Hey There, Delilah

The Trio Reunites

Song: hopeless romantics playlist by Beverly

"No."

"But—"

"What part of no," Ambrose licked his finger and turned the page, "do you not understand?"

"The word itself since I don't hear it that much anymore." Vincent hissed, taking the wet dish from Jill and drying it before putting it away.

Ambrose chuckled, scanning Cameron's weekly packet of homework for wrong answers. "What a good time for a refresher of the value of the word, then. Let us begin—"

"Ambrose!" Vincent whined, hands flying to his hips and leaving Jill to finish cleaning up on her own. "I know what no means! Dio mio, it's the littlest things with you. Do you understand sarcasm?"

"We grew up together. You know the answer to that question."

Ambrose ignored the rest of Vincent's mumbling once he switched to Italian. He was too busy reading over Cameron's messy handwriting to entertain his cousin right now. Searching for a flaw in the math and reading comprehension answers took time and effort. If he found any wrong then that meant he'd have to have Cameron fix them the next morning. On the way to school so he could learn from his incorrect answers.

Usually he had Cameron do it the night before. After dinner when Ambrose had more time to walk him through the problems and explain where he went wrong. But after devouring Jill's dinner of chicken alfredo, cream spinach, and grilled asparagus, Cameron was out. He was asleep before his bed time of 8 o'clock and didn't even make it past one word from the next chapter of their book.

Ambrose grinned, finding no errors that needed to be fixed. This was the sixth day of Cameron getting everything on his homework correct. He couldn't help but feel a little bit of pride weasel its way into his heart at the revelation.

He slid the packet back into the red folder and placed it in Cameron's backpack. Ambrose set it on the chair by the dinner table then went to the fridge to take out some ingredients. He was vaguely aware of Jill going overboard on the cleaning and rearranging miscellaneous objects. A nervous tic, he surmised. A habit from when she lived with Noah and needed to keep everything in pristine condition.

"It's ok." Ambrose grabbed Jill's wrist, stopping her from furiously scrubbing at a spot on the counter. "Jilly, that stain was there before we moved in. Remember?"

"I remember. God, it's just so annoying to see it there." Jill huffed, loose strands of hair clung to her sweaty face. A dewy glow illuminated her features, highlighting how annoyed she was.

Ambrose watched as she gnawed on her bottom lip. Gaze fixated on that one spot. He dumped the food on the counter, covering up the stain and jerking his chin towards the cabinet. "Can you get me two meal prep containers, please?"

Jill jolted out of her dazed state and scurried to the dark cabinets. When she returned she watched with interest as Ambrose sliced thick cubes of deli turkey breast and tossed them into the longer compartment. Two hard boiled eggs were sliced open and placed in both containers. Then he filled each bento box with 2 cheese sticks, sliced apples, grapes, and pretzels.

Ambrose made eight ham and cheese pinwheels stuffed with lettuce and a cream cheese spread on the tortillas. Three went into Cameron's lunch and the remaining five were for Ambrose. Jill brought the Iron Man lunch box without needing to be asked and loaded it with an apple juice box too.

Vincent reclined on the couch, sipping his red wine like a petulant child and observing. They worked well together, Ambrose and Jill. Whenever they were in each other's orbit, everything fell into place naturally. No muss, no fuss. Just results.