"So you're Mitch Schmidt?" Jeff said with an appraising look that made me incredibly nervous and I couldn't determine why.
"Yup," Mitch said, eating one of the greasy sandwiches he'd brought over. He'd brought three, told me to pick one, and ate the other two. "And you are…?"
"Jeff," my best friend replied, giving me a scathing look since I hadn't talked about him enough for Mitch to be able to identify him without an introduction.
"He's my best friend," I said quietly to Mitch, "Jeff, did you want anything to drink?"
He laughed, "You mean you have something in your fridge other than mustard and the leftover Chinese food from the other night?"
Mitch gave me a questioning look and I had a sinking feeling in my stomach, wondering why my best friend wanted to make my boyfriend think I was unfaithful.
"Actually, I finished off the Chinese food after you'd left. It wasn't in the fridge very long," I said with a weak smile, "I went grocery shopping today."
"That's good," Jeff said with a smile that looked completely insincere, "You know how much I worry about you not eating enough."
Mitch chuckled, "He's been a bit too busy to eat in the past few days. I keep him pretty preoccupied, if you know what I mean."
"MITCH!" I was blushing. I was blushing so hard that I was fairly positive my pores were going to start seeping blood. Jeff look positively murderous and Mitch look annoyingly smug and triumphant. I didn't know what was going on. I couldn't tell what was going through Jeff's head, but I knew Mitch didn't either, he just wanted to beat Jeff at whatever it was he was doing. Men are too complicated. I thought women were supposed to be the calculating ones and men were supposed to just come out and compare their cocks. Isn't that how the world is supposed to work?!?!
"So, Jeff, what do you do?" asked Mitch.
"I'm an editor for a publishing company," answered Jeff. At Mitch's questioning look, he continued, "I go through novel ands fix grammatical errors."
"Wow," Mitch said with a bit of sarcasm, "That sounds exciting."
I roll my eyes, "Ok, boys, whatever this is about, quit it," I interrupt. They both turn and look at me and I glare at them, "This whole one-upping or whatever your doing? It's not amusing and I don't appreciate it so just stop."
"He started it," muttered Mitch.
I gaped, "What are you, five?" Mitch gave me a hurt look and I instantly regretted my harsh criticism. But seriously, how immature could he be?
Mitch just nodded at my apologetic face and turned to Jeff, "So how long have you two known each other?"
"Since Freshman year in college," answered Jeff, "We were in all of the same classes since we were both in the English department and we dated for a little while."
Mitch's expression darkened, "So are you one of the-"
"Jeff, we dated for two weeks and you dumped me because I was 'cold and unaffectionate.' I don't think it's really even worth bringing up. Ever," I said harshly, cutting off whatever Mitch was going to say. I grabbed my sandwich and walked over to my couch and plopped down while grabbing the remote and turning it on to a random channel. I pushed up the volume significantly louder than necessary and angry ate my sandwich, a delicious chicken teriyaki. I could barely hear Mitch and Jeff talking.
"Is he really angry?" asked Mitch.
"Yeah. You were being a major jerk."
"Well I'm sorry if you walking in here and pissing all over everything like a dog marking its turf pisses me off."
"…I don't like when Tad dates people, ok? He always gets hurt and he seems to really like you, so that worries me."
"Look, I… I get that ok? I'm new at this whole real relationship deal, but I do care about Tad and I'll do everything I can to keep from hurting him, alright?"
"Yeah, ok. I'm gonna cut out of here."
"Why'd you stop by at all?"
"He told me he was having a bad day when I called him at lunch. Anyway, see ya."
Jeff left and Mitch sat at the kitchen counter for a moment before coming to sit next to me on the couch.
"So were you listening to us talk or did the TV drown it all out?" he asked.
"I was listening," I replied, "Thank you… for working things out with Jeff. He's my best friend and for a long time he was the only person in my life that I really trusted. Now I have you in my life and it's a new adjustment. I have to learn to trust you and communicate with you. It's going to take real work."
Mitch leaned over and pressed his lips to mine in a gentle kiss before pulling away and smiling at me, "Thank you for believing I'm worth it."
"Yeah, well, you have to reciprocate," I said with a false glare.
He grinned and whispered, "You taste like teriyaki sauce," before kissing me again.
What have I gotten myself into?