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“What do you want for breakfast?” Jonah calls out, wearing a cozy gray sweater and loose fitting blue pants. He hadn’t shaved in a few weeks and he let his hair grow out a little. He was starting to get used to the look. Maybe this suspension wasn’t so bad after all.
“Just whatever is fine, it doesn’t matter.” Amy walks into the kitchen, still wearing what she wore to bed. Her gray v-neck softly clinging to her form and tucked into her sweatpants.
“Someone is in a mood,” he teased. “How about… I make you some pancakes?” As he looked through her cabinets, she watched him intently. They had been suspended for three weeks because of the ‘incident.’ Emma was with Adam for the next couple days so Jonah stayed the night for the first time since said ‘incident.’ She liked looking at him while he was focused on a project.
“Not in a mood,” she replied. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I really miss work.”
“Yeah three weeks with not much to do does tend to get to you.” He was carefully pouring the mix into a pan; he always saw himself as something of a perfectionist, no matter what it is.
“I mean we could do… something. I mean if you want to.” Amy was standing behind him, grateful that he wasn’t looking at her.
“Is little Amelia Sosa suggesting that we have a date?” He turned around and caught her eye, smiling broadly at her. She liked him like this- In her kitchen, in informal clothes, hair messy and product free, the beginnings of a beard evident on his face. It felt comfortable.
“Ok, loser, well not exactly a date but maybe like a day in? Y’know movies, food, stupid board games…”
“Amy.”
“What?”
“Your pancakes are ready.” Jonah say a plate in front of her and leaned on the counter.
“O-okay? Thank you?”
“And the answer is yes, we should totally do that. It would be fun.” He grabbed her hand, something he usually only daydreamed about, and searched her face.
“Okay,” she laughed, “why are you staring at me? And aren’t you going to eat?”
“I ate already and I’m staring at you because I like you.”
“When did you have time to eat?” She was hoping he would drop the second part.
“I woke up earlier, aaand wow you really are not good at talking about your feelings.” He didn’t.
“You… make great pancakes.” Amy stuffed a fork full into her mouth in an attempt to drop the subject.
“Okay I can take a hint. But mind you, I’m gonna bring it up again. Afterall, you have me aaall to yourself aaall day.” He was so annoying. She couldn’t believe just how annoying he was.
But dammit if she didn’t find him just the slightest bit charming.
“Shut up and wash my plate please.”
**********
“ Scooby Doo ? The live action movie?”
“Yes, Jonah, the live action movie.”
They were sitting on the couch browsing Netflix. Jonah had his arm slung around Amy’s shoulder and she didn’t seem to mind, which he thought was nice.
“Wait a minute is this because of Freddie Prinze Jr.?”
“He was the pinnacle of romance. I mean, he literally married Daphne. Fred Jones married Daphne Blake.” He was staring at her again, she could feel it.
“So Scooby Doo it is,” he said grinning.
“You’re staring again,” she said. “You do that a lot.”
“Uhh- I don’t. I don’t do that that often. I mean three years ago, sure. Like before I knew you were married. But even then y’know it wasn’t even that-“
“Jonah, stop talking.” She touched the back of her hand to his chest and she felt his breathing hitch. “You don’t have to go into panic mode, I was just making an observation.”
“You realize we haven’t really had one on one time since…”
“Since we had sex, yes I know.” Amy felt him relax a little more against her.
“Yes- uhh. That would be the big elephant in the room. Should we… talk… about it?”
“You want to do that now?” She asked.
“I would like to. You have to admit we never really get our timing right. And I think we both could work on saying what we really feel.”
She couldn’t say no. She felt as if she owed him this after every obstacle that had been thrown in their path since meeting. First it was Adam, then Naomi, Kristen, Kelly, Tate, Alex… and finally the whole pregnancy scare. That would have been the final nail in the coffin, she thought. Being pregnant with another mans baby is hard enough without it being the baby of your ex-husband.
The truth was, they were both unobtrusive with their feelings. Sure, they were both amiable towards one another once she got used to him; but there always seemed to be something unspoken.
“Ok…” she began. “Where do we start?”
“I remember you saying something after you kissed me. Something along the lines of ‘Obviously there are feelings here, I mean not obviously,’ or something like that.” Jonah smirked as he looked back on the whole ordeal. Given everything that happened, now it seemed ridiculous and rather small.
“Jonah that’s almost, if not exactly, what I said word for word.” She replied. “But… yes except now it’s rather obvious to everyone around the world.”
“So you like me.” He squeezed her shoulder and looked down to read her face.
Eyes meeting his she said, “Clearly I do if I invited you to stay the night.”
“Sorry,” she sighs. “I don’t know how to do this.” She motions back and forth between them. “Sure I went to marriage counseling to try and communicate but we see how that worked out. I just know that i do like you a lot. And you’re right, we need to figure this thing out even if it does cut into my Freddie Prinze Jr. time.”
Jonah takes a deep breath before speaking. “I honestly wanted to date you the second I saw you. Then you said you were married and I had to bottle up all of it up because I didn’t want to feel guilty for liking you. But then, you know, the night of Cheyenne’s wedding I guess I got carried away.”
“You guess?” She laughs, shaking her head. “That was probably the most vulnerable you let yourself get around me. I swear you said the word ‘sexy’ about a million times after that.”
“In my defense, I can only suppress so much before it overflows. And I meant every word I said.”
“I’m sorry,” she says as she watches Shaggy free the souls of the other members of the gang. “I’m sorry for those times I Kissed you and probably further complicated your life.”
“Don’t be,” he replied. “I mean thank you, but at the same time it also made me realize what I wanted. I tried to repress my feelings for you but they only grew each time we worked together on something or each time we goofed off instead of working. When you were dating Alex it drove me crazy.”
“I’ll admit that you dating Kelly… bothered me, but I was more upset that it seemed like we lost part of our friendship for a while.”
“I couldn’t handle losing you.” He says it so quietly she almost didn’t hear him. “At this point, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Amy leaned back and rested her head on his shoulder. “You sound serious.”
“Does that scare you?” He was drawing lazy circles with his fingers on her forearm.
“A little,” she admitted. “But I did kiss you because I was afraid of losing you too. And because at the time I thought my life was changing and I’d never get the chance again.”
“I’m pretty confident that you’re gonna get more chances now.” He kissed the top of her head and settled further into the couch.”
Sitting up, Amy turned to look him in the face. She decided she liked every side of him, but this domestic Jonah was definitely her favorite. He was soft and exultant and he didn’t need to worry about what their coworkers were saying about them. Her eyes showed a paroxysm of what Jonah thought could be love.
When she kissed him her hands came up to cup his face. She kissed him like she wanted to memorize every word that ever graced past his lips. He tangled his hands into her hair, suddenly thankful that she decided to grow it out again after cutting it almost a year ago. Their kisses in the past had been out of fear, accidental, and rushed. Now it seemed as if the world were attuned to them and them only. There were no strings attached.
“Maybe this could work,” Amy whispered against his lips. “Maybe this really is our fresh Start.”
“You forgot about the movie.” He jokes, smiling with his eyes.”
“We have ‘aaall day’ remember?” She kisses him again and she thinks yes, maybe this could be love.