Falling In Again

Chapter 7: Surprise!

On the other side of the door, Angelica’s breath had hitched and her heartbeat had doubled. Why was he here? She asked herself and there was a knock on the door before She pulled back and undid the bottom lock to her door so that she could speak to her night time visitor. “Is everything okay?” Angelica asked as she cracked the door open a bit to speak to her ex.

Roman looked a tad bit disheveled and tired. She noticed the dark circles under his eyes first and then looked around him to see if it was him by himself. “Yeah, just fine. I happened to be in the neighborhood, and thought I’d stop by.” He said with a smirk on his face and a six pack of beer.

She knew there was something more because there was no chance, he happened to ‘be in the neighborhood’ when he lived a little over an hour away. Unless he had business or some other excursion, there really was no reason for him to be around. Hell, it took a lot for her to get him to come into town to see his daughter let alone for him to happen to be in the neighborhood.

“Are you going to let me in or should I leave with my tail between my legs now?” He smiled at her that mischievous uplift to his lips that she used to love. Angelica narrowed her eyes at him as she briefly looked him up and down before thinking better, stepping back to open the door for him. As he walked past by her, she said after him, “I should just let you stand out there.”

“Yeah, if you knew what was good for you, you should’ve. So I could smell frozen pizza in the background and no extra cars. No date tonight?” He asked and she let out a breath as she went to sit on the couch and he was making himself comfortable by putting the six pack into her fridge as if he had done so many times before. “I should probably shut my smart ass mouth before you kick me out huh?”

She lifted an eyebrow at him as she said, “That’s probably the smartest thing you have said since showing up. What are you doing in the neighborhood?” She found herself asking as he took a seat on the other side of the couch and popping open his beer.

“That was an excuse. I really came here to see you.” He said nonchalantly and Angelica watched him intently to see if there was any signs that he may have been playing with her. “Why?” She asked as she changed through the channels, looking for something to watch.

“No reason, just wanted to hang out.” He said as he took a swig of his beer and Angelica shook her head. “Shouldn’t you have a plethora of women waiting for you to take them out?” She asked but regretted it once it came out of her mouth and across her lips. She couldn’t explain why the thought bothered her a bit more than she wanted to admit and she shouldn’t care what he did in his spare time because that wasn’t any of her business. What her ex did when he was alone was none of her damn business and she didn’t even know why she asked.

Roman did that half smile at her as he drank out from the neck of his bottle and she saw him looking at her from the corners of his eyes before he swallowed. “Nope. Not tonight.” He said and Angelica shouldn’t have felt the slight relief but the slight pang of jealousy that followed. No no. She told herself, she was not jealous of him or his nameless and faceless dates.

They both became a bit quiet as she strolled through the channels and when she stopped on a certain movie or show, she looked at him and he shrugged as he said, “I’m imposing, don’t feel that you need to entertain me. We can watch or do anything that you want.” He said and before Angelica could answer, they were both saved by the timer on the oven motioning that the pizza was done.

Roman got up to help her and while he grabbed the pizza out of the oven, she went into her cupboard to grab herself a glass of wine and he sliced up the pizza. Something inside of her reminded her of the time that they were together and how this was almost a norm for them when they were young. When Mia was asleep as a baby, they would be too tired to make dinner and all the things that came with being young parents and trying hard to function, frozen dinner was a staple in their early marriage.

It didn’t matter that they both were tired, having worked and Roman having to work long hours, they just enjoyed each other’s company as they relaxed on the old crusty hand me down couch they had. Angelica was staring at Roman’s back as he grabbed plates to serve them pizza and she felt a feeling that she wasn’t sure what it was. Was it regret? Sadness?

When Roman turned around to smile at her, the plates filled with slices of their frozen pie, she almost had to turn away but not because she was obviously staring at him but because the memory and the past apparently still affected her more than it should.

She took a deep drink of her wine as she grabbed her plate and they both went to the living room to watch television without so much as talking to one another. There was a peace between the two of them and when it looked like Roman wanted to say something serious, she shook her head at him and he almost stopped immediately and they went back to the silence of each other.

Before she knew it, Angelica was dozing off to sleep and she turned her head to find a Roman whose eyes were closed and she herself wanted nothing more than to plop herself into bed. She glanced at the clock and it read ten thirty and she looked to him once more. He looked tired and a bit disheveled and she knew she couldn’t bring herself to kick him out. Especially when he had gone through three of the beer bottles and she herself had one. It wouldn’t be safe, so she told herself.

She turned off the television and went to grab a spare blanket and pillow from the hall closet before she threw it on top of him and the pillow on the other side of the couch without waking him and she knew he had to be that tired if he didn’t stir.

After throwing the dishes into the sink, before getting into bed, Angelica went to double check if the door was locked and she locked the knob first before going to the chain latch that was at the top of her door before she stared at it. She swore she had the chain latched before she let Roman in but she recalled not having to unlatch the chain. Was it possible she was that tired that she thought she may have done something that she hadn’t?”

It was quite possible but at the same time, it was almost clockwork because she knew that she was going to be alone tonight. Angelica shook the thought from her mind as she yawned and went to grab her phone before disappearing into her bedroom. She needed a break and she needed to do it soon. Her mind was starting to play tricks on her and maybe she had become paranoid because of the event that had happened with Mia not too long ago. Or it was possible that she was ignoring the gut feeling that she should have been paying more attention to.