Shake Me Awake

“Hey babe, so I’ve been thinking,” Kent begins as I bring the bowl of Kraft’s Mac and Cheese to the dining room table. “Since I’ve been staying with you, you’ve pretty much done everything for me. I think that it’s time I made you dinner for once.” He smiles after he finishes as I dish out each of our portions.

“Hold on a second, dude.” I say while pointing my fork in his direction. “You were the one that said I was a decent cook. You were also the one that asked for instant mac and cheese for dinner tonight.”

“You are, Spence, you are. It’s just being a dude, I feel like I should do something for you. Instead of it always being the other way around.” He says almost shyly, which isn’t normally like him.

I let out a light chuckle as I reply, “Kent, it’s not like we’re dating. You’re just having to babysit me for a while.”

I realize that he must be getting tired of me. It was bound to happen at some point. He really has been with me at ALL TIMES. He even sleeps over at my place; on the couch, of course. Even though Chief has two officers in an unmarked car in the parking lot, Kent insists on staying at my place. He’s offered to alternate apartments so that I’m not always the one cleaning or cooking or doing laundry, but I told him I didn’t mind. And honestly I feel better at my place. His place is just…awkward. Other than the occasional movie, we’ve basically been stuck between my walls for the past month.

We have had a lot of fun together though and we get along great. I can easily call him my best friend.

That isn’t to say that I haven’t thought about him before; I mean romantically thought about him. He is a very attractive guy, totally sweet, and a complete kid at heart. But in our times together we’ve had the awful discussions of our previous relationships and I am completely and totally not his type. I’m happy being friends with him because that’s all I need, and I don’t want to make a fool out of myself by shyly admitting that I might sort of, on a very small level, have feelings for the guy.

So kick that unlawful thought out of your mind, Spencer, and get back to reality.

While lightly munching on his dinner, he replies, “No, we aren’t, but sometimes it feels like it. I mean, we do everything together, Spence.”

“I know, and I’m sure that this will all blow over any day now and you’ll be able to go back to your normal life.” Even though I knew it would come eventually, it still hurts to feel like he might be getting tired of me. I decide I’ve had enough dinner and rise to take my dishes into the kitchen. Softly speaking as I do, “I’ll call Chief tomorrow and talk to him about this. I don’t need anyone to stay with me, and you need a break.”

Wow, this really does hurt more than I expected, I think to myself as I fiddle in the kitchen; not wanting to return to face him just yet.

After a few moments Kent enters the kitchen, a look of sadness on his face. “That’s not what I meant, Spencer, and you know it.” He reaches my side and playfully tugs at the long strings of my hair hanging down my back as he speaks.

“No, really, it’s fine.” My voice emerges with no emotion.

“Spencer, I love spending time with you. We always have such a great time together.” When he receives no response from me, he gently turns me from facing the sink towards him, and places his hands gently on my shoulders. “Babe, I don’t want to stop staying here. I like thinking that I’m the one protecting you from this guy. I don’t want my life to go back as it was.” He ends with a sincere smile that lights up his cheeks.

I can’t help but give in a little to his charm.

“Now, about that dinner.”

***

“I can’t see with your hands covering my eyes, stupid.” A light chuckle releases from the amused body behind me as he slowly leads me into his apartment; immediately hitting the aroma of an Italian-style dinner, if my sense tell me correctly.

“I know, I know, I just thought this would be fun. You know, to see how much you actually trust me.” Kent lightly nudges my arm with his elbow as we come to a stop.

He instructs me to open my eyes and immediately I catch my breath at the site of a candle light dinner. I glance around the room to see that surprisingly it looks like he did some cleaning. Good for him, I think to myself. The dinner table is complete with cover dishes, wine glasses (oh boy), and a bouquet of red roses.

With my mouth still slightly ajar from shock, I turn to face the obviously more heartfelt man than I realized behind me. “What is this?” I ask, a shy smile creeping onto my face.

He steps forward, grabbing my hand as he replies, “I just thought it was time I treated you to something special. You’ve had a lot on your plate lately, and you deserve something nice.”

With a smile on his face he leads me to my seat, pulling my chair from the table before ushering me to sit.

“I had no idea you were going all out, Kent.” I can feel my checks becoming flushed. I was clearly not expecting something this extravagant. “And I suppose you only guessed that my favorite flowers were red roses? How cliche, right?” We both release a chuckle and he nods as I continue to examine the beautiful setting before me. “And the wine glasses?” I ask a bit confused.

