Page 88 of Sparks Fly
For her first official day of unemployment, orfunemployment as Chelsea was calling it, Stella woke up to the smell of bacon instead of the sound of her alarm.
It was a much better way to wake up, in her opinion.
When she walked into the kitchen, she found Chelsea putting together a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” Chelsea said, grinning. For some reason, she was already dressed, except she was wearing a crop top and Soffe shorts, so clearly she had no plans to go outside. “Avocado, salt, pepper, ketchup?”
Stella squinted at her roommate, immediately suspicious.
“Why did you make me breakfast?” Stella asked.
“Because I love you and I know you’ve had a tough few days,” Chelsea said. She avoided eye contact with Stella, focusing on adding the avocado, salt, pepper, and ketchup that Stella hadn’t said yes to but did indeed want.
Once Chelsea put the sandwich together and cut it down the middle, she slid the plate across the counter to Stella.
“Juice?” Chelsea asked.
Stella hopped up on one of the barstools. She wasn’t about to turn down what looked like a very good bacon, egg, and cheese, but she was certain something was up.
“Yes, please,” she said. She watched as Chelsea went to their fridge and grabbed what looked like a new bottle of orange juice and poured only one glass. It was then that Stella noticed there was no sandwich for Chelsea.
“Are you not also eating?” Stella asked.
“I will in a sec,” Chelsea said, handing her the glass. “How’s the sandwich?”
“I haven’t eaten it yet,” Stella said with a tone that implied that was obvious.
“Try it! I want to know how it tastes.” Chelsea pushed the plate closer to Stella, and despite Chelsea weirdly watching her, Stella took a bite. It was perfect. The right amount of saltiness from the bacon, and the egg was a little runny but not so runny it would make a mess. An excellent ratio of ingredients in one bite. Stella wouldn’t say it was better than if she’d gotten it from the bodega down the street, but it was pretty close.
“Very good,” Stella said once she swallowed. “Ten out of ten. No notes.”
“Amazing,” Chelsea said. “So anyway, please don’t hate me, but I think I maybe told Max you were a virgin last night.”
Stella, who’d just grabbed her glass of orange juice, froze.
“Come again?”
“Okay, remember, you’re not getting mad,” Chelsea said.“And honestly, I’m not really sure what I said exactly. But I think I said something like you’ve never been with someone before.”
Stella very calmly—more calmly than she thought was possible in the moment—put her glass back down and pushed away from the counter. She didn’t know what she was about to do, but she really did like her sandwich and she did not want it getting caught in the cross fire.
“Chelsea, why on earth would you do that?” Stella asked. “And when did this even happen?”
“Last night,” Chelsea said. “I saw him leaving when I got home, and he looked positively tragic. Made me want to give him a hug, and you know I don’t offer those to men for free.”
Stella felt a flicker of worry at the thought of Max looking so hurt, but she focused on her irritation with Chelsea instead. She stared at Chelsea until she continued.
“Right, so, anyway, I saw him leaving, and we got to talking, and I maybe said you were a virgin,” Chelsea said. “That’s it.”
“Why would you even bring that up?”
“I think I was trying to fix things for you,” Chelsea said. “Effie and Kira may have mentioned to me that I’ve been acting out of line since the two of you got together, so I wanted to do something good for you.”
“And you thought telling him something so very personal about me, before I could tell him myself, was the way to do that?” Stella asked. “Please walk me through how that makes sense.”
Chelsea groaned and walked around the counter so she was standing in front of Stella.
“It doesn’t, I know that,” Chelsea said. “I was drunk and not thinking. But I was trying to do a good thing. Doesn’t that count for something?”
