The Search for Lily Myers ✓

07 | Tolerate It

Amelia's next mistake was allowing herself to believe that things were simmering down with Colton. She wasn't foolish enough to tell him that she'd gone to see Henry on Monday night—what he didn't know wasn't going to hurt him—and so they miraculously managed to make it all the way until Friday without bickering about anything else. That evening, she finished up her work projects early and spontaneously decided to swing by the grocery store to grab some spaghetti and breadsticks to cook for the two of them.

She glanced at the stove clock as soon as she dumped the grocery bags on the kitchen counter. It wouldn't be too much longer before Colton was supposed to get home from work, but if she preheated the oven and started boiling the water now, she might be able to get it done just in time. So she grabbed a pot and a baking sheet and went to work, spurred on by some intrinsic force in herself that would have her believe that enjoying domestic tasks such as cooking made her not only a better partner but somehow also a more moral person than a woman who preferred not to do such things.

As he came through the front door and smiled when he saw her there in the kitchen, Amelia's spirits lifted. Maybe this is it, she thought; maybe they were finding their way back to how they used to be. He came and looped his arms around her waist, giving her a kiss.

"I hope you're in the mood for spaghetti," she grinned. "I guess I could have asked, but I thought a surprise might be nice."

"Spaghetti's great," he assured her, then pressed one more quick kiss on her mouth before leaving to change clothes while she made their plates.

When he came back, she was setting the table, striking a match to light the candle they kept as a centerpiece despite rarely actually lighting it.

"I take it that work was okay?" she asked as he sat down.

"Yeah, nothing too exciting but not too busy, either. How about you?"

"Mine was good," she agreed, reaching across the table for his hand while using the other to twirl her noodles around her fork. His fingers were much more calloused than hers, which was more so due to all the time he spent playing his guitar after work than anything else.

He volunteered to clean up their dishes and put the leftovers away since she had done the cooking. Departing with a swift kiss on his cheek, Amelia changed into pajamas and then climbed into bed to scroll through Netflix and find a movie for them to watch. They had pretty different tastes in films, so they rarely diverged from the few things they knew they both liked. But one of their mutual sources of entertainment was Werewolf in the Catacombs, a film so bad that it was almost good, so she clicked on it and let it start buffering while she waited for Colton to finish up in the kitchen.

He joined her a minute or two later, leaning back against the headboard and letting her rest on his shoulder after she hit play. His skin was warm to the touch, and so she started to grow uncomfortably hot under the blankets after a few minutes of that, but she was so cozy in every other regard that she couldn't bring herself to move. Later, she'd wish she could turn back time and change anything, but in the moment she was too naively optimistic about how their night was going so far to do anything differently.

It was about a quarter of the way through the movie when he slowly started kissing her. Amelia was somewhat enjoying it, having felt so deprived of affection recently, and yet she didn't notice herself being entirely excited about it, either. She was a little too sleepy for it, a little too aware of the unpleasant taste in her mouth because she hadn't brushed her teeth yet.

One of his hands slowly traveled down her sternum, his thumb trailing onwards along her midsection, and that was the point when she finally decided to say something.