Excerpt: Too Much Trouble

Beth spent too long, by her own estimation, enjoying the multiple jets of Terry’s fancy, tile and glass shower. For good measure, she used the squeegee hanging in the stall to clean the glass before stepping out and wrapping herself in an unbelievably fluffy towel. After a year of alternating between rough, thin terrycloth and microfiber pack towels, the thick terrycloth felt oddly heavy and unwieldy. But she wasn’t about to complain.
She found Terry by following the smell of frying bacon to the kitchen. He stood over the range monitoring a sizzling pan, a row of eggs and loaf of bred waiting on the counter. He half turned as she entered, his eyes alight with his usual morning energy.
“Good morning! Coffee’s hot,” he pointed with his spatula at a drip coffee maker on the counter. “Unless you want latte or espresso,” he added, nodding toward the separate appliance beside it. Beth had owned a small espresso machine back when she’d lived in an apartment in New York. But this one, with its gleaming steam nozzle and multiple gauges intimidated her.
“I think I’ll defer learning how to use that,” she said, noticing that there was a mug waiting for her, a small steel pitcher hazed with condensation next to it.
“Stanley really did stock you well,” she observed, taking the coffee carafe from the heating plate.
“Yeah, better than I expected. Maybe because I mentioned you were coming.”
Beth paused in her pouring and refocused on the mug, then let the brown stream flow again. Had he told all his friends she was coming? And just what had he told them? Beth had never been a show-off and didn’t expect people to make over her other than on the typical occasions like birthdays or graduations, and even then she only expected notice from her immediate family and close friends. She was uncomfortable with unexpected compliments. Being made into some sort of celebrity just for coming home with Terry scared her.
As she took her coffee to the kitchen table the sounds from the range changed: Terry had removed the bacon and dropped several eggs into the pan. There was no need to ask how she liked hers, they’d each cooked countless meals for the other over the past few months. Beth sipped her coffee, savoring the mixed aromas of food and drink that represented comfort and home. There was no reason to be scared of a little attention from Terry’s friends and family. No, that wasn’t really what scared her. It was the reason for it – Terry’s obviously enthusiastic announcement of her arrival to these people. What expectations had he set? How could she live up to them? She was just an unemployed marketing copy writer and sometime sailor with only a small, used boat to her name. Here in the metropolitan US her accomplishments in the islands – solo sailing long distances, coming to the aid of a friend in need, helping with the capture of an embezzler – were irrelevant.
She had sipped through half her coffee pondering these thoughts when Terry placed a plate in front of her. She looked up, smiling her thanks.
“Still waking up?” he asked, leaning down to place a kiss on her forehead.
“Sort of,” she agreed, turning her attention to breakfast. “This looks wonderful. Thank you.”
“I was hungry.” His usual, humorous response when he cooked. He retrieved flatware from a drawer – Beth tried to make a mental note of which one – and sat down across from her.