Sweet and Simple

Chapter Two: All These Words Don’t Come Easy
I need to feel the world spin
I don’t know why but
I’ve still got you under my skin

The next day found Ariel up earlier than either of the boys, sitting at the kitchen table, light drifting across her face as the sun shone through the large window; she was quietly tapping away at her laptop, glasses perched atop her head, pulling her redish-brown hair away from her face.

Elijah shuffled in a little after ten, yawning and rubbing at his eyes; the strong smell of coffee wafted into his nose the second his feet hit the tiled floor, and he sighed in happiness. It was nice to have someone up before him; if only because the coffee was ready before he awoke.

As he poured himself a large mug full, he mumbled, "I just might keep you."

"Huh?" Ariel looked up from her laptop, frowning at him. "I didn’t hear you, sorry."

"I said ‘I just might keep you’." He turned around and smiled at her wanly, gulping down coffee seconds later.

"Oh, you’re a coffee addict as well? I gathered that from the wide array of different blends next to the coffee pot." She smiled slightly and then went back to looking at the screen.

"You want me to close the blinds?" Elijah asked, shuffling towards the table. She was squinting now, because the sun had made its way up so it was glaring into her eyes.

"Oh, no thanks. It’s nice to have a bit of sun in the morning." She took a generous gulp of her own coffee, and then took her glasses off.

Elijah took a seat across from her, nodding. "Yeah, New York’s kind of crappy right now."

"Crappy would be an understatement, but yeah."

"How’d you get up so early? Adding to the fact that you’re jet lagged, you only just went to bed at 1."

She shrugged, "I can never seem to get up any later than 8. Even on weekends. It’s a curse."

He smiled. "Glad I’m not cursed with it."

Ariel nodded, standing up to refill her mug. "I hope you don’t mind that I sort of took over your kitchen."

"Oh, God, not at all. No. It’s perfectly fine. I’m glad you did." He paused, watching as she filled her mug with creamer and sugar. "Do you make waffles, as well?"

"Haha, no." She walked back to the table and sat down behind her computer.

"You know, the coffee would work a lot faster if you didn’t add any crap to it."

"What crap?"

"Cream, and sugar. That just dilutes the caffeine. Makes it work a hell of a lot slower."

"I don’t really care," she stated, sliding her glasses up her nose and peering at her screen. "I’d rather it took a couple hours than have to drink it black."

"Dom says the same thing. I’ll never understand you people, who have to dilute your perfectly good sludge."

Ariel laughed. "I’ll never understand the people who drink it black." She raised an eyebrow, as if to say ‘So, there.’

"Mornin’," Dom mumbled, slowly walking into the room, towards the coffee maker. "Is Ariel up, yet?"

"Yes," Ariel replied, watching him curiously. She looked at Elijah, "Does he always have eye trouble in the morning?"

"Yeah," Dom muttered, pouring himself a cup of coffee and drinking it all down almost immediately. "Who made this coffee? It’s fantastic."

"She did," Elijah responded, getting up to get another mug full before Dom stood there and drank it all. "I told her I should hire her."

"You should," Dom nodded. "She’d be well worth the money."

Ariel’s face suggested she didn’t like his choice of words, but she didn’t say anything; instead, she looked back at her screen, concentrating on whatever was there.

"What are you working on?"

"Just this piece I have to have done for when I get home." She removed her glasses, shut the laptop, and looked up at the two of them; they were both leaning against the countertop, watching her.

"What?" She asked, looking awkward.

Dom was flabbergasted. "You’ve two weeks to do that. Don’t you want to have some fun first?"

"No."

Elijah announced he was going to shower, but would Ariel like to go first? Just so that there wasn’t any sort of fight between his houseguests.

"I’ve been in the shower, thanks."

"Oh," Elijah smiled at her. "Good, that’s good. I did tell you to make yourself at home. You found towels okay?"

"Yup."

"K, then I’m headed. I thought we could start work at about 11."

"Sounds good. I would go for a run, but I’ve already been. Maybe I can---"

Dom cut her off. "You’ve already been for a run? And showered? You must have been up at the crack of dawn."

"Close," she remarked lightly. "7:30."

Dramatically, Dom flopped into a kitchen chair; Elijah departed without being seen. "I only get up that early when I have to."

"I gathered that about you. I take it 10 is still pretty early for you?"

"Very."

"Don’t think you have to get up on my account."

Dom grinned at her over his coffee mug. "I am a proper gentleman. Being such, I will awake early to greet the sun with you, because I am your host."

"Actually, Elijah is my host." She stood up and crossed to the sink. "What is there to do around here for a half hour at 10:30 in the morning?"

Dom let a yawn escape his lips, but then said, "I could think of a few things if my brain were functioning properly."

"Does it do that on a regular basis? Or just every other day?"

"Cheeky," he smiled up at her. "No, it works after noon, every day."

"I see. So I’ll have to think of something myself." She collected her laptop, and a few scattered papers, thinking she’d set them back in her room, but when she got to the kitchen door, he spoke up.

"We could go get some breakfast. There’s a cool little café about five minute’s walk down that way." He pointed to the left. "You can see the ocean and everything from inside. It’s brilliant."

"I ran by there. It was beautiful."

He nodded. "Up for it?"

"Shouldn’t we wait for Elijah?"

"He doesn’t eat. Didn’t you notice how anorexic he is? Trust me, he’d only make us go on alone. But if it’ll make you feel better, I’ll leave him a note, telling him to meet us there."

If her stomach hadn’t growled just then, she’d have refused his offer, but she was rather hungry, since she‘d only eaten once piece of pizza the previous night before she lapsed into a coma. "Okay," she said. "Let me just go put my stuff away."

"I’ll go get dressed, then."

Silently, they walked to the café after setting a note on the kitchen table that said, in bold print, "GONE TO CARSON’S - MEET US THERE WHEN YOU’VE PRETTIED YOURSELF UP. -DOM."

Sitting over more cups of coffee, two glasses of orange juice, and two heaping plates of breakfast food ("A real fry up!" Dom had exclaimed before digging in), Ariel and Dom were pretty silent. Well, Ariel was; Dom did most of the talking.

"How’d Elijah find you, anyway?" Dom speared a sausage with his fork and shoved it in his mouth, whole.

Ariel took a dainty bite of toast. "Surprisingly, my publishing company recommended me."

"Surprisingly?" He shoveled a bit of egg into his mouth, then washed it down with orange juice.

She nodded. "I didn’t think they liked me very much."

"Why? Did you correct their grammar and put big red marks over all their work?"

"Yes, actually."

Dom grinned. "Well, then, you’re obviously the best. So they had to go with you."

She shrugged a little; apparently she was not the type to ‘toot her own horn’ as they say. "I guess so."

"Are you an editor or something?"

She raised her shoulders just slightly while cutting up her sausage links into bite sized pieces. "If you could call it that, yeah. I started out as a writer; I’ve got a degree in journalism from NYU. I was supposed to be published by them, but things went a bit haywire, and I ended up with a job in editing. Kind of weird, really, when you think about it."

"Kind of like fate."

If Dom was not mistaken, there was a hint of a smile on her lips. "Yes. Like fate."