Adam & Eve

It was very late when they came home, and Eve headed to take a shower before bed. Adam enjoyed the night with his friends, watching Eve in her own element. She was playful with the kids and sisterly with Stephy whom Adam had known almost as long as he'd know David. Stephy had always been protective of him and more protective of their weekend dinners at home. She'd told him one of those drunken nights not to bring his 'floosies' to the house, and he'd kept his promise. Except for Anne and now Eve, there have been no other women he'd brought over to the Ceros. No other woman had his heart. He laid back on the leather couch and turned out the light closing his eyes. A creak in the floorboards made him open his eyes. He saw Eve's shadowy figure pad over to the kitchen island and was about to speak, letting her know he was there, but something made him stop. She looked around as if she was about to do something she didn't want anyone to see. Adam frowned his brows crinkling, so he stayed still and watched her without giving away his presence.

She rummaged in the drawer and grabbed a bag and thought he couldn't see clearly he heard the rattle of pills in a bottle. The pills, he thought to himself, the same pills she'd taken this morning. A few minutes passed and she left the kitchen. When he felt the coast was clear, he tip-toed over to the kitchen drawer and opened it, and it was empty. Who takes the same vitamins twice a day?

He had almost forgotten about the pills today, but this rekindled his curiosity. When Eve moved in here, she had made him throw away all his pills and even the vitamins in case they really weren't vitamins in there. That is how little she trusted him. The only reason she would hide these would be because she was taking what she shouldn't be taking right? And what kind of vitamins come in prescription bottles anyway. He had caught a glimpse of the bright yellow bottles before she slipped them back in the drawer this morning.

He didn't want to be suspicious of her, but Adam wondered if Eve was keeping her habit hidden from him? A habit. Did she have a drug problem? Is that why she was so adamant that she leaves in 10 days? They never really discussed her leaving or staying after the heart to heart they had last night. He assumed she would stay, but now he wasn't sure.

Seeing her prowling around in the dark smuggling a mysterious bag from place to place popping pills in secret suddenly made his unfounded suspicion seem not so unfounded.

What was she hiding from him? And why? They've shared everything through their music, all their talks their unrestrained intimacy, their fears and pleasures. His every carnal desire was satiated with Eve like it had never been before. She filled his emotional, intellectual, and physical needs and brightened every corner of his dark and lonely heart in just the few days she'd been with him. They'd laid their souls bare to each other or Adam thought they had... until now.

When he joined her in the bedroom where she was sitting cross legged on the bed scribbling in that damn book again. He had come to accept her quirks, the way she fell silent and swirled into her own thoughts every now and then, the way she seemed uninterested in any discussions about their long term plans, even about her strange worn book which looked like it belonged in some archeological dig than in her delicate hands. He'd asked her a few times what it was that she was writing in there with mild curiosity without expecting a real answer. And he had never gotten one. He may have playfully pouted a little for show, but he understood everyone needed their space. If anyone truly understood that it was him. He valued his space, his privacy, his isolation more than anything else. He bought this home surrounded by nothing but undeveloped land so he can retreat to it when he was tired of the world. Which he often was. Meaningless sex was a physical release for him, nothing more. The only thing that endured was his friend David, his relationships with his children, and Eve's ever-present memories. So he knew to sustain a long term relationship with the fiercely independent and emotionally open Eve he needed to not suffocate her. And the importance of giving her space, no matter how much they loved each other meant letting her have her own secrets. But only if those secrets don't threaten to destroy her, affect her health or what they have together. He wasn't sure about that now, which is what truly worried him. But still he decided to hold back his newfound information and reign in his fears.