Jessica's Fate

Chapter 79

New Year's Day dawned bright and cool with sunny blue skies.

I think.

I didn't wake up until almost 9. It was quiet in the house and when I got dressed in a pair of leggings and a long shirt, I headed downstairs, peeked in and found Mom sound asleep and checked on Pete in the guest room.

He was pretty darn cute anyway but sleeping? Downright angelic.

I headed into the kitchen to start making breakfast because I was hungry and by the way Shadow was yammering as she wound around my feet, she was pretty much going to file a complaint with PETA because I was clearly starving her. So I fed my fur baby and started to make cinnamon roll French toast. It was my standard New Year's breakfast. Mom and I had long determined that dieting began on January 2nd and we might as well take advantage of our last morning of girl time together before the boys ... and Sang... came back from camp and before we had to throw Kota his birthday party. Usually a birthday week because of how often the other guys would end up at our house.

Cake for days, I'm telling you. Even North gave in for birthday cake or at least he stopped complaining about them.

So we always had cinnamon roll French toast and maple candied bacon. SHH! North doesn't need to know the bacon is candied before I turn our leftovers into bread pudding. He loves my bread pudding so we just keep that little secret to ourselves. I glanced up at a noise at the door and smiled. "Good Morning." I greeted Pete, amused at how his hair stuck up in the back of his head. "Breakfast will be ready soon. Did you want me to start the coffee pot or put water on for tea?" I offered, not sure of which drink he preferred in the morning.

"Tea would be great. Is there anything I can help you with?" He pushed up the sleeves to his sweater and smiled at me.

I turned to put the kettle on. "You could set the table for 3. Mom will be up almost as soon as she smells the bacon cooking."

"Okay." He nodded and moved easily into the kitchen, remembering where things were from helping me clean up last night.

I grabbed an armload of citrus fruit out of the fridge and started to peel and segment it so that I could make our favorite citrus mint salad. It was fun, especially since we'd covered supreming citrus early on in school, my salad was going to be fancy from here on out since I was always happy to practice making perfect supremes. "Did you sleep well?" I asked, managing to cover my amusement when my gaze flicked up to study his hair before looking at him again.

"I did." He nodded slightly. "Did you?"

"Out like a light before I even fully crawled into bed." I admitted as I worked on the fruit.

He finished the table and sat down at the counter to watch me work. "I was pretty much in the same spot." He laughed. "Last night was great." He said.

I glanced up at him and nodded. "It was an excellent second date." I said calmly.

"My time is about to get crazy."

"So is mine, once classes start up again later this week." I said in return, arching an eyebrow at him as if to say, 'your move'.

He paused, seeming to consider his next word choice carefully. "That being said, I don't mean it as a 'hey we have to slow down and back it up' sort of situation." I waited for him to continue. "I was wondering if you'd consider in house dates at my place sometime. We both like movies that are based on books and I'd love for you to meet my parrot...."

"Fat Amy?" I smiled, remembering what he'd told me about the parrot on our last date.

"Yes, unless she's going by Fat Patricia." He said, rolling his eyes. "We can order in or whatever..."