New Chapter
Well, here it is.
The next few days were awkward between Jason and Marissa. Mostly, Jason just went to the coffee shop with Franny and sat silently in what was becoming, his chair, and Marissa ignored his behavior and treated him like nothing had happened.
“So did you run over his favorite cat or something?” Kira whispered one slow afternoon.
Marissa glanced up and across the room where Jason sat reading a magazine of sorts. “No, why do you think that?”
“Mr. Sunshine is back to his old glowering self. He’s even less approachable now, if that’s even possible.” Kira slid a pastry and tea over to her. “Here, go make nice before he scares away more customers than he brings in.”
Marissa just looked at her friend and boss dumbfounded. “You want me to what?” Her surprise was evident in the crack of her voice.
“You heard me. You’ve got 15 minutes to either get him to seem less scary or go home.”
“Why don’t you do it?”
“Because I’m not the one he kissed, now scoot.”
Marissa felt all forms of awkward as she approached Jason’s seat. All she needed was for her hair to be frizzed out, her old braces back and she would be right in the middle of high school having one of her “friends” dare her into asking out the most popular guy. Though she was pretty confident she wouldn’t be laughed at to her fact, at worst, maybe a snippy remark, at best just a dark look. No, correct that, at best she’d get one of his heart stopping and rare smiles.
“Kira would like you to be less scary or go home.” Smooth, Rissa, could you sound any less adult?
Her rather Jr. Highish opening line did the trick in getting Jason’s attention. “Pardon me?”
“This whole brooding Dracula routine is scaring away customers.” Marissa set the tea and pastry on the little table next to Jason.
Jason looked from the food to Marissa, “I do not eat pastries.”
“I know that, but Kira doesn’t. She thought I needed to bring a peace offering.”
“She must have a better sense of your charm than you do. Looks like she sent you with a day old croissant and lukewarm tea.”
Marissa glanced down, he was right, “That, or she’s really cheep.”
At that, the smallest hint of a smile touched the edges of his lips, “That could be another opinion.”
“Friends?” Marissa extended her hand in a sign of friendship.
With a twinkle in his eyes Jason took her hand, but rather than shaking it like Marissa expected, Jason lifted her hand to his lips and brushed a feather-light kiss across her knuckles, “For now.”
Marissa was too stunned to do much more than blink and watch him saunter out of the café, then his words clicked, What the hell does he mean by that?
Marissa got home late, the girl who was supposed to come in for the second shift showed up three hours late. All Kira said was she would talk to her and gave Marissa a break on the next day, she only had to work from 12 to 5.
Mist swirled around her feet as she approached the house. Windows were dark except for a faint glow in the lower windows, someone must have left a light on. Not that anyone in the house other than her needed a light to see by. She used her key to go in the servent’s door in the back, if Fanny caught her still using this door she’d get a real earful.
Odd, there was a mouth watering smell coming from the kitchen. She was the only one who ever cooked, that is, unless Franny was deciding to try and watch the cooking chanel. Curious to see what Franny had gotten herself into.
The smells only got better as she made her way though the back corridor to the kitchen. Upon entering the kitchen she was drawn to the stove and oven. Just as she was about to lift the lid of one of the sauce pans a hand stopped hers.
“Not so fast. Go to the dinning room and sit down. Kira said you had not eaten yet, so I know you are hungry.” Jason lifted her hand off the lid.
Marissa couldn’t believe what she was hearing, “You called Kira to find out if I had eaten?”
“No, she called me. Now please go take a seat in the dinning room.”
“Not so fast,” Marissa dug in her heals to stop Jason from steering her out of the kitchen. “Why did Kira call you?”
“Because I asked her to, now go sit and I will bring in dinner.” Jason led Marissa through the door into the dinning room. Marissa froze again, she had never seen the dinning room done up like this, no one ever really ate in there, except her. Now, the nearest end of the table was set with gleaming white china and sparkling silver. The white tablecloth was sprinkled with red and white rose petals.
Marissa could not believe what she was seeing, “What’s all this?” The rock of Gibraltar couldn’t be more stuck in place than she was.
“All this,” Jason mimicked, “Is dinner and an apology. Now, sit down and I will be back momentarily with food.” The glue that was holding her feet in place came loose and Marissa allowed herself to be steered to a seat.
Jason pulled the chair out for her, made sure she was settled and then disappeared into the kitchen.
