“Good morning,” Veronica replied as best she could, considering her throat had tightened up upon seeing him.
Veronica couldn’t help but look him over. She guessed he had just worked out, as he wore a compression tank that was almost completely saturated with his sweat. His skin glistened, and she could smell his scent wafting through the air.
Frank chuckled a little, and began to move through the kitchen toward the sink.
“I see we both like to get our workouts out of the way early,” he remarked, and Veronica could hardly think to form a response. The best she could manage was a light laugh.
Veronica hung back as he withdrew two glasses from the cabinet. He handed one to her, which she sheepishly took, and the other he held under the faucet to begin filling it with water.
“You don’t have to drink from the tap,” Frank said over his shoulder. “It’s just how I was brought up.”
Veronica could only blink at him as her heart clenched and she was suddenly overwhelmed with emotion. In this moment, he wasn’t her employer. He was a man, and a man that she knew she h
ad a great many things in common with.
As Frank sipped at his glass, Veronica slipped past him to stand in front of the sink and fill up her own glass. She heard Frank let out a chuckle from behind her, and she jumped and gasped as she felt his hand move to trace over her arm. In her surprise, she dropped the glass, the loud crash sounding throughout the room.
No sooner had she dropped the glass, Veronica felt Frank seize her by the shoulders and tear her away from the sink. Veronica’s head spun from how fast he moved her, and when she was able to focus her vision, she could see Frank’s eyes searching frantically over her face and her body.
“Are you hurt?” he asked her urgently, his grip on her shoulders bordering on painful. His eyes looked crazed, and she could clearly see a desperate fear lingering there. She had never seen a look like that before, and it sent chills through her body.
“I’m okay, I’m okay,” Veronica assured him softly, nodding her head.
She saw Frank relax little by little, and his eyes seemed to refocus, and finally see her clearly. He let out a soft rush of air, and suddenly brought Veronica close, wrapping his arms around her and holding her tight to his chest.
“Sorry,” he said, his voice a little shaky. “I’m not always good with loud noises. Grew up in some bad homes, bad neighborhoods… lost a few people close to me.”
Veronica felt dazed and at a loss for how to handle this situation, so she could only hold him tighter. She could feel the muscles in his back relax as she held him and she felt her heart soften just a little more. She heard Frank take in a breath, and she felt him begin to pull back from her.
He looked down at her and gave her a gentle smile, cupping her face in the palm of his hand. Veronica gave him a small smile of her own. She felt like they were kindred spirits, having finally found each other after spending thousands of years separated from one another.
Frank broke their gaze to glance into the sink, and Veronica blinked as the spell was broken.
“Oh, I’ll take care of that,” Veronica immediately spoke up, moving to gather up the broken glass. She kept her eyes locked on the shards, and carefully wrapped them in a hand towel before depositing them in the garbage.
All the while, she felt Frank’s eyes on her, and she felt her skin begin to crawl deliciously. She looked up from the trash, and her eyes immediately linked with his. They stood in silence, and Veronica wondered just how much longer she could take the tension brewing between them.
“I need to shower before I make breakfast,” Veronica said softly, looking for just about any excuse to extricate herself from her current situation.
“Oh of course,” Frank nodded, seeming to be brought back to reality at least a little bit. “I guess you won’t get much of a chance for the rest of the day.”
Veronica gave him a small smile and a nod.
“I’m headed that way myself,” Frank said, and held his arm out to gesture toward the staircase.
“Okay,” Veronica said, and moved to join him. They walked side by side up the stairs. When they made it to Veronica’s hallway, Frank hesitated, and Veronica, almost entranced, hesitated with him.
“I’ll see you at breakfast,” Frank managed to say, and turned to walk away.
“Okay,” Veronica barely managed, watching as Frank turned down his own hallway.
When he was out of sight, Veronica turned and went into her own room, releasing a sigh as she leaned against her door. She needed to take a moment to process all that had just passed between them.
Apparently, ignoring the connection they had with one another was not going to be as simple as she hoped.
Puzzling over how she was going to handle the situation she had found herself in, she quickly went through her shower routine and then dressed herself in a pair of comfortable jeans and a nice blouse. Satisfied with her appearance, she left her room and headed down the stairs to start breakfast for the girls.
Once in the kitchen Veronica took stock of all the things she had to work with, and she decided on a meal of pancakes, bacon, and eggs for the girls that morning. She got the pancake mix out of the pantry and began the process of mixing up a batch of batter.