"Clean your plate or you'll be the one to get the spanking," Madison said standing over Diesel, her hand on her hip. Diesel smiled up at her as he dropped the last forkful of grits into his mouth. He sat his empty plate on the tray that held the other dishes from their breakfast and Madison took them all from the bedroom to the kitchen. Her eyes dragged wearily over the mess they'd made in the kitchen, dirty dishes in the sink, batter spilled across the counters, pots and pans still on the burners with food remnants inside of them. Usually she would have wasted no time in cleaning it all up, but today was different. She hurried back into the bedroom and slid beneath the covers, into Diesel's warm embrace.
"I'm so glad you straightened me out," Madison said as she spooned against him. He kissed the back of her head and Madison closed her eyes to memorize the feel of his breath against her neck. "I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now."
"Me neither, I'm glad you allowed me to persuade you."
"It didn't take much did it? All you have to do is touch me and my mind goes to gravy."
"A talent I seem to have when it comes to you," Diesel sighed and rolled over onto his back. Madison laid her head on his chest, stretched a leg across him. "You mind if I smoke?" He asked already reaching for his pack of cigarettes which were sitting on the nightstand beside her bed.
"No I don't mind. You still never let me have one of those," Madison said looking up at him.
"Oh, I didn't? How considerate of me." He chuckled as he sparked a match to life and placed the flame to his cigarette. "Madison, don't smoke. You don't have to, you don't have the urge or the addiction so there's no need for you to start one up."
"Well if they're so bad why don't you stop?"
"I don't stop because I don't want to. They relax me. I'm a smoker through and through. Been doin' it since grade school. A horrible habit but a habit I don't got the urge to get rid of." Madison watched him smoke for a while, watched him blow the smoke away from her and wave away any wisps that came near.
"Can we talk, Diesel? Man to woman, lover to lover?"
"Oh geez--" Diesel began shifting uncomfortably beneath her. He lit another cigarette and put it between his lips, not meeting her gaze. "Talking, telling you things, doing all the things a therapist dreams about."
"Listen, hear me out, okay? I don't know what types of relationships you've been in in the past, but people who--care about one another--they talk. They tell each other about their feelings, their past, the things that made them who they are today. I'm not trying to be your therapist--I'm trying to be your--"
"Trying to be my what? My girlfriend? Is that what you're doing? Asking the questions a girlfriend would ask? Because if that's what you're doing, if that's the title you're going for, I'll tell you anything you want to know." Diesel smiled around his cigarette.
"Your girlfriend? Diesel we barely know each other. I just got out of a serious relationship and--"
"A serious relationship in which there was no sexual contact and no real connection."
"Diesel, I think you misinterpret the depth of me and Pete's relationship, or, at least the depth that I perceived it to have had. I loved him. A lot. I thought he was the one. I was about to start planning our wedding. My mother and I had started picking out dresses and invitation styles and--and then I found him in bed with a man. It ripped me apart Diesel. I thought he loved me."
"I'm sorry--I didn't mean to downplay it."
"It's okay, I know how it must appear. Don't worry though, it might sound strange, but the moment I saw him in bed with that guy anything I ever felt for him or ever could feel drained right out of me. I didn't love him anymore, shit I didn't even really care about him anymore. I was so angry. You have no idea." Madison took a bold reach for Diesel's cigarette but he ducked his head away and caught her wrist, kissed her palm, and told her to continue.