An apology, Marissa mused, what for? And what was with all the flowers? There were Forget-Me-Nots, Lavender Roses, and red Carnations, quite and odd mix, not the usual assortment. Some vague bit of trivia that her grandmother had taught her tickled the back of her mind. It had to do with Victorian couples and the meaning of flowers, but for the life of her she couldn’t recall what the individual flowers meant.
Before she could spend too much time trying to remember, Jason returned wheeling in the tea service art laden with dishes. “I did not want to have to go back and forth into the kitchen,” Jason said in way of an explanation. Marissa watched intrigued as Jason set one after another covered dishes on the table.
“I hope you aren’t expecting me to eat all of this. There’s enough food here to feed 10.”
Jason shrugged, “What ever is left over will keep in the fridge.” Jason removed the lid from the first dish to revile half a dozen palm-sized crabs arranged on their backs on a bed of lettuce.
Marissa’s eyes lit up, “I haven’t had deviled crabs in ages, not since I still lived with my Gram.” One by one the lids came off with a flourish. Jason enjoyed the reactions each dishes inspired on Marissa’s face. He had only witnessed her eat a handful of times and even then it seemed as if the food was merely a necessity of life and not an enjoyment.
After the crab was a strawberry spinach salad, followed by minted peas and as a main coarse buttermilk fried chicken with potatoes and cream gravy.
Marissa was stunned, these were all favorite foods of hers since childhood, but she hasn’t eaten them in years, most of them were things only her grandmother used to make. “Jason, I’m stunned,” then the awed look changed to one of confusion. “I’ve never seen you boil water, where did you learn to cook like this?”
The hint of a mischievous smile crossed his lips, “Just because you have not seen me cook does not meant I am unable.” Marissa eyes him skeptically, but she had no proof otherwise, so she shrugged it off.
The food was wonderful. It had been a long time since she had eaten with pure enjoyment. Marissa wouldn’t admit it to save her life, but she was a terrible cook. The best thing she could make was a frozen pizza and popcorn. Her mother had given up early on trying to teach her only daughter to cook; she preferred not having to constantly supervise just to make sure the kitchen didn’t burn down.
Marissa had to be careful not to eat too much, having her favorite foods right in front of her made it difficult, but they thought of what Jason might have up his sleeve for dessert kept her in check. She was contemplating one more stuffed crab when Jason excused himself and went back into the kitchen. Moments later he re-emerged with large a bowl on a try accompanied by several small dishes. Curious, Marissa passed on the crab, reminding herself she could take it with her lunch tomorrow. “And what kind of dessert are you going to try and top this dinner with?”
Jason looked at her a little unsure, “I was unaware of what you prefer for dessert. I hope this is acceptable.” The larger bowl was covered in frost and when he removed the lid Marissa understood why. Inside were two scoops of each chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream, and in the other smaller dishes were all the conceivable toppings Marissa could think of, almonds, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, peanuts, bananas, chocolate chips, sprinkles, caramel sauce, hot fudge, whipped cream, and many more.
“Ice cream Sundays?”
Jason shrugged sheepishly, “I could not decide on a dessert, so I settled on the most American dessert I could think of.”
Jason was rewarded with a dazzling smile, “You picked perfect.”
***
An hour later, after depositing a very sleepy but smiling Marissa at her door, Jason stood in the kitchen surveying the mess of dishes and leftovers.
“Do not even think it,” Franny warned from the doorway with her arms crossed over her chest. “There is no way I am helping you clean this mess. You made it, you deal with it.” Jason gave her a lopsided smile. “And yes, someone would notice if you tossed all the dirty dishes out with the trash, even if you replaced them with new ones.”
“Would you please stop doing that,” Jason growled with no real intent. “And that was just an idle thought, I would not really do that. Though it is tempting.” Jason rolled up his sleeves and turned on the faucet to fill the sink.
Franny watched for a few minutes, then deciding he would do more harm than good shoved him aside with her hip, “Really, you can be so midevil at times. I will rinse, you can put the dishes in that thing next to you called a dishwaser.” Silently Jason relinquished his task and set about filling the dishwasher. Franny gave him a sideways look, “Where you really going to do all these dishes by hand?”
Jason let a slow smile progress across his face, “No, I was just curious how long it would take for you to need to do things the modern way.”
Franny stuck out her tongue at him, “Dunce.”
“I would not say that, you are the one who falls for it every time.”
Franny laughed, “Only because I was afraid you would end up braking more than washing. So, how did the dinner go?”
“She enjoyed it very much, thank you for the recommendation.”
“Any chance she knew that it was take-out?”
“Not at all, and if you say anything I will deny it to eternity.”
