On Saturdays, Lyla makes blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Alone or not, she faithfully cooks them each week. After eating well the rest of the week, she considers her delicious pancakes a treat. When she moved into Carter's apartment, the tradition stuck. Whenever he's home on a Saturday, he devours her blueberry pancakes along with her. Liking tradition, being able to share her little weekly indulgence made Lyla unbelievably happy…until it did not.
"Are you hungry?" Gabriel mumbles. Lying beside her in bed, he strokes her hair. Despite her reluctance, Lyla has slept over at his place for the first time. It is now Saturday morning.
"No, no. I'm fine," she chokes back to him. All she can think about are the pancakes. With each reckless day, she loses something else. Why would she think that the pancakes could be spared?
Tracing his fingers across her clavicle, Gabriel continues to touch her. He's always touching her, like he can't be satiated. "Well, can I at least get you a drink?" he offers, trying so hard. She feels the twinge in her stomach again. He treats her so well. She doesn't deserve for men to treat her so well. Sometimes she wonders if everything would be better off if men judged her for her poor character rather than her well-defined figure. She assumes that must be the case; after all, something must mask the fact that she is an awful person.
Lyla accepts, asking for water. She knows that he will just keep going if she refuses a drink. She needs him to stop. When he leaves the room, she pulls a pillow on top of her face. She screams into it, still afraid to shriek too audibly. She doesn't trust the pillow's protection to hide all the screaming inside of her. Is she completely mad? After a moment, she throws the pillow aside. He's only grabbing a glass of water.
With a lazy smile across his face, Gabriel enters the room with a water glass in each hand. "Here you are, beautiful," he presents one glass to her smoothly. His ability to add compliments to any task astounds her. He plops back down next to her on the bed.
"Thank you," she replies, as graciously as possible. Immediately, she takes a sip. Pam and Buddy would be so proud of her manners, if she left out where she employed them these days.
Clearing his throat, Gabriel doesn't quite look her in the eye. He nervously begins to speak, "So, I was thinking that maybe we could get some brunch in awhile. There's this little place down the-"
On the spot, Lyla almost starts crying. As much as she tries, she can't deny that he obviously cares about her. She wonders how he envisions Carter. Besides mentioning Carter's existence from the start, Lyla hardly discusses her fiancée with Gabriel. Gabriel probably assumes that Carter drove her to cheat. He probably visualizes her silly and humorous fiancée as an abusive jerk. How wrong. If only he met Carter, then Gabriel would see that she's nothing more than an awful person, unworthy of brunch proposals or really any sort of proposals.
Biting her lip, she tries to refuse nicely. She ends up sounding rather condescending, "Sweetie, I can't go to brunch with you. You know that we can't go out together like we're a couple." She pauses, unable to pull her gaze away from his face. She needs to punish herself by watching every aspect of his reaction. As expected, he looks crushed. "Thank you very much for the offer though," she adds as if it makes her words better. She pats his arm.
Gabriel looks disappointed. By now, Lyla assumes that he must feel so exasperated with her antics. Rather than saying anything, he grabs the remote to flick on the bedroom television set. At first, she sits quietly as he settles on some History channel documentary. For a second, she thinks he wants to punish her with the stupid History channel. The idea quickly disappears as she realizes that he doesn't even know what type of television she loves or hates.
"I should go," she murmurs. Unlike last time, she can tell he's not about to stop her. She scurries over to the dresser to gather her belongings. She shouldn't have stayed so long. Staying the night broke every unspoken rule of their secret "thing".
As Lyla's about ready to leave, he finally glances at her. "He's not back until Monday?" Gabriel verifies about Carter's timeline. She wishes she didn't tell him the specifics. It makes every plan they make that much more concrete.
"Yes," she replies, pulling her pocketbook onto her shoulder. Carter bought her the Coach bag as her twenty eighth birthday present.
"Come back tonight?" he warily questions. It's as much of an apology as it is a request.
Lyla should say no, but of course she does the opposite. Peering out the window, she nods. She hardly can control her response anymore. It all feels automatic. Still, she doesn't look him in the eye. Whenever she agrees to another encounter out loud, it makes her feel especially dirty. In her mind, looking at him makes those emotions all the more visible.
"Nine?" he suggests as a time. Normally, he would offer to share take-out first but she has lost that gesture today. She doesn't mind. Declining a Chinese food or pizza dinner would have been too much for her after refusing the brunch. Out of some odd sense of obligation, she would have felt compelled to say yes.
"See you then," she confirms to him with a faint smile.
Apparently the smile makes Gabriel forgive her. He jumps out of the bed to walk her to the door. Always the gentleman. Sometimes, his unending chivalry reminds her a bit of the way Jason used to be many years ago. Before she leaves, he kisses her softly goodbye. In different circumstances, she might have considered it nice.