“Maybe you should learn to accept help when someone offers to make your life easier,” he responded, and the tiny crackle of irritation in his voice was enough to push me over the edge.
“Oh, because you’d know what it was like to deal with hardships,” I snapped, and I stomped off to my room. I knew I was acting childish, but I didn’t give a fuck. I just wanted to be left alone, to have some space to let my head clear.
He didn’t follow me. I guess some part of me was hoping he would, but I knew he was a grown-ass man who had better things to do than chase me around trying to make things better. I sat down on the edge of the bed and caught my breath, letting myself quietly fume for a few minutes. After a while, I heard him at the door.
“If you want to start acting like an adult, then I’ll order us some dinner,” he called through the wood. I didn’t respond. He wasn’t going to talk to me like that, not when he clearly thought I had been childish in doing what anyone would have done in the situation.
I didn’t come out for the rest of the night. I didn’t want to see him or anyone. This is what I missed about living by myself. It was so easy when I had a shitty day to allow myself to be pissed as hell for the whole rest of the evening without anyone to call me out on acting like a giant baby. I took Toby out of his cage and brought him onto my lap, where he scurried up and onto my shoulder, burying his nose in my hair for a moment and making me smile.
I took a shower and fell asleep, the day slowly lifting from my shoulders. When I woke up the next morning, I instantly felt a flush of embarrassment when I remembered the way I’d acted toward Kristo the night before. I thought about waiting until he had left for work to get out of bed, to slink out and grab my rental and head to work and hope this had all died down by the time I got back that evening, but I knew I had to put some effort into making it work with him. We were going to be stuck with each other for a long time, after all, and all he was trying to do was help me out and make my life easier. I shouldn’t have held that against him, no matter how independent I was used to being.
I got dressed and went to the kitchen where I found him sipping on a coffee behind the breakfast bar. He cocked an eyebrow at me as I approached, and then pushed a cup he’d filled toward me. I took it and had a long sip before I spoke to him. He was acting more adult than I might have in a similar circumstance, and for that, I was grateful.
“I’m sorry about last night.” I finally spoke as I put the cup back down in front of me, tracing my finger nervously over the rim. “I shouldn’t have been that way with you. I know you were just trying to help.”
“Yeah, I was.” He nodded. “But I get it. This is new to you too.”
“Yeah, it is,” I sighed. “But I’m going to try and accept it. You know, you wanting to help out.”
“Does that mean you’re going to let me pay to fix that car up?” he asked. “You know the insurance company will take an age to get it done.”
“No, that’s cool,” I cut him off. “I have it in motion now. It would be more hassle to stop it.”
He fell silent for a moment, and I could tell he was annoyed, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he just sighed and shrugged.
“But I’ll borrow one of your cars if that’s all right,” I suggested. “Save money on the rental?”
“Sounds good.” He grinned. “You want to go down to the garage after coffee, and we can pick something out?”
“Sure.” I nodded. “I want something that’s going to have everyone at work jealous.”
“A lot of competition in the librarian world over cars, is there?” he teased.
“Oh, you have no idea,” I replied faux-seriously. “It’s practically a sports car exhibition every time I go to work.”
We finished up and headed downstairs, him walking ahead of me, and I found some of the tension beginning to lift. I could do this. I could let him in. He wanted to be there for me, and the least I could do was let him.