The next few days were awkward between Jason and Marissa. Mostly, Jason just went to the coffee shop with Franny and sat silently in what was becoming, his chair, and Marissa ignored his behavior and treated him like nothing had happened.
“So did you run over his favorite cat or something?” Kira whispered one slow afternoon.
Marissa glanced up and across the room where Jason sat reading a magazine of sorts. “No, why do you think that?”
“Mr. Sunshine is back to his old glowering self. He’s even less approachable now, if that’s even possible.” Kira slid a pastry and tea over to her. “Here, go make nice before he scares away more customers than he brings in.”
Marissa just looked at her friend and boss dumbfounded. “You want me to what?” Her surprise was evident in the crack of her voice.
“You heard me. You’ve got 15 minutes to either get him to seem less scary or go home.”
“Why don’t you do it?”
“Because I’m not the one he kissed, now scoot.”
Marissa felt all forms of awkward as she approached Jason’s seat. All she needed was for her hair to be frizzed out, her old braces back and she would be right in the middle of high school having one of her “friends” dare her into asking out the most popular guy. Though she was pretty confident she wouldn’t be laughed at to her fact, at worst, maybe a snippy remark, at best just a dark look. No, correct that, at best she’d get one of his heart stopping and rare smiles.
“Kira would like you to be less scary or go home.” Smooth, Rissa, could you sound any less adult?
Her rather Jr. Highish opening line did the trick in getting Jason’s attention. “Pardon me?”
“This whole brooding Dracula routine is scaring away customers.” Marissa set the tea and pastry on the little table next to Jason.
Jason looked from the food to Marissa, “I do not eat pastries.”
“I know that, but Kira doesn’t. She thought I needed to bring a peace offering.”
“She must have a better sense of your charm than you do. Looks like she sent you with a day old croissant and lukewarm tea.”
Marissa glanced down, he was right, “That, or she’s really cheep.”
At that, the smallest hint of a smile touched the edges of his lips, “That could be another opinion.”
“Friends?” Marissa extended her hand in a sign of friendship.
With a twinkle in his eyes Jason took her hand, but rather than shaking it like Marissa expected, Jason lifted her hand to his lips and brushed a feather-light kiss across her knuckles, “For now.”
Marissa was too stunned to do much more than blink and watch him saunter out of the café, then his words clicked, What the hell does he mean by that?
Marissa got home late, the girl who was supposed to come in for the second shift showed up three hours late. All Kira said was she would talk to her and gave Marissa a break on the next day, she only had to work from 12 to 5.
Mist swirled around her feet as she approached the house. Windows were dark except for a faint glow in the lower windows, someone must have left a light on. Not that anyone in the house other than her needed a light to see by. She used her key to go in the servent’s door in the back, if Fanny caught her still using this door she’d get a real earful.
Odd, there was a mouth watering smell coming from the kitchen. She was the only one who ever cooked, that is, unless Franny was deciding to try and watch the cooking chanel. Curious to see what Franny had gotten herself into.
The smells only got better as she made her way though the back corridor to the kitchen. Upon entering the kitchen she was drawn to the stove and oven. Just as she was about to lift the lid of one of the sauce pans a hand stopped hers.
“Not so fast. Go to the dinning room and sit down. Kira said you had not eaten yet, so I know you are hungry.” Jason lifted her hand off the lid.
Marissa couldn’t believe what she was hearing, “You called Kira to find out if I had eaten?”
“No, she called me. Now please go take a seat in the dinning room.”
“Not so fast,” Marissa dug in her heals to stop Jason from steering her out of the kitchen. “Why did Kira call you?”
“Because I asked her to, now go sit and I will bring in dinner.” Jason led Marissa through the door into the dinning room. Marissa froze again, she had never seen the dinning room done up like this, no one ever really ate in there, except her. Now, the nearest end of the table was set with gleaming white china and sparkling silver. The white tablecloth was sprinkled with red and white rose petals.
Marissa could not believe what she was seeing, “What’s all this?” The rock of Gibraltar couldn’t be more stuck in place than she was.
“All this,” Jason mimicked, “Is dinner and an apology. Now, sit down and I will be back momentarily with food.” The glue that was holding her feet in place came loose and Marissa allowed herself to be steered to a seat.
Jason pulled the chair out for her, made sure she was settled and then disappeared into the kitchen.
