𝕸adeleine stares down the delivery man uncomfortably shifting on the porch of her cottage — well, more like she squints up at him with her very, very bright blue gaze boring into his soul.

"You have a note too", he perks up, eagerly offering her a small envelope in hopes that she'll stop pestering him about why someone would send her donuts.

Orla wouldn't, she's more of a flower girl.

Millie also wouldn't because she knows that if Maddie wants something she'll ask for it or get it delivered to herself.

Who else even knows her address?

Inhaling, Madeleine opens the envelope and takes out a folded piece of paper.

She braces herself, unfolding the letter.

" I hope you'll accept my apology donuts.
And yes, I am aware that I'm the stupidest person to ever grace this planet.

I'm really sorry.

Love,
Trevor

P. S. You don't have to accept them if you don't want to, you can send them right back. They'll deliver it to me and I guess I'll feed Cole. "

She stands there, quietly blinking at the letter and trying to comprehend the situation.

He can't possibly be serious, can he?

He got her flowers. She ran off. She came back and cried. Then called Taylor and asked him to put her out of her misery because that was just too much.

And now he's sending her donuts? As an apology?

And she's tempted to accept it? The donuts, that is. Not the apology.

She glances up and sighs.

"Fine. I'll sign".

The delivery man visibly relaxes and hands over the receipt which she signs quickly grabbing the box of donuts and shutting herself inside again.

This is ridiculous.

Trevor is known for being overbearing but to this point? Where he's begging for her forgiveness through donuts?

It seemed so easy for him to leave her that she never even thought he would try to apologise after this morning's debacle.

She was fully prepared to show up at the cinema and have him pretend nothing weird had happened between the two — nothing weird because of him at least.

Huh.

Setting the box down on the kitchen island, she opens it and laughs at the sight of the fresh cocoa coated donuts.

Goddammit.

She unlocks her phone, pulling up the contact, hitting dial and placing it aside on speaker.

It takes only three rings for him to pick up.

"Hey", his voice echoes out loudly, a hint of nervousness in his tone.

"Donuts, seriously?".

"Well . . . . yeah. I thought, uhm, Alex said it would be a good surprise. Sorry if it was too much. Though I did see that you accepted the delivery".

She narrows her eyes even though he cannot see her.

"How do you know that?".

"They notified me".

"So convenient. You've got bakeries stalking me now".

"Is that really so bad?", he chuckles under his breath and she feels the corner of her lips tipping up.

Nope, no. Not doing that.

"What if they send a serial killer after me? You've just signed my death certificate. Or wait. I've signed my death certificate by accepting these donuts".

"What?", she hears some rustling on his end, "You can't say stuff like that. Shit, now I'm gonna be overthinking about this", he groans and she almost lets herself smile again.

Almost.

"You deserve it", she pokes a donut, "These look very tasty, by the way. The donuts, I mean. And the note was . . . "

Love,
Trevor

God, can she just dissolve into nothingness right here?

"The note was . . .", he begins humorously.

Madeleine clears her throat.

"Dumb. You should probably work on that. On your letter writing skills".

"Because you want me to send you more letters?".

"Because", she breathes in, "I don't want you embarrassing yourself the next time you need to write a letter. Or you know what? Go ahead, don't practice. I don't care".

"You sound like you do".

She rolls her eyes, taking a bite of the donut.

"Trust me, I don't".

"Okay".

"Okay".

They both fall silent, debating what to say and if they should even voice out the words swirling through their minds with the cacophony of a haunting melody looping in and out, driving them insane with the need to feel the desires of their heart come true.

Yet Madeleine's heart is guarded, it never fully repaired itself nor did it counter a chance to heal on its own and forget the sad memories of the person she became while Trevor allowed her to be the center of his attention.

It was easy to get lost in the happiness of everything that he brought with himself and the depressing reality is that she never even expected there would be an expiration date.

Oh, what fool she was.

She can only frown at her past self now and act like she doesn't want to go back to those months and comb through every single moment to find out just where she went wrong so that she could fix it.

And he would still love her.

No.

She shakes her head because isn't she done blaming herself for him falling out of love with her?

"Well, bye I guess".

He holds on for a moment, "Uh, yeah. Bye".

It is only when she hangs up does she realise that she'd been holding her breath.

***
hi hope everyone's having a good day 💞