Doctors' Orders

Alicia was standing on Joey’s doorstep, juggling groceries and keys, when his door swung open.

“Joey, hey!” She smiled brightly at him. Maybe one day he would see the brightness in her smile meant I love you.

“Hey, Alicia.” He blinked at her, surprised. “What brings you here?”

“You mentioned the other day that your cupboards were bare and I know all your favorites, so I swung by the grocery store on my way home,” Alicia said. “I thought maybe we could hang out and cook together.”

Joey continued eyeing her as if she were slightly mad. Alicia’s throat tightened, but she kept wearing the bright smile just in case. When they were dating, they’d cooked together often.

“That’s really sweet of you,” Joey said, “but I’m going out for dinner.”

“Oh.” The bags in Alicia’s arms suddenly seemed so much heavier. “I should put these away before you go...”

“She has a key,” a familiar voice said from somewhere deeper in the apartment. “She can lock up after herself. Right, Alicia?” A woman appeared behind Joey, and she smirked from over his shoulder.

Alicia’s heart plummeted into her shoes. Jennifer, the girl Joey had dated before he’d met Alicia.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded.

Joey missed the hostility in her tone. “You two know each other? I ran into Jennifer in the park when I was running this morning, and we got to talking. We thought we’d go to dinner and catch up.”

“I’d heard about the accident,” Jennifer said, “but I didn’t really understand it until I talked to him and he didn’t remember me.”

“Jennifer and I have loads in common,” Joey said. “We must have been great friends back in the day - shame we drifted apart.” Then he noticed Alicia’s crestfallen expression. “Would you like to come with us?”

Jennifer placed a proprietary hand on Joey’s shoulder. “I’m sure Alicia has other plans for her evening.”

“My plans mostly involved you,” Alicia said in a low voice to Joey.

His brow furrowed. “So you would like to come with us?”

Alicia swallowed hard. “Yes. Just - let me get everything put away.” She didn’t know if she could handle watching Jennifer flirt with Joey the entire night; judging by Jennifer’s smirk, she planned to do exactly that.

Joey smiled. “I don’t know that I’d be much help. You know your way around my kitchen better than I do.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Jennifer, do you spend much time with me? I’ll bet you know the kitchen better than I do.”

“Alicia’s always been very domestic,” Jennifer said, her tone strychnine-sweet.

“Really?” Joey asked. He glanced at Alicia. “You never seemed the type.”

Alicia gave a small shrug. “One of us had to be.”

“From when we roomed together?” Joey asked. “Jennifer told me all about it.”

Roommed together? Alicia glanced at Jennifer. Is that how you spun it? But she remembered the doctors’ orders, and she said,

“Yeah. Have fun. See you around.”

(500 words)