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bed & breakfast

—

HE SLEPT HEAVILY.

That was the first thought that crossed my mind when I heard light snores escaping from Teddy's mouth when I woke up. I had been in the middle of dreaming about something which was apparently good, only for whatever was happening to be interrupted by the sounds of none other than Teddy Burke. It was almost like he was infiltrating my headspace no matter how hard I fought against it. The last things I saw were Caleb in what looked like a park before my eyelashes began to flutter apart from each other and I could actually see things.

Things like Teddy's slightly-parted lips, his eyes closed and hooded by lashes, his hair a messy mop of dark curls, a faint crease in his forehead, and the telltale showings of a scowl on his face. Unlike me, whatever he was dreaming about seemed to be rather unpleasant. I didn't want to guess what he was dreaming about, but I had a few ideas of my own.

Teddy had said that there would be some type of danger waiting for us if we chased this lead down the rabbit hole that it was. And if I knew Teddy Burke like I told myself I did, I knew that he always wanted to protect the people he cared about. Somehow, rather quickly without anyone seeming to notice, I had become one of those people to him. I smiled, reaching out to push some of his hair off of his forehead.

He grunted a bit in his sleep and for a second, I thought he would wake up and catch me in the act. But just like I thought, he didn't, he was a heavy sleeper.

Somewhere along the line, he was one of those people for me, he was one of my best friends and I knew that I was safe in his hands. I cared about him, deeply, and I hoped that he felt just as safe in mine.

—

LOUISA GAVE ME the most smug look I had probably seen in half a lifetime when I emerged from my bedroom and stepped into the kitchen. I found her buttering a slice of toast as she watched me amble my way to the fridge.

Whatever she wanted to say, it didn't look to be very pleasant, so I didn't want to entertain it. Instead, I went through the contents of my refrigerator to find out what else I could whip up for breakfast besides toast. Of course, I hadn't really made a grocery run in a while, so toast was my only option. That is, unless I wanted to stop by a drive-thru on the way to work today, but I wasn't too fond of the idea.

"You're like my hoe goals, Marilyn," Louisa said when I closed the fridge door, making me jump in surprise. "You've got like your best friend's younger cousin over and what do you do? You put me to sleep so you can have some sexy man come over and get freaky with him. Honestly, you're like a legend. I'll give you my Barney's gift card if you tell me your secrets, because I want to be like you."

I frowned, turning to face her with the most confused look on my face. What in the world was she talking about? None of what she described had happened. Not to mention I thought she was asleep. When I was a teenager, I made sure I got as much sleep as I could instead of staying up to whatever hellish hours of the night I wanted to. Then again, this was an age of makeup, who needed beauty sleep anymore?

"Sweetie, I think you're mistaken," I calmly explained, stepping away from the counter. "None of that happened. Teddy is just a guest — and a friend. Everything was purely innocent. You're like sixteen, why are you thinking about that stuff? Think about getting scholarships and —"

"Nice try," she interrupted. "Besides, it's not the Stone Age anymore. Teenagers are having sex nowadays, nothing wrong with that as long as it's consensual and safe. In fact, they always have been and it's just that we're more open to talking about it now."

She was right, but it still felt weird to me as an adult. Not to mention she was throwing around assumptions and accusations about what Teddy and I had done last night. Would I have minded having sex with Teddy — let's not think about that right now. Now I just needed to worry about getting to work and getting Teddy clothed and out of my bedroom. I glanced across the room wistfully at his shoes neatly deposited by my front door, but I wasn't sure what I was wistful for.

I ran a hand through my hair and looked back at her. "Some ladies thrive off of friendly platonic companionship alone," I huffed with an air of finality.

"And you're not one of them," Louisa shrugged. "I saw how thirsty you were when you saw that Caleb guy in the lobby yesterday. And now you got an even hotter guy doing night calls at your place. You could be the hoe we all look up to, Marilyn, you've got so much potential."

"Teddy isn't like that," I hissed at her but instantly felt bad. "While yes, I have had a crush on Caleb for a pretty long time, but —"

"But what?" Louisa frowned, leaning in closer, speculation clear on her face. "But you like Teddy now?"

I was about to refute her claim when the door to my bedroom opened and out stepped the one and only Teddy Burke who just happened to be wearing only one article of clothing: his boxers.

"You have a black daughter," Teddy asked, scratching his head with his free hand. I realized then that his other hand was occupied by one of the bottles of wine I had brought into the room. This was not exactly what I wanted for Louisa to see, I was hoping to be a good role model for her and all of that was just thrown out of the window by Teddy's... package delivery.

"Oh god, Edward," I said, looking up at the ceiling. Out of my peripheral vision, I could tell that Louisa was looking anywhere but, admiring the hungover Teddy Burke in his unnatural habitat. "At least put some clothes on. And no, I don't have an African American daughter. This is my friend Delaney's cousin."

"I was married to a black woman for two years, Marilyn, it's not a bad word," he said. "Now the N-word, that's a different story."

