hold me really tight (until the stars look big) - I

Tate groans. 'I'm not used to seeing meat before it's all cooked and delicious and edible, okay? It's embarrassing. Usually, my mum or one of my siblings drop off food, or I go to a restaurant, or I eat takeout, or Mica cooks. I don't do cooking.'

Jael

She grins. 'You can't just go and take advantage of what people are willing to do for you. You have to face your fears. Cut that chicken. Be a hero.' She's still leaning against the kitchen table, watching him.

'Be a hero,' Tate repeats. 'Can you at least tell me how to cut it? Dices? Strips? Do you want me to cut them into stars?'

Jael

'Stars are awesome. You should try. If you succeed I'll let you off the hook.' She turns and starts looking in the cupboards for flour to make the batter, still having an eye on Tate.

Tate groans helplessly. 'Jael...'

Jael

She smiles. 'Alright, you grumpy cat.' She comes standing next to him and takes the knife, starts cutting the chicken into small dices. 'You go set the table first.' Although it looks like it, she's not letting him go this easily.

Tate sets the table swiftly; this, he knows how to do.

Jael

She puts the dices in a bowl with the right spices and starts mixing for the batter. 'You know girls go crazy for a guy that can cook, right?' she teases. 'You've got the right looks, why don't add something to that?' The batter sticks to her hands.

Tate grins. 'I don't really need cooking skills to wow people, Jael. I have enough redeeming qualities to make my inability to cook a meal go unnoticed.'

Jael

She turns to him, slowly, lips pursed. She looks him drop dead in the eye and says: 'You missed that effect on me.'

Tate throws his head back and outright laughs. 'Honey, I dropped a dead body next to you on the backseat of my car. I don't think I could wow you even if I had amazing cooking skills.'

Jael

Her smile vanishes. She bites her lower lip and turns around again. 'Yeah, I don't think so either.' Her voice sounds bitter. She wished he hadn't brought that up. She tries everything she can to forget.

Tate shrugs, unaffected by her sudden bitterness, and puts the bottle of red wine on the table.

Jael

She washes her hands and puts the bowl with the batter back in the fridge. "Let's order pizza," she says. She covers the chicken with foil and reaches for the phone.

Tate raises his eyebrows. 'Seriously?' He already has the phone in his hands.

Jael

"Yes, seriously. I don't feel like cooking right now."

Tate calls the regular pizza place. The clock on his phone says it's 7PM, and he wonders what happened to the three and a half hours after Mica left. It had gone by weirdly fast. 'What kind of pizza do you want?' he asks Jael, phone tucked between his shoulder and ear while he washes his hands.

Jael

"I don't care, you pick one." She hates he ruined this perfectly happy moment, but something tells her she should just get over it because it's Tate and he'll be like that.

Tate smiles when he hears the voice of the regular phone operator from ALESSIO'S. 'Marco, it's Tate,' he says. It's been a while since he had pizza.
'Tate! We thought you were dead, ragazzo! You want the usual?'
'Sure thing. Add an extra, though. I have visitors.'
'Alright, kid. Twenty minutes.'
'Alright.'

Jael

She slips out of the kitchen to the living room. When she glances outside, she notices it's snowing and a smile crosses her face. It's been ages since snowfall. "Tate," she calls, her voice filled with enthusiasm.

Tate walks into the living room, sees the snow and smiles. 'Been a while since I've seen that.'

Jael

"Yeah... Last year's Christmas." She looks at him, noticing his smile. An unfamiliar feeling settles down in her lower stomach and she feels a warm blush coming up. She glances away, standing with her back turned to him. "The best thing about winter," she says. "It makes the darkness go away."

'I was in Kenya last Christmas,' Tate says, feeling open, nostalgic. 'Macy—Macy sent me a shitload of pictures. She had her photography phase back then. They were pretty pictures. She—She absolutely abhorred snow, but went outside to—to make pictures for me. She asked me if I wanted to go back, but I didn't. Kenya—The kids there were more important than frozen water falling from the sky and Christmas lights.'

Jael

She smiles sadly, doesn't really know what to say. She just reaches out and takes his hand to give him a light squeeze. "Did you do voluntary work in Kenya?" Something that's on her bucketlist too.

Tate smiles, squeezes back, pulls his hand away lightly and nods. 'Business was going good, and to volunteer in Kenya is really expensive, you have to pay for all expenses yourself. Most people can't do that. So next to the business me and my brother Mason ran, I set up a side business, a program to get volunteers to countries like Kenya. I got a lot of donations, and if those didn't cover it, I'd put some of my own money in.' He doesn't know why he's talking, he doesn't want to be talking, but he doesn't know how to stop. 'Sometimes organisations in those countries contact me to get more volunteers, but because I want to know where I send my people, I always tag along on the first trip. I've been on a bunch, mostly in Kenya or Ethiopia. Volunteering is a fulfilling job.' He smiles, doesn't look at her, doesn't know what to do with his hands or his body. He never meant to open up. He is Tate Hale, he doesn't open up. He sighs.

Jael

She didn't expect this from him. Not the fact he set up the whole thing himself and the fact he's telling her.
"That's amazing, Tate." Her voice is full of wonder. "Really, it's... it's amazing." She doesn't know what else to say, searches for words but doesn't have any. "You're a good person," she says silently.

