Learning How to Bend

Day 30!!! I MADE IT.

//30 days of updates, woohoo!!!//

Thaddeus arrived promptly at 6:30PM on New Year's Eve, just as he said he would. I had dinner in the oven, which was a newer recipe I had recently discovered on Pinterest. Well, part of dinner was in the oven. Another bit was warming over the stove, and I still had some of the cheesecake we had made from Christmas in my fridge. I had put it in the freezer after we did not eat it all, but I pulled it out last night to defrost in the refrigerator. I opened the door for him and stepped out of the way so he could enter my apartment. It still touched me that he wanted to spend time with me in my smaller abode. I could afford more what with the salary I earned, but I did not see a point. Better to save the money than spend it just to do so. Thaddeus would be so proud.

He shut the door closed with his foot and engaged the two deadbolts, as he knew I liked them locked. How he knew, I was not quite sure. I had never mentioned it. He probably studied my mannerisms more than I comprehended he did. Even that thought touched me, and I felt a smile pull at my lips. After placing the bottle in his arm on the table, he finally turned to greet me.

"Hi," I said.

He only nodded in response.

"Is it so hard to say, 'Hi, Lily?'" I smiled.

"Hi, Lily," he said.

"That's what I thought." I grinned at him and stood on my tiptoes to press a kiss on his cheek before returning to the kitchen. "Everything should be ready in half an hour. I know you normally like to eat at around 7:00, yes? A man of routine?"

"Mostly." I heard him shrug before he walked into the kitchen and turned me around to face him. "Your bandage isn't covering the stitches."

"How far was I off?"

"Not much, but enough," he said. His hand touched my forehead. "Sit down, and I'll clean it for you and put the bandage in the right spot."

"The food—"

"Will be fine for ten minutes."

I sighed overdramatically and lowered to the couch. "Happy?"

"Not particularly, as your dog is taking up three cushions."

"I think her goal in life is to take up as much of any soft thing as she possibly can. Blanket, bed, couch, you name it." I leaned over and shoved Chelise off the sofa, the golden retriever grudgingly going to lie on her bed instead after stopping by Thaddeus for a scratch on the head.

"Do you have a first aid kit?"

"No apartment owned by a klutz is complete without one," I said with a smile. "It's in the bathroom of the extra bedroom, in the cabinet under the sink."

Thaddeus disappeared down the hall for a few minutes before coming back. He sat down beside me and put his hands on my waist to encourage me to turn to face him, which I did. One of my legs was up against me while the other dangled down to touch the floor. I heard Thaddeus tearing something open, but I did not ask what it was. After a couple moments of him unfolding what I could only assume was a disposable antiseptic wipe of some sort, he pressed it to the edges of the stitches as I tried not to squirm away from the pain. He only left it there for a few seconds before removing it and putting a bandage over the injured area.

"You know, I probably would have been fine without the bandage," I said.

"You had one on there before."

"Yes, but that was because I was cooking. Can you imagine grease popping up and getting in that cut? Ow. Not a fan."

He leaned forward and kissed my forehead. Why did that simple touch give me butterflies? It was something that seemed so natural. Joe did it to me each time he saw me, but it was somehow so indescribably different with Thaddeus. Maybe it was because I knew he had done it with no one else? Thaddeus was a very hard man, and I sincerely doubted he had shared much physical intimacy with females past sleeping with them. So the fact that he sometimes initiated the contact with me in such a gentle, tender way...it moved me. Each time he did it, it amazed me because he was not doing it to someone else. I was the object of his affection, and it caused my heart to swell with gratitude and incomparable happiness.