Operation Cupid

Chapter Twelve.

One week... That's all it took for Jesse to feel like his space had already been invaded. He knew that it was silly to feel that way, especially since Liz had no idea and was only wanting to help.

Liz had decided to clean the entire house before her date. She was nervous and felt the need to do something to take her mind off everything and logically, cleaning was the best option. Jesse knew how anxious the woman had been, after all, she had been more interested in chewing her fingernails and picking at the skin around her nail rather than in the left BBQ food from the other day.

"Are you sure you are going to be ok without me?" Jesse asked, making sure that it was ok to leave Liz on her own.

Liz smiled warmly at him.

"You've been cooped up in this house for a few days, go out and have some fun." Liz told him and Jesse smiled back at her.

"I won't be gone too long." He said and Liz waved him off.

"Seriously, go have fun. I will be just fine. I'm going to clean and then get ready." Liz explained.

"Thanks Liz." Jesse replied.

"You're welcome. Oh, before you go, is it ok if I dust in your room?" Liz asked, wanting Jesse to know that she wouldn't do anything he wasn't comfortable with.

"I don't mind." Jesse told her and Liz nodded.

They bid each other goodbye, and Liz set to work cleaning the house from top to bottom. However, there was a slight hiccup in the plan that Liz had no idea would be blown out of proportion to anyone on the outside looking in.

Jesse's room was very clean as the boy liked to tidy things before he left his room each morning. The bed was always made, any towels or dirty clothes were put into the hamper Liz bought for him and all his belongings were in the places he designated for them. Very non typical teenage boy behaviour but very welcome and appreciated by Liz.

All this to say that Jesse's room wasn't a big task to uphold. Just dusting like Liz had told Jesse before he left. Unfortunately, she had miss-stepped and lost her balance enough to knock over Jesse's bag, sending some items sprawling across the floor.

What were the items you may ask? Well, just a few empty food wrappers for the most part but among them were three unopened fruit cups, one unopened fruit bar and a bag of pretzels obviously from a vending machine.

Normally Liz would have put them aside for Jesse for later but with her head on too many things, she assumed they were old and not good anymore, so she threw them out along with the food wrappers. Big Mistake.

She hadn't realized the Jesse had taken them from the hospital and hidden them in his bag before he was discharged and had no idea where he would end up when he was released from hospital.

"Right, do I have time for coffee?" Liz asked no one as she looked at the time, gauging whether she had time to rest before she had to get herself ready and looking presentable.

Learning that she still had about three hours to kill and that it wouldn't take her long to get ready as she had sorted every miniscule detail out the night prior, she decided to start the coffee machine before taking a shower so that when she was done the said shower, she would have a fresh cup of hot coffee and could relax for a few minutes.

=

Meanwhile, Jesse and Kenzie sat on the beach laying on their towels after swimming, enjoying the sun shining down on them.

"That was fun, but I need something to eat." Kenzie said, sitting up to dig for her wallet. Jesse sat up and did the same.

"What sounds good to you?" Jesse asked, not knowing where to go. He just knew he was hungry and could eat.