chapter 3- too good to be true (p2)

While Claire completely understood where Paul was coming from, she couldn’t help but feel bad for her sister. She couldn’t imagine what her sister was feeling since splitting up from her longtime lover. However, judging from Emma’s anti-social behavior these past three weeks, Claire could guess that Emma wasn’t feeling very well. It was obvious she was depressed. Claire had even tried to offer her sister some help, but Emma was way too proud to admit anything was wrong.

Something had to change.

Claire looked upon the dirty dishes her sister had left in the sink and rushed to clean them. Once she’d polished off everything in the sink, her attention turned to Emma’s clothes. She grabbed every last far-flung garment of clothing and folded them neatly on the arm of the sofa. Then she grabbed the pizza box and managed to squeeze it into the trash can along with Emma’s leftover crust. After shutting off the TV, she rounded up the empty beer bottles and tossed them in the recycling bin. With the coffee table finally free of clutter she could wiped it down and clean off any crumbs or bits of crust that remained. Finally satisfied with the look of the apartment, Claire turned her attention to her sister. She looked cold.

Grabbing a blanket from her sister’s even messier room, Claire was about to toss it on her sister when she noticed something. A few things actually. The most obvious thing to Claire was the smudge of pizza sauce that Emma had on her lower lip. Claire was able to skillfully lick her finger and wipe off the smudge from her sister’s skin without waking her up. Emma was a heavy sleeper. She’d even bragged about sleeping through a fire drill in college. Feeling that everything was finally clean, Claire was about to give Emma the blanket, but her eyes couldn’t help but notice the rather auspicious bulge in her sister’s tummy.

Her sister was no stranger to overeating and wasn’t immune to the occasional food baby, but this was something different. Something softer. Something.. a little fuller. Nothing significant, but Claire was sure her sister looked a little thicker around her midsection. Served her right for all times she’d criticized Claire’s weight. If Emma wasn’t careful, she’d start to have a little pot belly going on down there. Now that would be karma!

Snickering to herself at the thought, Claire gently lay the blanket upon her sister and decided to leave Paul a little morning note before she left for the gym. Judging from the time she’d wasted cleaning; she knew she’d be late to her spin class. Maybe she could go to the gym again tonight to make up the lost time?

After Claire took the trash down the stairs to the dumpster and headed off to the gym, the apartment remained quiet for the next few hours. Paul was the next person to awake from his sleep. The rain had stopped, but they day remained a cloudy mess. Paul didn’t want to get out of bed, but he was craving some coffee. Looking to his side he had to admit that it was always a little bit sad to wake up without Claire next to him, but since her semester had started, he’d gotten more and more used to it.

Making his way to the kitchen, Paul could tell Claire had done some cleaning before she left. Clothes were folded, dishes were done. The place looked spotless, well.. except for Emma sleeping on the sofa again. As Paul ignored Emma and looked toward his coffee maker, he noticed a note next to it. He couldn’t help but smile once he spied it was Claire’s beautiful handwriting. After carefully reading it, he threw the note into his back pocket and got started with answering Claire’s request.