Blueprint for Romance

Confrontation

Vanessa

The second Damon walked into the café, I froze. I hadn’t expected him to come to the café after our call.

“Vanessa?” the customer standing in front of me said to get my attention. I shook my head and smiled at her as I tried to ignore Damon.

“Sorry, Miss Wilkson,” I said. “Ordering out?” I then asked. She nodded as she looked behind me at the menu.

“I’ll have three cheeseburgers, three large curly fries, and two large coleslaw salads,” she ordered. I quickly put in the order, and after she paid and stepped aside, Damon came up.

“Hey,” he greeted me, and I tried my best to calm my nerves. “Can you take a quick break?” he asked. I looked around, and the café wasn’t very busy. I could take a quick break, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to. However, luck was not on my side as Lillian came around the corner.

“Oh,” she said when she spotted Damon. “Do you need a break time, Vanessa?” she asked me. I couldn’t say no now, so I merely nodded. “Twenty minutes,” she said, but her smile was aimed at Damon. She had a soft spot for the men in Chasea. I wasn’t about to question it as I slipped off my apron and hurried around the counter. I led Damon to one of the open booths in the corner. It wasn’t exactly private, but it was as good as it was going to get.

“Ok,” I said as I sat down and looked at him. Damon frowned, and I had a feeling he was about to lay into me and not in a good way.

“What is going on?” he asked softly. I could pretend like I didn’t know what he was talking about, but that would defeat the purpose of my plan. “Talk to me,” he added.

“What do you want me to say?” I questioned as I leaned back in my seat. I didn’t want to do this here. This wasn’t part of my plan. However, it was clear to me that he wasn’t going to let this go until he knew what was going on. “Ok, look…I didn’t want to have this conversation here,” I finally said. Damon looked around, but he understood my point. “It’s time for me to settle down, Damon. So…I contacted Miller about a house,”

“A house that is in bad condition,” he growled out. His voice was thick with disapproval, but I simply smiled.

“Have you seen the place?” I asked. Damon didn’t need to know, but I had specifically requested a place that needed to be fixed up. After all, this was going to be our forever home. When Miller had shown me the house, I had fallen in love with it. Not only was the house perfect, but I also knew Damon would love it as well.

“No, not yet. Miller said he will talk to you so that we can come up with a plan…why didn’t you tell me you were thinking about buying a house? And why would you want to buy a house that is in bad shape?”

“Look…I don’t want someone else’s dream home, ok? I want my own…and when you see the place, I think you will agree that it is perfect,” I said. I checked the watch on my wrist and sighed. “I’m not getting into this with you,” I added.

“No need to. It’s your life, and you can do whatever you want…I’m just trying to wrap my head around the fact that you never mentioned it. Not only that, but you sounded like you were avoiding me when I called earlier,” Damon whined, and I hid my smile as I ducked my head. So far, everything was going as planned. Except for this. We weren’t supposed to have this conversation here.

“I didn’t want to have this conversation here, Damon. That is why I was avoiding it. I would’ve told you everything tomorrow,” I explained. Damon nodded slowly and he visibly relaxed. I could tell that he wasn’t exactly happy, but that didn’t matter.

“Are you working late?” Damon asked and I frowned.

“Until eight,” I answered, as hope filled me. Was he going to ask me to come over? When Damon didn’t say anything more on that, the hope inside of me died.

“Ok, well, be safe…and I’ll see you tomorrow?” he asked as he stood up. This was the part of our relationship that I hated. I wanted him to want me. Not just for s*x, but for company. I tried to hide my disappointment, but when I just nodded, Damon frowned. “Hey, do you want to come over after your shift?” he asked, but the fact of the matter was, it was now too late. I didn’t want to be an afterthought.

“No,” I answered as I stood up. I still had a few minutes, but I didn’t want to be around him anymore. I wanted to be alone so that I could wallow in self-pity.

“Vanessa,” he said as he made a move to reach out for me. I pulled back and pretended to look around. He quickly dropped his hand, but I could tell that now he was disappointed. Served him right. “You know I want you around, I just didn’t think you’d want to come over since your shift is ending at eight,” he explained, but the damage was done and now all I wanted was for him to go away so that I could get back to work.

“It’s fine, Damon. I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said as I started to walk away. This time I didn’t see it coming when he stopped me.

“Come over, Vanessa, please,” he whispered. I started to shake my head, but he gripped my arm a bit tighter. “Please,”

“Fine,” I snapped as I pulled away from him. I wasn’t above making a scene, but I wasn’t about to do that here.

“See you later then,” he said as he leaned in and kissed my cheek. I watched as he hurried out of the café. I was so crazy about him, that I smiled as I headed back to work.