Chapter Four
I threw my bag down on the couch and went to raid the kitchen. I was always starving after work and it took me at least a half hour to eat and shower before becoming a normal human again. I worked at a dog boarding facility, so I spent my days getting drooled on and dirt covered. It wasn't a pretty sight. I stood in front of the sink devouring a slice of cold pizza like it was the first meal I had in weeks. Working with the dogs was pretty physically demanding and I was always hungrier than a bear afterwards.
I was about to work on my third piece of pizza when a small tap on the window made me pause. I stood there, trying to decide if I was imagining things or not before turning my attention back to the food. A few seconds later, a louder rapping echoed through the apartment. Pizza still in hand, I slowly walked into the living room to see what was going on.
Oh, please let there be no one there, my mind pleaded. I hadn't heard from Clint in a few days, so I figured he was avoiding me or just not interested. As much as I wanted to see him again, a mouth full of pizza and covered in dog hair was certainly not how I imagined our second meeting to go.
A face was grinning in from outside the window, breath fogging up the icy glass. I never did have much luck.
"You couldn't have decided to come around tonight after I de-grossify myself, huh?" I mumbled to myself. I could already feel my face burning in embarrassment
I didn't even bother to try to smooth out my hair before opening the window, I already knew it was hopeless. The cold air immediately rushed in along with some stray snowflakes. Why he insisted on going outside in the frigid weather instead of knocking on my door in the warm hallway, I had no idea.
"You look lovely," he exclaimed, laughing.
I moved to shut the window on his stupid face while I scowled at him in mock dislike, "You look like an ass."
He quickly grabbed the bottom of the window to stop me from closing it. I blinked in surprise; I had barely seen his hand move to stop me. Nice reflexes. I tilted my head at him and gave him the sternest look I could muster.
"I'm sorry, I have a bad sense of humor. Once you get to know me better, I'm sure you'll think I'm amazingly charming like everyone else does," he joked, "Is that pizza?"
"Now why would you think that?" I responded dryly.
His face held a look of childish excitement as he looked back and forth from my face to the pizza a couple of times, "Do you have an extra slice?"
Unable to keep pretending to be annoyed with him, I laughed and stepped to the side, "Come on, Barton. Get inside and out of the cold. I'll get you a plate."
A few minutes later, he was sitting on my couch devouring half of the leftover pizza. I watched in amusement as he smiled to himself as he ate.
"Don't you have any food in your apartment?" I laughed, "You ate all my marshmallows and now even the cold leftover pizza. Don't you eat over there?"
He looked bashful and stopped mid bite, "Oh shit, I'm sorry! I don't want you to think I'm trying to steal your food all the time. I really didn't come over here for that, I swear!"
"Don't worry about it," I tried to backtrack quickly, "I'm just joking. Someone has to make sure you don't starve, right? I think I can be responsible for that."
He laughed, a slight blush crept up his neck, "I'm not very good at cooking. I think my fridge has some milk and a container of chinese takeout from a month ago in it. I eat a lot of pizza."
I chuckled at that, "Well maybe I can cook you something a little more substantial than junk food sometime. But only if you stop scaring me and looking in my window like a creep."
That small blush turned into a full beet red face.
"I'm going to go take a quick shower and change. I just got back from work," I told him, gesturing to my dirt covered clothes, "You can hang out here, if you want. I'll be real quick."
Clint looked around, avoiding my eyes, before asking, "I'm not keeping you from anything, am I? I don't want to be in the way or anything."
The way he asked filled me with sadness for him. It seemed like a question he thought he already knew the answer to; he thought that I was just tolerating his presence here or something and was afraid to hear me tell him to leave. He sounded distinctly lonely and that made me want to wrap him up in a hug, but I knew that would be too intrusive for someone I barely knew. I wasn't usually so willing to show any kind of affection or let my guard down, but I was finding it hard to ignore those thoughts when I looked at Clint.
Great, I'm turning into one of those girls who practically swoons in the presence of a guy they like, I thought bitterly.
"Your ass better still be here when I'm done since you ate the rest of my pizza. I at least get to ask you some more questions in exchange for that, don't I? That seems to be the currency around here," I told him, "If you're still hungry, you can help yourself to whatever is in the fridge. I'm not a chef or anything, but there's some stuff in there that's fairly healthy. You won't get scurvy at least."
I knew I was starting to ramble, so I hurried into my room to grab some clothes. I tried to make sure I didn't pick anything too dressy but I wanted to at least look somewhat decent. I decided that some dark skinny jeans and fitted band t-shirt would be enough to look casual but still show off the fact that I was actually a girl under all the dirt and grime that I was buried under at the moment.
Once in the shower, I thought over the situation that had just played out. It was odd for me to be so relaxed with someone right off the bat like that. It wasn't a secret that I was bad at making friends with people. I never had anyone over and even growing up, I spent most of my time alone. I just couldn't connect with other people for some reason, even if I made a conscious effort.
I hopped out of the shower and quickly got dressed. My heart started to race a little at the thought that Clint was still out in the living room. I found myself checking my appearance in the mirror a little longer than I normally would have. I smoothed out my dark hair that was already getting wavy as it dried. I looked slightly less like a complete disaster than I did a little while ago.
Going back out into the living room, my stomach dropped when I saw the empty couch. I must have looked or smelled worse than I thought after work. Of course I would scare him off. I tried to push away the disappointment when I heard a shuffle in the kitchen along with some humming.
Clint stood in front of the sink, hands down in the soapy water as he washed the dishes. I noticed he had not only washed the plate I had given him earlier, but the stuff that had been in the sink from the night before already. He turned when he heard me and gave me a slight nod before turning back to the dishes with a look of intense concentration.
"You didn't have to do that," I said, stepping up beside him and taking a towel to begin drying.
He shrugged, "I did eat a lot of your food."
I laughed and jabbed him with my elbow, "This doesn't mean that you get to avoid talking to me though. That's still part of your food tab."
"Why did I agree to this again?" he asked, trying to sound annoyed but he couldn't quite keep his smile hidden.
