Wonderwall

"What's this?"

"Ahhh," I screamed nearly jumping sky high. Pete had startled me, I hadn't even heard him come in. I had been too busy singing along to Take This To Your Grave which I had blasting throughout the entire house. I walked over to the intercom unit in the kitchen and turned it down. "You scared me I didn't hear you come in."

"Sorry, maybe if you weren't playing my cd so loud," he said smirking.

I blushed. "Well I can't play it when you're home it's too weird."

"What are you doing?" He looked at me suspiciously my hair was up in a bun on top of my head, I had a wooden spoon in my hand poised as a weapon and sauce all over my t-shirt and jeans.

"Uh, cooking, or at least trying to. I was hoping that if I cooked you dinner you would stop being upset about what happened on Saturday and help us get past it. Plus I'm tired of getting take out since that's all we've had since Alex isn't here to cook for us anymore."

"Yeah I kind of miss that guy," he said absently. I giggled. "So what are we having?"

"Grilled tequila-lime shrimp. I got the recipe from Martha Stewart."

"How domestic goddess of you," he teased.

"I know! And we're having rice pilaf and grilled ceaser salad."

"Grilled ceaser salad?"

"Yeah you grill the lettuce leaves. I already had the grill pan up so...," I shrugged, "I don't have to make it if you don't want me to I can make it the regular way."

"No," he said quickly, "I'm sorry I was just curious. You make dinner however you want to and I'll love it." He walked over and kissed me on the top of my head.

"Good. Now can you set the table and then get washed up it's almost ready."

"Yes mom."

I put the food in the oven to stay warm and hurried up to my room. I hadn't planned on this being a really fancy dinner at home but I did want to change out of my stained clothes. I did at the last minute decide to put on a casual baby blue dress but opted to remain barefoot. When I made my way back downstairs I was pleasantly surprised to find that Pete had set the table up nice he'd even put out a table cloth, candles, and everything. He had also cleaned up nicely as well.

"The table looks nice. Let me just finish up the salad." I made my way into the kitchen and suddenly I began to feel nervous. I knew it was crazy I was just having a nice dinner with a friend so that we could talk out some issues. Nothing to be nervous about. I dished up the plates while Pete got the drinks and we sat down at the table. I watched with anticipation as he took his first bite of salad. "So..."

A smile slowly spread across his face. "It's good. It takes like a regular salad...only warm," he laughed.

"Yeah that was kind of the point," I rolled my eyes.

"So the picture of the two of us at the party and the gossip about our relationship has absolutely nothing to do with this meal, right," he asked watching me intently.

"You saw that?"

"Of course. How many times do I have to tell you not to let those things bother you?"

"I know I just. I don't want to cause any problems for you."

"We're used to it. Besides Ashlee trusts me she's not just going to get angry because the tabloids are insinuating that we're together."

"Even with what happened on Saturday," I asked timidly taking a bite of the juicy shrimp.

A slow smirk spread across his lips. "I thought this dinner was supposed to help us get over that."

"It is. We can't get over it unless we talk about it."

"What more is there to discuss."

"Like how it's not going to happen again?" He fixed his eyes on his plate not saying anything just moving food around with his fork. "Seriously Peter, things haven't changed. I'm still single, Ashlee's still not here, the only difference is that now we're back at home."

"I know," was his only response.

"Ok fine. You don't want to talk about it anymore I get it. We can just finish eating then," I said disappointed.

We finished eating in silence. As soon as I was done I stood up to take my plate into the kitchen scooping up his plate in the process not caring if he was finished or not. I turned on the water and began washing the dishes.

I heard him come up behind me but chose to ignore him until he reached around me. He put his arm around my waist with one hand and reached around to turn off the water with the other. I turned around to face him. "What are you doing?"

"I don't want you to be mad at me." He returned his other hand to my body as well firmly planting both hands on my hips. "I just didn't want to talk about it because I don't know what to say."

"I want you to tell me that things won't change."

He moved even closer backing me up against the kitchen sink. "I can't, because I can't promise that I'll stop wanting you."

I gulped trying to gather my thoughts since his lips were extremely close to mine. "What do you think we should do about that then," I asked in a breathy voice.

Pete didn't even bother answering me with anything other than a kiss. He pulled me into him closer and ran his fingers through my hair as he kissed me urgently. He lifted me up sitting me on the edge of the sink and I wrapped my legs around his waist. I almost fell into the sink but Pete caught me gripping one of my thighs firmly to keep me balanced. "What are we doing," I asked for the second time in the past three days.

He pulled away from me only slightly to look me in the eyes. "Please, don't stop me this time," he begged.

And I didn't, I allowed him to go back to kissing me behind the ear and sucking on my neck. I closed my eyes and gripped the back of his head with my finger tips savoring the sensation until I could tell he was ready for more. "Pete, I've never done this before," I whispered.

He stopped what he was doing momentarily to look at me confused. "But you and Alex..."

"Never got that far," I smiled sheepishly.

He leaned in and kissed me deeply placing his hand lightly on my cheek before pulling away again. "I promise I'll be gentle." I nodded because I trusted him, I always had. He placed his hands on my butt cupping it to slide me off of the sink with my legs still around his waist. We continued to kiss sloppily as he carried me up the steps and into his bedroom.