"Amen to that," Louisa piped in. "Hello, Teddy, Marilyn's told me so much about you. I'm Louisa."

Teddy was taken aback, beaming at the younger girl in surprise. "Oh really, she told you about me? Nice things, I'm hoping." He made his way to the fridge, opening it up and looking inside before slamming it shut. "Marilyn, how do you not have eggs?"

I sighed. "Teddy, how do you not have your clothes on? Don't you have to go to work? Don't you have other clients?"

He shook his head. "I actually referred all of my clients to Theo the moment I saw you. I've been trying to crack that Gates corp case for so long and as soon as I saw you, I felt like I had hope for once."

He had told me something along these lines last night before dozing off to bed, but something about truth bombs like that being dropped in the light of day made them so much more sobering. Teddy had a lot riding on me, and I didn't want to let him down. And yet I was entirely unsure of why. The circumstances made perfect sense – there was no way he could've accounted for me – but what made him put all of his eggs in my basket so quickly? What in the world did Teddy Burke see in a girl like me?

I was fine with accepting responsibility, or else I wouldn't be here right now, but it also gave me the overwhelming fear of letting him down.

Teddy was smiling at me from where he stood across the kitchen and it felt as if this room was just too small for the two of us. Especially when my feelings were all over the place with Teddy's declarations of faith in me –not to mention his partial-nudity or the part where I literally slept with him last night – and Louisa's assertions of sexuality onto me, it was all too much in too little time.

"Well, it seems things have gotten a bit awkward, haven't they?" Louisa asked mischievously out of the blue. I could tell she was up to no good and I was really hoping that Laney and Kevin would come back a little bit sooner than they planned. She was a great kid, but I guess they didn't teach people about boundaries these days.

I looked away from her and back at Teddy to see his eyes full of curiosity.
"No," I said, brushing it off as I darted my focus to the floor. "Nothing's wrong, actually. Everything's just fine."

—

THE GROOVE WAS hard to find, but I think I was making some subtle progress towards it.

​Before, things between Teddy and I felt weird and strained, but now that I had some distance between myself and Louisa, I felt a lot more confident about spending time with him. We had escaped her by opting to go to the park in the time we had before it was time to go to work. Louisa, of course, felt that she was above spending time among the great outdoors, so she preferred to stay at home and wait for us. She also said something gross about doing some rather R-rated things was better in a park if you didn't get caught, but I ignored that and any other blip of Teddy on my radar besides what I was comfortable with.

​And I was definitely comfortable now as we strolled side by side along the gravel walkway, Teddy with his fancy camera in his hands as well as a pair of eyeglasses.

​"You wear glasses?" I asked when he got up from the kneeling position he had taken in order to get a nice angle. I honestly had been dying to ask him since we got here, but until now, I had just assumed he would've explained it to me himself. I guess I was mistaken then. "Why didn't you tell me?"

​"Oh," he said, looking surprised. "I didn't think it was a big deal. And no, I wear contacts, but I ran out last night. I usually keep a pair of glasses in my car because of that. Don't want to be driving legally blind, do I?"

​I nodded, taking it in and processing it. Maybe that was the reason he thought I was Sadie Gates when he first met me, although I didn't like to dwell on that.
​On the topic of looking younger than your age, Teddy did look a bit younger without his glasses on, just enough that it was hard to believe he had been married years ago but not that he looked like a teenager. It was a good look, too. Of course, Teddy was always attractive and I considered his regular look to be more captivating, but I felt suddenly more aware of it now.

​"You think I look like a nerd, don't you," Teddy chuckled to himself as he said it, holding the camera up to his face and pointing at something in the distance. "You can say it if you want to, I just don't know if I'll buy you food later if you do."

​Wow, he sure knew how to up the ante. "You do look like a nerd," I said, "in the successful tech giant way where you drive like three Lamborghinis and you go through supermodels like t-shirts."

​That sure made Teddy smile, so I was glad to know that I was getting some free food from him.

​He turned and faced me with the camera, lifting it up to his eye. "Marilyn, stand over there by that tree."

​He wasn't exactly pointing at any specific tree, so I just picked the closest one to me, standing in front of it and staring at the camera. "Is this good, Teddy?"

​As an answer, I heard the shutter click. Teddy lowered the camera with his lips spread in a grin as if he were a child on Christmas. "Come over here."

​When I made it by his side, he tilted the camera to me so I could look at the picture. And there was no arguing, it was a great picture. I had no idea I looked that photogenic, but maybe that was more Teddy's skill than my looks by themselves.

​I looked up from the camera screen at Teddy to see that he was busy looking at the picture as well.

​"Marilyn," he said in a low voice, "you're the only supermodel I need."

​And I swear that then, I didn't even need Louisa in my head for me to feel the way I felt about him now. Because it felt like things had been that way for a while now.

​I couldn't believe it took me so long to know I had feelings for Teddy Burke.