'Thanks,' Tate says, shyly. He smiles.

Jael

She laughs a bit and then takes a step forward and puts her arms around him--again.

Tate stills, feeling constricted with arms around him. He breathes through his nose, wants to say something, to step back, to bat away her arms and say she has to leave. Before he can do any of that, though, he wraps his arms around her and rests his chin on her shoulder.
Outside, the front lights of a black Audi R8 light up the snowflakes.

Jael

She closes her eyes for a moment and then lets him go quickly, realizing what she's doing. "I um..." she starts, then sees Mica's car and sighs in relief.

'I saw that,' is the first thing Mica says when she opens the door. Jael and Tate are awkwardly standing next to each other in the living room. 'But we're not going to talk about that now. We have two major problems that can be fixed with one solution right here. Problem One: I kicked Vince out because he doesn't want the kids and he broke up with me. I do not want to be alone, because I'll start opening up the whiskey and that's not what I'm supposed to do when there are two things growing in my womb. Problem Two: Mason texted me about Jael. He recognised her from the news and wanted to know what you had to do with it. Solution: You're coming to my apartment. Pack your shit. We're leaving in 30 minutes.'

Jael

Before anyone starts moving she grabs Mica's wrist. "Vince broke up with you...?" she says, voice strangled in disbelief. She ignores the Mason thing completely, just as she decides to ignore Tate and the hug they just shared.

Tate shoves Jael away, not caring about any of it right now. He grabs Mica's shoulders. 'The son of a bitch broke up with you?' He wipes away a single tear from her cheek. 'What else did he do?'
Mica shakes her head. 'Nothing. He just left.' She turns to Jael: 'He's an ass.'
Tate kisses Mica's temple. 'I will have a word with him, later,' he promises. 'There's lemon juice in the fridge, it'll quench the thirst for alcohol.'
He looks at Jael apologetically. 'Sorry, I get a bit...' He gestures from himself to Mica. 'Can you stay with her? I'll pack your stuff.'

Jael

She nods. "Yes, sure. It's okay." She gives him a tentative smile and sits Mica down on the couch. "I'll get something to drink for you." She slips into the kitchen and pours some lemon juice in a big glass. When she sits down next to Mica, she doesn't know what to say at first, and then: "Do you think he'll--you know--cool off a little bit...? Vince, I mean."

Mica shrugs, tips back the lemon juice. Her face contorts into something wrinkly, the acidic taste attacking her mouth. She shivers. 'I don't think so. He's very... He was very clear about it. Either the babies go away, or he goes away. I told him he knew where the door was and he left. He's not one to reconsider. I guess this was it.'

Jael

"Oh." She bites her lip and then hugs Mica, really tightly. "You'll be okay. We'll help you," she whispers.

Mica hugs back, tightly, and nods. 'Yeah... I know. I'll be fine.'

Jael

She smiles a bit and lets go of her carefully. She decides Mica needs some distraction right now. Sadly enough she picks the first thing she can think of: "So... you saw," immediately regretting her words.

Mica immediately grins. 'Oh, honey, damn right I saw. How did you do it? Tate doesn't hug. I was twenty-two when he first hugged me back and it was awkward. What's your secret?'

Jael

"Don't ask me," she groans, covering her face with her hands. "This is so fucked up. I don't know what I'm doing. He told me about this voluntary work in Kenya, and that he set it up all by himself, and I just--ugh."

Mica jumps up. 'He told you about Kenya?!'

Jael

She nods. "Yes, he did." She smiles a bit. "I pointed out the snow and that the last time it snowed was last Christmas. He told me he was in Kenya at that time." She shrugs. "I can't help it, I had no words so I kind of, hugged him?"

Mica smiles, widely. 'Honey, he's in so deep. He never tells anyone about Kenya. I don't know, he's probably afraid it'll ruin his mystery bad boy brooding persona, or something.' She rolls her eyes. 'And he hugged you back. God. This is so cute. This... this is adorable.'

Jael

"No! It's not," she protests. "It's not. I don't want any of it. I'm not--I'm not ready for that." She shakes her head. "He kidnapped me for God's sake. I'm not supposed to--I'm not supposed to feel like that."

Mica raises an eyebrow. 'You said you're not supposed to feel like that. You never said you didn't.' Then, softer: 'It's okay, though. I mean, you're going through a rough time, partly Tate-induced, so... Yeah. Anyway, just give it time.'

Jael

She smiles sadly. "It's so stupid," she sighs. "Did he have a girlfriend before?" She doesn't care at all about the fact Tate could hear them talking. She doesn't even think about it.

Mica shrugs. 'He's had a few girlfriends. Three, as far as I know. The last one was like five years ago, though. He doesn't really do relationships. He's more of a one night stand kinda guy, I guess?'

Jael

"Oh." She can't help but laugh a bit. "Doesn't really surprise me, to be honest. He's so distant." And extremely self-confident, she discovered tonight. "And very full of himself."

Mica nods knowingly. 'The guy is wealthy, handsome, intelligent and has a soft side. He's a catch. And he's fully aware of that.'

Jael

"Yeah, he told me." She groans. "I'm in so much trouble." She covers her face with her hands again and heaves a deep sigh.