Aphrodite

“I like you,” the words escaping my mouth sounding like they were from another planet. The sound of metal against metal filled the awkward silence as Anabel dropped whatever it was she was cooking. We were in her house, her parents gone for the weekend, and she wanted to show me her apparently secret cooing skills. Everything was always a secret with Anabel.

“Uh, that’s nice,” she replied, increasing the speed at which she was moving. I opened my mouth to speak again, not yet fully digesting her words, before closing it and getting up. I took the pot and spoon from her hand and put them down, spinning her towards me.

“Caleb…” she trailed off, grasping at words that seemed to be running away from her. She looked down, her hair falling into her face, and tried to turn away, but I held her still.

“I’m serious, don’t you like me too?” I asked, softly this time, while brushing the hair from her face. Her eyes met mine, her filled with sadness and mine filled with confusion.

“It isn’t that easy,” she whispered, shaking her head. I looked at her and tilted my head, not expecting my confession to start some kind of downward spiral.

“Why not? What’s in the way?” I asked, letting her go back to the stove that was now producing smoke.

“Everything,” she said, a sad tone in her voice. “And you burnt my food.”

Her mood had completely changed, now she was witty and annoyed, grabbing the phone and a Chinese take-out menu. I tried to brush away the earlier conversation, just as she had seemed to, but it was stuck in the back of my mind as we ordered and ate the food. She didn't bring it up for the rest of the night, and never really again. Anabel wasn't one to talk about her feelings that I wasn’t sure she had.