"Emily where's my shampoo?" The next day, Warren called from the bathroom.

"Last cabinet from the left," she called back from her position in front of the laptop.

As usual, their shouting had ceased but this time there was an underlying emotion in all this eerie quietness too.

When Warren came out after shower, he said to her, "What the hell? You reorganized bathroom stuff too?"

She looked up from her screen casually and said, "You're telling me that you have shampooed your hair for the first time since you came back?"

"What? No, why?"

"Then why didn't you notice it all two thousand times before?"

Now he was at loss. Yes, why didn't I notice that?

She answered both of their questions. "Because I did that last evening, before our argument. I told you that and the position of shampoo specifically but you were just oh-so busy in your work that you didn't pay attention."

"Are you really trying to say that you can spare me some of your precious time during work hours?"

Emily was about to add something but abruptly shut up, because this hit the nerve. This seemed to be the conclusion of every fight they had.

Unavailability.

"Well, just scoot over or something. I wanna lie down," he said after putting on some sweatpants.

"You woke up just two hours ago," she replied before making space for him on the bed.

"Yeah, but I don't have anything to do until five and my back is all aching because I fell down three times from the couch." At this, he gave her a pointed look.

"Wow, so that's my fault too? You sleep there on your own. I never asked you to."

He groaned in frustration and turned his back towards her. Emily stuck her tongue out at him before turning back to work.

After an hour, a forty-minute break was announced. Warren was asleep and she didn't have anything else to do. After seeing the same coronavirus related on every social media site—the kind of posts that filled her with dread—she somehow ended up opening and reading both of their texts from the time he was in Monterrey.

Her: Everything here is pure shit without you. I'm missing you like crazy.

Him: I know that feeling because I'm feeling hundred times worse than that.

Her: That's impossible, but yeah whatever. What are you doing?

Him: Besides picturing your arms around me?

Her: Yes, my cheese ball ;)

Him: Well, I just stopped working on a Word File.

Her: I remember from Word File, I'm writing you a letter. Like, full on Dear Warren type, signed with my full name. Well first and last names.

Him: And somehow I'm the cheese ball between the two of us?

Her: Point is, I'll do some finishing work on it and send to you as soon as I'm able to.

Of course, she didn't get to send it because just as she was thinking about thinking about sending it at last—two days after the sent text—he had  called to tell her that he was coming back.

No need to send him that horribly written thing now, she had thought.

After reading the texts, Emily let out a disbelieving slash exhausted sigh. They were always the golden couple everywhere. They were perfect for each other. Emily had come to believe in soulmates after meeting Warren.

So how did we end up like this?

She sighed again and got up to get a cup of coffee.

In the kitchen, she saw that the dishes were done. She didn't remember doing them and Warren never did dishes. Cleaning, laundry, anything else but never dishes. Yet who else was here to do it?

Emily shrugged to herself and went to the bedroom with coffee in hand. Warren was sitting with his back against the headboard, looking at his mobile screen intently.

"Hey, did you do the dishes?" she asked, taking her place on the bed.

He was surprised by the seemingly random question. Only until he remembered that earlier he never touched the dishwasher, God knows why.

"Yeah." He looked sheepish while saying that, Emily noted. "I did. I've lost my old repulsion of dishwashers."

"How come?"

Warren shrugged. "No reason." During the second month of Mexico, they lived in a rented place rather than hotel, so he did the chores once in a while and found that doing the dishes was same as everything else.

"I highly doubt the No Reason but seeing that it works in my favor, I'm not going to complain about this new habit you have picked up in Mexico." Emily smiled and he smiled back. First genuine smile in two days.

"Is your folks' place also under lockdown?" she asked.

"Yup. Basically every place is."

"Yeah I talked to Dad too. Their whole neighborhood is sealed in Ohio. This is getting worse each day."

"Tell me about it."

After an awkward, needs-to-be-filled-with-words silence, Emily spoke again quietly, "So, what other new knowledge did you acquire in Mexico?" In all the three weeks he had been back, they never had a proper conversation about anything, let alone about the Big, Stupid Mistake. Either it was the shouting or nothing.

"Now I know how to do the dishes which is a big achievement for me. I know how to make enchiladas. I have picked up  some Spanish phrases. Puedo hablar un poco de español. I learned from a coworker how to put the squeezed out toothpaste back in the tube. I've come to know that this secretary guy, Jeff, hates me because his wife used to have a crush on me. But biggest of all, I know that I should have listened to you all the times I didn't."
He looked at Emily with so much intensity in his green eyes that she had to turn her gaze away.

"Warren, you're not supposed to say that anymore."

"Yeah we've broken up, I remember."

"Even though we're technically living together."

"Because that's the demand of the time."

This stole all the normalcy of the moment and they looked away from each other.

This feels right for now. I've got to remember that it's actually not, they told themselves.

Emily went back to work and Warren went out in the living room to watch TV.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

A/n: So guys I'm reminding you again that this story is set in the earlier part of lockdown. That's why Emily and Warren do not realize the seriousness of the time.

Also, I don't want to start a political conversation here but I will say that this Capitol thing is horrendous.

All the love in the world,
Ray.
:)