Dynamics Between Him and Her

"How was your day?" Eleanoria positioned herself next to Caleb and prepared for a lengthy conversation.
   
"It was good." Caleb felt satisfied concerning his response, but Eleanoria stared at him expectantly.

"What did you do at work?"

"The usual." In a sense his response was true, but what he kept secret were the small triumphs that Caleb had no idea how to explain with proper levity. Overall the sense of his day was alright, and responding with an affirmative evaluation seemed appropriate. How could she possibly be interested in his development of a cleaning rotation, or the stains that he had finally removed after so long being defeated by their persistence? Existing in these moments were subtle building blocks towards Caleb's future and he had recognized early on the importance of these ephemeral moments, but to the eyes of an outsider they were meaningless and unimportant.

"So nothing at all interesting happened?" Eleanoria continued to further Caleb in his explanation. Unbeknownst to himself, Eleanoria truly did wish to hear of the small victories that built his character, but his defiance was a wall and shut her out.
   
"No, not really. I was mostly looking forward to seeing you." Eleanoria blushed.
   
"Well that's sweet." She enjoyed his flirtations, but hated how he would use them as a diversion for conversation.  "You know i really do want to know how your day went." She was relentless on getting a proper response.
     
"I did, I told you it was good." Again, Caleb felt the observation was more than adequate to summarize his day. After all, nothing really mattered throughout the day other than seeing her. No small victory could beat the warmth that came with her smile and as far as he was concerned the week only comprised of their time together and everything in between. Unfortunately Caleb failed at communicating this truth and as a result Eleanoria was led to believe that Caleb wished to shut her out.
   
"You never open up to me." Eleanoria crossed her arms and pouted but still retaining her cuteness. Caleb smirked at her comment, how many times had he heard this complaint? "I'm serious," Eleanoria responded to his reaction, "you just hide away and bottle it all up. I don't think it's healthy." How many times had they had this conversation?
   
"Eleanoria, I assure you however i deal with my emotions  is perfectly healthy. Trust me." Caleb rested his hand upon hers both as an excuse to make contact with her and to reassure her of her doubt, but mostly the former.
   
"But that's just it," Eleanoria retracted her hand both to illustrate her frustration and to tease, but mostly the latter, "you never talk to me."
   
Caleb enjoyed their game and responded by draping his arm around her. "My sweet Eleanoria, we talk all the time. I'm here almost every day."
   
"Ya we talk, but we don't talk." Caleb seemed confused. "We never talk about how you feel."
   
Caleb felt a strong distaste for her comment. It must be just that women only want to talk about emotions and feelings Caleb thought. It must be just that men never want to talk about how they feel Eleanoria thought to herself.

C.R.