After a short wait for their food, they finally entered Ellie’s apartment. Immediately the smell of a ripe trash can assailed their nostrils and any positive emotion Ellie felt from their limited contact faded away like the drop of a rock in her stomach. “Ugh, it’s so much worse than I remembered!” Ellie declared dramatically and headed towards her kitchen to deal with the source of the foul stench.“I’d tell you to wait ‘til after we eat, but that’s pretty bad,” Grace laughed.The pit in Ellie’s stomach grew even larger and a scowl crossed her face. I knew I shouldn’t have brought her up here. Grace noticed her rapidly deteriorating demeanor and attempted to recover. “I didn’t mean it like that,” she said, waving both hands dismissively in front of her. “I really don’t mind the mess. And I don’t think it means anything bad about you. And that trash smells bad and we’d probably enjoy our dinner more if it were gone.”Ellie studied her expression, ultimately deciding to trust her. “Okay, I’m sorry. I’m just really sensitive about this. Honestly, it wasn’t always this bad, but I broke up with my boyfriend a few months back and I’ve kind of been in a slump since then. Hence, no social life.”Grace nodded understandingly. “Why don’t you take the trash down and I’ll crack a window or two. Then I’ll get the food all set up.”Ellie looked at her confused. “I usually just eat out of the containers. Mainly because I’m lazy, but also because I don’t ever have clean dishes,” her voice trailed off at the Beşevler escort end of the sentence.“Well, tonight you’ll treat yourself with a real plate and fork. I’ll wash some dishes for us while you take the trash out.”Ellie was going to protest but figured Grace had already made up her mind. She sighed in resignation and took out the trash. She wondered what part of her thought it was a good idea to invite Grace inside. It almost seemed that Grace intentionally didn’t give Ellie much time to respond to her requests, that her pretense of leaving was more of an act. That Grace knew Ellie would be indecisive and knew that when she tried to leave, Ellie would be unable to say no. If this was true, Ellie didn’t mind. She trusted her completely, as nonsensical as that was. She didn’t even mind leaving Grace alone in her apartment.She opened the door of the apartment relieved. It felt nice to have that out of the way. She moved into the kitchen where Grace was putting the finishing touches on the newly cleaned plates. Grace had also cleared the table in front of the sofa enough for their two plates and two cleaned glasses filled with water. Ellie’s eyes stung with tears and her throat clenched as her body reacted to Grace’s niceness. She tried to turn her face away from Grace so she wouldn’t see.“There,” Grace said. She placed a final scoop of rice on each plate and held them up. “Looks pretty good, right? I hope so. I would die for a good Chinese restaurant Çankaya escort bayan in the neighborhood.”They walked over to the sofa and began to eat. Ellie asked, “Do you want to watch TV or something? That’s what I usually do during dinner.”“If we were married and had been together for a long time, I’d say, ‘yes’.” She cast a sideways glance at Ellie to see if she reacted. Though Ellie tried to keep her face neutral, Grace saw her eyes bug for a moment. “But since we don’t really know each other, let’s keep it off and see what happens.”Ellie swore Grace’s face had a hint of mischief when she said that last part but wrote it off as Grace being Grace. Ellie hadn’t known her for long, but she had come to recognize that she sometimes said and did off-the-wall things. “Sounds good to me,” Ellie said, her voice cracking slightly out of nervousness. She cleared her throat and asked, “In that case, what made you move here from Indiana?”Grace looked thoughtful and took a bite of her food, which Ellie assumed was her way of buying time. “It’s a little complicated, I guess. First of all, Indiana’s a shit hole.” Ellie blinked at Grace’s use of the term “shit hole,” due to the face that she hadn’t heard Grace curse up to this point. “It’s flat and covered in cornfields. And no alcohol sales on Sundays.”“Yikes, that last one’s rough. So, you moved because you couldn’t buy alcohol one day a week?” Ellie teased.“No, I’m just characterizing the place. I lived Escort Cebeci in a relatively small town. Where you can’t go anywhere without seeing at least one person you know.” She paused, taking another bite of food.“I think I have a feeling where this is going,” Ellie said cockily.Grace’s eyes narrowed playfully. “Alright then, have a go at it. If you guess it, I’ll cook you lunch every day for the next month.”“Even on the weekends?”“Sure.”“And if I lose?”“You have to go out to dinner with me twice a week.”Ellie’s eyes lit up at the thought of a delicious, home-cooked meal seven days a week. Lord knows she needed it. And the price of losing wasn’t really a loss. She could easily afford two nice dinners a week and she’d get to spend more time with Grace. “I hardly think dinner twice a week is a consequence, but I’ll take that bet.” Ellie’s weird brain took over again and she stuck out her hand to seal the deal. She wanted to feel Grace’s touch again.“Okay then,” Grace said shaking her hand. “Let’s hear it.” She crossed her arms defensively across her chest.“Alright. I think you were born in that small town in Indiana. Maybe you went away for college, but you moved back home after you graduated until you found a job. Somewhere preferably not in your hometown. But you ran into a high school sweetheart at the supermarket and fell swiftly and madly in love.” She tried to study Grace’s face but couldn’t divine anything. Madly in love with who? Not wanting to assume too much, she continued, “You got a job in the area and dated him for a year or two before he broke things off. Small town means you probably see him and his family a lot or you’d have random people asking how you’re doing when you’d rather be left alone, so that’s why you left.” Ellie looked proud of herself until Grace chuckled.