“Oh, I picked the finest apple juice I could find for the evening.” His answer helps none in solving the mystery of the weird wine glasses. “You told me that one of your favorite things with pizza was apple Juice.” Geez, this guy really does listen when I talk.

“And you remembered?”

“Of course I did. I wanted this to be perfect.”

***

“Kent, is everything alright?” We’ve moved to his couch and I’m resting into his side while we continue our conversation from dinner.

Kent did a great job on the food, I mean really. He even made the pizza himself. I’m pretty proud to say the least. I don’t think I knew he could actually cook.

The conversation has been steady the whole time. After we were finished we were so full that we moved onto the couch to be more comfortable.

Since we’ve been here though, he’s been a little off.

“Me? Oh, yeah, just still really full from dinner.” He tries to let out a chuckle, but I can tell it’s fake. “I don’t think I’m going to have room for the dessert I got us.”

I sit up from under his arm and turn to face him on the couch; my feet are pulled up and are sitting underneath me while he is still sprawled out on the recliner at the end of the couch.

“I’m serious, Kent. You’ve been weird since we moved onto the couch. I mean, am I bothering you by laying on you?” My voice gets low as I’m embarrassed. “I can move, you know. Just tell me.”

“Oh, babe, no, you are anything but bothering me.” He places his hand to rest on my knee. I can see there’s something else he wants to say, I just don’t know why he’s keeping something in.

He lets out a slow sigh before he continues. “I’m sorry babe. I know I’m acting strange. It’s just…” he looks down to fiddle with his hands while he pauses for a moment. “Never mind. Don’t worry about it.”

“No, don’t do that. You can talk to me, you know that.” I place my left hand on his in hopes to comfort him. I’m starting to get worried. “Please tell me what’s bothering you.”

Silence fills the small apartment as he stares intently into my eyes while I wait for him to unload his feelings. Maybe something’s going on at work, I think to myself.

“Kent, just spit it out already.”

Without a second’s notice, Kent softly grabs the back of my neck, bringing my face into his as our lips collide into a very intense, yet sweet kiss. It takes me a moment to realize what’s happening, but I soon give in to the warmness of his embrace. My thoughts are jumbled and not a single coherent sentence is able to be formed at this moment. I’ve never felt anything like this before; nothing so right and so magically perfect.

I realize in this moment that I truly do have feelings for Kent. How I did not see it before baffles me.

After the most amazing few moments, we release the kiss as I lean my forehead in to his; not wanting to ruin the moment with unneeded words.

His low voice breaks the comfortable silence, “I have feelings for you, Spencer. Not just best friend feelings, but more than best friend feelings.” After he finishes he looks up into my still shocked eyes.

Before I could reciprocate the feelings, his work phone starts to buzz incredibly loud. “Geez, I thought I put this thing on silent,” he lowly rants as he enters the kitchen to end the annoying noise. “Hey, babe, it’s my Chief. I’ve got to take this.”

A small, slightly aware nod is all I give him as I’m still trying to recover from the scary moments that transpired before.

Kent emerges back into the living room seconds later, a worried look on his face. “Chief, I can’t just leave; I have to stay with Spencer. You’ve got the other units that can go, right?” After listening to the other end, Kent replies with a defeated look on his face. “Yeah, I know, Chief. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“What’s going on?” My voice sounds more worried than I’d like to admit.

“There’s a bomb threat at the court house down town. All units are being called in for this one. Sounds big.” He’s running around the apartment, gathering his gear and changing into better attire as we speak.

“Have they evacuated yet?” I say as I follow him from room to room.

“I don’t know. Grab your bag. I’ve got to take you somewhere before I go.”

“What? No, I’ll be fine here.” I reply halfheartedly. He can’t know that I still get spooked every once and a while, so I’ve got to try my hardest to sound strong.

“It wasn’t a request, Spencer. I’m taking you by the station. You’ll be safe there.”

I stop him this time in order to get his attention. “Look, Kale hasn’t made contact with me since the note on my door. I’m sure we scared him off.” I place my hands lightly on his shoulders to insure that he catches my drift. “I will be just fine. I’ll camp out here and watch some of your movies.” I let him go and he continues to gather his stuff as I call out, “Plus, if Kale were to come after me, I don’t think he would look at your place anyways.” I let out a light chuckle, but Kent does not seem to find it funny.

“Are you sure?” He asks as I lead him to the door.

“Positive. I’ll keep the door locked. I’ll even grab a kitchen knife for protection.” I tap my finger on his nose as he turns around to face me.

“I’ll call and check on you soon, okay?” I nod and kiss him on the check; then shut and lock the door once he’s gone.

Alone at last. Great…