The tired smile that’d fallen onto his face fell right off when looks at him-Cleona’s gaze is all ice but somehow fire at the same time. Shit. That wasn’t good.
“I’m good. I ate at-”
“-at the office, yeah. I figured.”Â
Benjy raises his eyebrows at her but Cleona seems really interested in the bottom of her mug. He resists the urge to sigh, a little annoyed for not seeing it. She’s obviously lonely-he’s been neglecting her with these 12, 13, 14 hour days. Not an excuse, but a reason-for her too. A tiny part of the annoyance is that Cleona can’t cut him the tiniest bit of slack with all this going on. Obviously he’d rather be spending his time with her–maybe it’s time he reminded her.
“Oh-kayyy. What’s the matter, hmm?” He walks around the table so he’s behind her, coming down to press a quick kiss to her cheek and then another down her jaw, her throat, down to her shoulder, speaking as he does.
“Something bad in the tea leaves today, baby?”
She stiffens, hating that she can’t give into him like she really truly wants to. Merlin, all she’s done is miss him, but this, this hurts far more than she’d like to admit. And maybe she could forgive him easily if he just couldn’t make it, but...he forgot completely. Couldn’t even be bothered to try to reach her at all. Just so she knew he was okay. In the very least.
Of course it doesn’t help that his attempt at being cute just infuriates her all the more.
“I just got back from Arthur and Molly Weasley’s about forty-five minutes ago.”Â
She takes another sip of her tea, still holding herself too stiff in her chair and staring straight ahead at the light blue walls of his kitchen. She feels him straighten up behind her, placing a hand on her shoulder that she fights the ever so small urge to shrug off.
She nods slightly, setting her mug down on the table but keeping her hands clenched too tightly around it. “Closed the cafe early and everything.”
“I told you about it last week,” she interrupts him, her voice getting a bit louder, her words spilling off her tongue faster. “I reminded you last night. And both times, you told me that you’d absolutely be there, without a question. Nothing would stop you from meeting me in Ottery St. Catchpole so we could go up to my friends’ place, the same people who happen to be the parents of my godson no less. You know, Percy? Kidnapped by a fucking madman late last year, no big deal--”
She stops herself and heaves a big sigh, getting carried away. Benjy has stopped touching her now but she still doesn’t look at him. If she looks at him, she’s either going to start crying or yelling and she doesn’t want to do either.
“Obviously you weren’t there.” She shrugs the shoulder he had just been touching. “It’s fine. We got on. I defended you. But--” she clicks her tongue against the roof of her mouth. “The thing is, you didn’t--you didn’t bother owling me or anything. To let me know that something had come up, let me know that you’re all right, anything.”
She turns around in her chair to look at him, her expression impossibly cool as she studies him.
“Doesn’t seem like too much to ask and all.”Â
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