I should have known that Nicholas would never pay head to my pleas and that my firm instructions of not wanting to speak to him would fall on to deaf ears . So , when I heard the elevator dinged open followed by firm , decided footsteps , I didn' t even pause from the plate I had been rinsing neither did I bother to turn around . Even as his firm footsteps inched closer with each determined step that he took , I made no move to leave the kitchen and find him there neither did I hesitate to reach for the white rag with yellow stripes across it and dry off my breakfast dishes when my entire body could sense his presence filling the arched opening to the kitchen . I turned around slowly not caring to look up but focussed on the porcelain plate in my hand and getting it dried and packed away