An apology, Marissa mused, what for? And what was with all the flowers? There were Forget-Me-Nots, Lavender Roses, and red Carnations, quite and odd mix, not the usual assortment. Some vague bit of trivia that her grandmother had taught her tickled the back of her mind. It had to do with Victorian couples and the meaning of flowers, but for the life of her she couldn’t recall what the individual flowers meant.
Before she could spend too much time trying to remember, Jason returned wheeling in the tea service art laden with dishes. “I did not want to have to go back and forth into the kitchen,” Jason said in way of an explanation. Marissa watched intrigued as Jason set one after another covered dishes on the table.
“I hope you aren’t expecting me to eat all of this. There’s enough food here to feed 10.”
Jason shrugged, “What ever is left over will keep in the fridge.” Jason removed the lid from the first dish to revile half a dozen palm-sized crabs arranged on their backs on a bed of lettuce.
Marissa’s eyes lit up, “I haven’t had deviled crabs in ages, not since I still lived with my Gram.” One by one the lids came off with a flourish. Jason enjoyed the reactions each dishes inspired on Marissa’s face. He had only witnessed her eat a handful of times and even then it seemed as if the food was merely a necessity of life and not an enjoyment.
After the crab was a strawberry spinach salad, followed by minted peas and as a main coarse buttermilk fried chicken with potatoes and cream gravy.
Marissa was stunned, these were all favorite foods of hers since childhood, but she hasn’t eaten them in years, most of them were things only her grandmother used to make. “Jason, I’m stunned,” then the awed look changed to one of confusion. “I’ve never seen you boil water, where did you learn to cook like this?”
The hint of a mischievous smile crossed his lips, “Just because you have not seen me cook does not meant I am unable.” Marissa eyes him skeptically, but she had no proof otherwise, so she shrugged it off.
The food was wonderful. It had been a long time since she had eaten with pure enjoyment. Marissa wouldn’t admit it to save her life, but she was a terrible cook. The best thing she could make was a frozen pizza and popcorn. Her mother had given up early on trying to teach her only daughter to cook; she preferred not having to constantly supervise just to make sure the kitchen didn’t burn down.
Marissa had to be careful not to eat too much, having her favorite foods right in front of her made it difficult, but they thought of what Jason might have up his sleeve for dessert kept her in check. She was contemplating one more stuffed crab when Jason excused himself and went back into the kitchen. Moments later he re-emerged with large a bowl on a try accompanied by several small dishes. Curious, Marissa passed on the crab, reminding herself she could take it with her lunch tomorrow. “And what kind of dessert are you going to try and top this dinner with?”
Jason looked at her a little unsure, “I was unaware of what you prefer for dessert. I hope this is acceptable.” The larger bowl was covered in frost and when he removed the lid Marissa understood why. Inside were two scoops of each chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream, and in the other smaller dishes were all the conceivable toppings Marissa could think of, almonds, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, peanuts, bananas, chocolate chips, sprinkles, caramel sauce, hot fudge, whipped cream, and many more.
“Ice cream Sundays?”
Jason shrugged sheepishly, “I could not decide on a dessert, so I settled on the most American dessert I could think of.”
Jason was rewarded with a dazzling smile, “You picked perfect.”
***
An hour later, after depositing a very sleepy but smiling Marissa at her door, Jason stood in the kitchen surveying the mess of dishes and leftovers.
“Do not even think it,” Franny warned from the doorway with her arms crossed over her chest. “There is no way I am helping you clean this mess. You made it, you deal with it.” Jason gave her a lopsided smile. “And yes, someone would notice if you tossed all the dirty dishes out with the trash, even if you replaced them with new ones.”
“Would you please stop doing that,” Jason growled with no real intent. “And that was just an idle thought, I would not really do that. Though it is tempting.” Jason rolled up his sleeves and turned on the faucet to fill the sink.
Franny watched for a few minutes, then deciding he would do more harm than good shoved him aside with her hip, “Really, you can be so midevil at times. I will rinse, you can put the dishes in that thing next to you called a dishwaser.” Silently Jason relinquished his task and set about filling the dishwasher. Franny gave him a sideways look, “Where you really going to do all these dishes by hand?”
Jason let a slow smile progress across his face, “No, I was just curious how long it would take for you to need to do things the modern way.”
Franny stuck out her tongue at him, “Dunce.”
“I would not say that, you are the one who falls for it every time.”
Franny laughed, “Only because I was afraid you would end up braking more than washing. So, how did the dinner go?”
“She enjoyed it very much, thank you for the recommendation.”
“Any chance she knew that it was take-out?”
“Not at all, and if you say anything I will deny it to eternity.”