“Only if you admit that I’m right.”
I ignore him and walk back to the car. Paul follows and catches me.
“Was that a yes?”
“Shut up.”
He raises his hands and remains silent the rest of the way.
The problem is that inside me, nothing is silent anymore.
Seth
I’m not nervous at all when I open the door to welcome Rowan back to my home.
I have only risked setting the kitchen on fire a couple of times.
Everything is normal.
“Hey,” I greet him at the door, a smile that says ‘good to see you again’ on my face, and the thought ‘I wish I could have seen you undressed yesterday’ in my head.
“I’m late. Again. I’m really sorry.”
I let him in; he undoes his tie as soon as he steps into the living room. I can’t help thinking there’s something familiar about it. You don’t undo your tie at a business meeting.
“What…” He looks into the kitchen. “What’s that smell?”
“Oh, I was cooking and…”
“But that’s smoke.”
Rowan throws his bag towards the sofa, then rushes into the kitchen. “Where’s the fire extinguisher?”
“Fire extinguisher?” I run to him. “Oh my God!” I scream as I see flames leaping from the frying pan on the hob.
Rowan looks around for something to put out the fire. “Where do you keep… Oh, there it is!” He pulls the fireproof blanket out of its box and throws it on the pan. “Stand back!” His protective arm around my waist. “That was close,” he says then, exhaling heavily. “It should be all right now.” He lets go of my waist and walks over to the stove, and as he lifts the cover, smoke billows into the kitchen. I start to cough, and Rowan covers his mouth with his arm as he walks over to the window and opens it wide. “Come here, breathe.” He invites me to follow him to the window. “Are the children with Mr Yang?” He asks.
I nod, still coughing.
“How come the alarm didn’t go off?” He looks up at the fire alarm box. “It should have gone off at the first sign of smoke.”
“I don’t know.”
The front door swings open, and Mr Yang enters the kitchen with a fire extinguisher. “Where’s the fire?”
“Rowan took care of it,” I say immediately.
He puts a hand on his chest. “I knew it was you as soon as I smelled smoke.”
I turn red to the roots of my hair.
“Can we come in now?” Mason’s voice reaches us through the front door.
“It’s OK, kids,” Mr Yang says.
“What happened?” Emily asks, coming straight to me. I hug her and calm her down. “Just a little accident,” I say nervously. “Everything’s under control. Luckily, Rowan was here.”
I turn to him and give him a weak smile. He doesn’t react in the same way. He looks pretty angry.
