Sealed With A Vow

Chapter 8- Dinner at the Westons'

Claire's POV

I was busy in the kitchen preparing dinner for Derek and myself since he was supposed to be arriving home from the airport in a few minutes. As I waited for the garlic breadsticks to finish baking, I continued cutting up the peppers for the cajun pasta.

On Sunday night, Derek had called to check up on me while he was in San Francisco. It'd given me hope that things were actually getting better between us.

However, I still was upset about the whole deal with him and Ashley at that gala a couple nights ago. I didn't plan on bringing it up, though, unless he ever decided to talk about it.

Just as the oven went off, signaling that the breadsticks were done, Derek strolled into the kitchen, wearing a dark gray suit.

"I smell food," he announced with a grin.

"Well, I am cooking dinner. How was your flight?", I asked as I continued to chop up the peppers.

"Come on, I don't even get a 'hello' or anything?", he said teasingly.

"Oops, I forgot. Hello."

His eyes lit up in amusement and he chuckled lightly.

"And to answer your question, my flight was nice. It sure feels good to be back home, though."

Derek took off his jacket then pulled out a stool at the counter, sitting down. He grabbed a banana and was about to begin peeling it when I stopped him.

"What are you doing?"

"Um, I'm about to eat this banana," he replied, giving me a weird look.

"But what about dinner?"

"I don't see anything on the table, and I'm dying of hunger right now."

"The breadsticks are in the oven. You can start with those. I'm just finishing up the pasta," I told him.

"Gotcha," he said, heading towards the oven.

I was chopping the last of the peppers when I suddenly felt a sneeze build up in my nose. The moment I did, my entire body jerked, causing the knife that was in my right hand to cut my left index finger.

"Shit!", I exclaimed in pain as blood began trickling out.

"Who says 'shit' after sneezing?", Derek remarked, taking out the breadsticks.

I ignored him and quickly grabbed a towel to press against the cut, which was bleeding more and more by the second.

"Derek, can you get me the first aid kit?"

"Wait, what happened?", he asked urgently, setting the plate of breadsticks down and turning to look at me.

"I accidentally cut myself with the knife when I sneezed," I explained. His eyes widened with worry and he immediately rushed to my side.

"Shit, are you ok?"

"It just stings a lot," I replied, sitting down on a chair at the table.

Derek knelt down in front of me and slowly began to remove the towel, which was covered in blood. The bleeding, however, had stopped.

"Ouch, that's a pretty deep cut. Here, go rinse it off in the sink. I'll grab a bandage from the bathroom," he said, getting up.

I went to the sink and turned it on, leaving my finger under the running water to clean the cut before drying it off with a towel. Derek came back moments later and told me to sit on the chair. Once again, he had to kneel down because he was so tall.