for the remote. "Marley and Me?"

Jade nodded. "Perfect. I love crying to that."

A/N: finally an update after a like two weeks of no updates, I am sorry. I've been busy writing dumb short stories and being way into school. But anyway, enjoy these dorks finally falling in love. It's chapter 21 and like literally almost nothing happened yet. But then again, my excuse is that this is supposed to be more slice-of-life than romance.