Let’s not dwell on it

After the door slammed behind her, Alan was left more than a little confused. This was not their first sibling fight by a long shot, not even the first one they’d had since moving in together; but on previous occasions, Alan could at least identify why he had it coming. He could understand maybe his sister being worried, or exasperated with him over the whole thing with Beth, but this tantrum she was throwing? He couldn’t help but feel he was missing something to all this

“Well…thinking about it isn’t going to change anything,” He muttered and turned back to the bread and custard on the counter, “Nor does it make me any less hungry.”

He spent the next fifteen minutes getting his french toast prepared. As he sat at the table, he watched the door to Lena’s room expecting her to come out any minute, if not to apologize to at least explain. But that didn’t happen, nor did it happen as he finished his meal.

“Shit,” sitting around the house while his sister quietly fumed in the other room sounded less than fun. However, the steady rainfall made going out sound like a dismal experience as well. He was in the middle of contemplating when he heard his phone go off

It was a number he did not recognize, but the context made it simple to figure out who it was

Unknown Number “Hey, thanks for the toast? Didn’t really expect anything from you to be honest, kind of thought this was a one-and-done thing”

Alan entered Caroline’s name into his contacts and thought about how he wanted to respond. It was supposed to be a one-and-done thing. He just so happened to be the worst and lamest one-night-stander in the world. Also for some reason seeing it in writing really hammered home how fucking awkward it was to leave toast. The most half-assed attempt at being “I’m not a bad person, see? I made breakfast.” Fuck.

Should he lie? What would that get him? Wasn’t that essentially saying he wanted to be in a relationship with this girl he knew nothing about? Not to mention make the situation with Beth even more complicated? Goddamn this was stupid. Alan gritted his teeth, nothing for it but brutal honesty.

Alan “Yeah, I mean I’ll be upfront, it was. But I’d never done the whole one-night stand thing before and I felt bad just leaving so…toast.”

He hit send and immediately felt his blood pounding in his ears. One text, after two nights of vigorous fucking, one text was all it took to take Alan crashing back to the reality of the type of person he really was. His frantic panicking was interrupted by his phone.

Caroline “Lol”

Yeah, Alan supposed, that did sum up the situation. It was quickly followed by another message.

Caroline “I get it, like I said, it’s not really my scene either. There was just something about that night that made it feel right.”

Alan slid into the seat of the couch and smiled as the tension in his body relaxed.

Alan “Yeah, I get what you’re saying, we seemed to hit it off and I don’t regret it.”

Caroline “Me either, I was actually texting to see if maybe you wanted to meet up again? I’m not saying like let’s date or anything but we did hit it off so I thought maybe…”

Alan paused. Beyond everything else going on right now, was this something he was interested in doing? He certainly didn’t want to stick around the house, that was for sure. But he wasn’t sure he wanted to pursue anything more serious with this girl either. Well…what was the harm really? Hanging out was harmless and if things went in a way he didn’t like? Well wasn’t that exactly the sort of thing his power was for?

Alan “Yeah sure what did you have in mind?

Caroline “Want to come over? You mentioned liking books right? I got a decent collection of my own you could check out.”

Alan “Sure, I’ll be right over.”

Alan put his phone away into his pocket and went over to his closet to grab his coat. It was still raining out and he didn’t want to end up soaked. He paused at the door and then called out

“I’m heading out, if you want there is leftover french toast in the fridge!” With that, he closed the door behind him. Hopefully, when he got back he would find Lena in a better mood.