Accidentally Amy(25)

Blake: I just found a marinara stain on my tie, so I think I’ve proved my point about spaghetti.
She smiled and shook her head, even though she was alone in her office.
Izzy: Serves you right - the whole thing was your fault (it didn’t have to be like that). I have an orange, Saturn-shaped stain in the center of my shirt, so your tie is child’s-play. #CountYourBlessings
Blake: Have a good afternoon, Starbucks Amy.
Izzy: Same to you, Chestie McBestie.

Chapter Eight

Izzy
Izzy took a bite of her pizza, set down her plate and lifted the ringing phone to her ear. “It’s 5:55 - you’re early.”
“Want me to call back in five?” Blake asked.
She wiped her mouth with a napkin and said, “Nah, but you’re going to have to listen to me finish this last piece of pizza and it’s so good I’m making bedroom noises.”
“Gah – please no. Pizza again?” He laughed into the phone. “It’s only been a few hours since your last piece.”
“Your point?”
“Forget it.”
The Darkling meowed from his spot on the floor, wanting her lap, but she had no interest in cat-hair pizza. “What did you have for dinner, Phillips? A brick of kale? Fifteen chicken breasts? Something from the tofu family?”
“Those are seriously your guesses?”
“I used to work with this super swole guy, and he literally ate five chicken breasts every day at work.” She couldn’t remember his name, but one time he’d showed her a video of himself lifting weights and then he’d been pissed when she’d laughed at the noise he made. It was a really weird noise. “He ate one breast during each fifteen-minute break, and three for lunch.”
Blake said, “Do people still say swole?”
“I don't know, but they should.” She finished her last bite of pizza, wiped her hands on her napkin and flipped on Little House. “So okay - I bet you had a veggie burrito and sweet potato tots.”
His deep, quiet laugh caused her to snuggle a little deeper into the sofa cushions. He said, “That’s really specific.”
“And right?”
“And wrong. I had a turkey sandwich.”
“So basically the same thing.”
“Sure.” Izzy could hear dishes clinking as he said, “So listen. I was thinking about us.”
Izzy’s fingertips got tingly and her heartbeat picked up. Us. God, did he want there to be an us?
“Yeah?” She said casually, gnawing on her lip and waiting for more. The Darkling jumped on her lap and quickly voiced his displeasure at having to wait.
“Yeah. I appreciate your Starbucks presentation and value its merits, but I think we’re making things too complicated.”
“You do?” She glanced at the TV and watched Ma Ingalls walk into Olson’s Mercantile with a basket full of eggs on her arm.
“Sure,” Blake said, and it sounded like he was pounding on something. “We’re both adults, right?”
“Right…?”
“So I think we can handle it." Blakes voice was cool and confident as he said, "Just because we have a little chemistry doesn’t mean we’re at the mercy of our basest instincts, right? We’re not animals.”
“Animals,” she repeated, unsure of his point.
“There’s no reason we can’t be friends who do regular friend things. Saying we can’t ever be alone is completely negating the fact that we’re grown-ass people capable of ignoring the occasional spark.”
So he saw their burning, palpable attraction as an occasional spark - good to know.
Izzy didn’t know what to say, so she asked, “What is that pounding noise?”
“What?”
“The pounding,” Izzy said, irritated she felt wholly disappointed that Blake’s discussion of us wasn’t a desire to find an us. “What is that pounding?”
“Oh,” Blake said, sounding confused. “I’m making homemade cat food.”
He is killing me, Izzy thought. Dagger, holy water, garlic - all of it would never be enough. The man was making homemade cat food; there was no protection strong enough. She said, “You know they sell cat food at the store. Bags of it. Ever heard of Meow Mix?”
“Too old and pukey for Meow Mix,” he replied.
“Ah. Well you’ll have to give me the recipe.”
“Really?”
“Geez, Phillips. No.”
“Is there a reason you changed the subject, Shay?” he asked, his voice quiet and serious in her ear.
“Not at all,” she said, a little too bright and cheery. “I totally agree that we’re not animals.”
He coughed out a laugh. “Oh-kay, but what about the rest?”
She exhaled before saying, “I mean, yes - of course we can handle it.”
“You have my word, Iz,” he said, gravely serious, “that no matter how alone we are, I will always behave as if we’re standing in front of the board of directors.”
“Oh.” Always. “That makes me feel so much better. Thank you.”


    Blake
Blake had thought getting it out in the open would make him feel better, but it didn’t.
The way she definitively said that makes me feel so much better confirmed what he’d suspected; that Izzy would never be comfortable being friends with him if she were afraid of something physical happening. He’d meant to assure her that she could let her guard down, but he felt…fuck, something about how relieved she seemed.
“Now that we’ve got that out of the way,” he said, scooping the cat food out of the mixing bowl and pressing it into the air-tight container with a rubber spatula. “Let’s talk about your car.”