Devils and Angels

xi. chocolate apologies

With the slightly ajar window allowing the cool fingers of rain-laced Autumn zephyrs to creep in, the baked treats cooled relatively quickly, enough for me to scrape them from the baking paper and into the basket.

I held it with steady hands, not quickening my pace in any urge to see Caspian. Though the dizzying, euphoric smell was threatening to claw at my lungs with the depths of memories it wanted to drag me back to, I stood and bore it, until came the time I could tear my eyes from the basket and to his door, hoping it was him who answered.

My knuckles rapped against the wood, and my prayers were answered as it was Casp who eased it open, his gaze falling upon me instantly.

"Tia?" His eyebrows crinkled together in confusion, as his gaze dropped lower, to the basket in my hands. "Chocolate shortbread?"

"The two and only," I replied, terse. 

A faint smile quirked at his lips. "You didn't have to bring food you know. Just you is fine." 

"But I'm the worst person in the world," I countered. "This is the least I could do,"

"Okay." The smile widened, and small dimples formed into his cheeks as he backed out of the doorway. "Come in, and sit down. I'll be right back." 

I obeyed him, setting the basket down on the coffee table and perching myself on the sofa, where I'd last sat when he'd been there to clean my wounds and offer me hot chocolate; kind, typical hospitality that I'd been reluctant to accept, all because of a grudge that had yet to die. 

He was quick to return, slouching on the sofa beside me and kicking one leg out, near jabbing into my thigh. One long arm extended; hand scooping into the basket, and his fingers curving, retrieving two biscuits. Ever the generous, Caspian pressed one into my palm before lifting the other to his lips and taking the first bite. 

"Tastes good," He complimented, swallowing the first mouthful. "So, what's this about you being the worst person in the world?"

"I..." I flopped back onto his sofa with a sigh, pulling my legs to my chest and kicking one out atop his. "shouldn't have taken my anger out on you. With Ayden, I mean. The hand-holding did help, and it was unfair of me to push you away."

"It's fine." His eyes were too soft, too kind, only perpetuating the remorse I felt at my actions. "I know you didn't mean it."

"Yeah, well." I allowed my teeth to sink into my first bite of shortbread; the sugary snack dissolving over my tongue in swirls of deliciousness before I swallowed the dainty mouthful. "You can't forgive me every time I get annoyed at you for no reason."

"I can," He argued, half-laughing. "And I wouldn't say it was for no reason. It was after you saw Ayden that you were annoyed...Why was that, anyway?"

I sighed, swallowing another demure bite of the shortbread. 

"You know how he's going out with Elizabeth?" I asked, waiting for Caspian to nod before I continued. "Well, before that...I'd been talking to him. Me, and somebody else, but it wouldn't be fair to say."

"You were going to go out with him?" Caspian asked, as if for confirmation, and ashamed, I nodded.

"Well, I wanted to. Still do. But I guess he was talking to Elizabeth and this other person at the same time as me, and he made his choice," I said. "I'm just pissed off that he couldn't be honest with any of us. I don't know if Elizabeth knows, but I'll bet she doesn't."

"That sucks." He nodded his head in sympathy, drumming his fingers against the leather armrest. 

I nodded my head in agreement, reaching for another shortbread, when a sudden slam of the door had my body jerking back and the biscuit slipping from my fingers, plummeting back into the basket with the rest. "What the―."