Falling for Jack

Chapter 15

"You can cook?" I asked, surprised.

"Well, I do live alone so I had to learn the basics. Don't expect anything too fancy." He says with a smile.

I think this is the first time I saw him smile at me. Not a wry smile but just a smile. It suits him.

"You should smile more often." Before I could catch myself, my inner thoughts became my outer words. When my brain catches up with my mouth I rapidly cover my mouth with my hands. I look at him and his expression is blank, not betraying any emotion that he might have, but I can feel myself becoming red with embarrassment.

"Maybe I should." It's all that he says. "So what do you feel like eating?" He asks.

"Honestly not much, my stomach doesn't feel that great." I replied.

"OK, then what about some eggs, bacon and toast? How does that sound?"

"Breakfast food, my favorite! Sounds great!"

He goes to the fridge and takes out the eggs, the bacon and the butter. He quickly puts everything on the kitchen counter, grabs a pen and starts cooking. I am looking at him doing all this stuff and the only thing I can think is that he is amazing. Then his voice brings me back from my internal adoration.

"Would you like some orange juice as well?"

I quickly replied "Yes. Tell me where the oranges and the squeezer are. I can make it."

"The oranges are over there in the fruit basket and the squeezer is on the top shelf of the cabinet above the fruit basket." He says without looking away from his cooking.

I get up from my seat and go get the oranges and the squeezer. By the time I finished making the orange juice, Jack had finished making the eggs, the bacon and had toasted the bread.

"Do you wanna eat here on the counter or on the table?" Jack asks while grabbing 2 plates from the cabinet near him.

"We can eat here on the counter. There is no need to mess up the table." I replied. "Where are the glasses?"

"Here." He hands me two glasses and I pour the orange juice in them. Next I put the glasses near our food. Jack grabs two stools and places one for me on one side of the counter and the other one for him on the other side. We both sat down and I said "This all looks very delicious. Thank you for making it."

He grabs a knife and a fork and says "yeah it does. Dig in." And I do.

After we finish eating Jack gets up and says "I need to go take a shower. I'm still wet from the rain."

"OK, go ahead. I'll clean up here." I offer.

"Don't worry about it, I'll take care of it later. Just put the dishes in the sink please." He asks while heading to the room where I woke up a few hours ago.

As soon as he is out of sight I instantly feel nervous because of the storm that is still raging outside. In order to keep myself occupied I start doing the dishes. Then I proceeded to clean the stove and the kitchen counter.

"You did not have to do all that" Jack states behind me.

I turned around, somewhat startled by his sudden appearance. His hair is still wet and he is wearing a dark grey t-shirt and some black sweatpants. "Well, I had to keep myself occupied or I would lose it with this storm. Besides, it's the least I could do since you helped me last night and even did all the cooking." I tell him.

He gives me a look that I can't quite decipher. It looks like he wants to say something but at the same time he doesn't??! Or is he trying to think what to say?? After a few moments he finally says "I am going to go to my shop. You can join me if you like." He turns around and heads to the door he went through earlier to turn on the generator.

I started following him."Where is your shop?"

"In my garage."

"What do you do in your shop?"

"Toys." He simply replies.

"So you work at home as well?"

"Yes." He stops and gives me a look that says that he has had enough of my questions.

"Sorry, I'll stop asking questions." I followed him to his garage, which fortunately was glued to the house, so no need to go outside, into the storm.

When we enter and he turns on the lights my eyes get wide. It really is a complete shop. I'm no expert but I can see that here he has everything he might need to work on wood. No wonder he is able to work at home. On the back wall you can see some shelves with finished toys. In the middle of the garage you have a work table that is very messy. The power tools are on the left and on the right there is an old couch.

"Do you mind if I sit there?" I ask him, pointing at the couch.

"Not at all. I have some projects to finish, this might take a while."

I sit on the couch and grab my phone. I have some text messages from Cece. She was asking me what happened to me last night. I decided to reply to her.

"Your brother took me to his place. I'm just not used to drinking and those shots did not agree with me. I'm fine, don't worry." I send the message.

A few minutes later she replies "Good, I was worried about you. Are you home now?"

I text back "No, I'm still at your brother's."

"What? Why?" She instantly replies

"Because by the time I woke up the storm had already hit and now I'm stuck here until it goes away." I text her back.

"I wish you good luck. My brother can be a little difficult." She texts.

"No shit." I reply.

"What do you mean? What happened?" She asks.

"I'll tell you some other time." I text her and then I turn off my phone.

I lay back on the couch and after a bit my eyelids started to feel heavy. A few minutes later I'm asleep.

I wake up as I'm falling from the couch and I hit the floor with a gasp. I quickly get up and look for my phone to see what time it is. I only slept one hour.

"Hangovers are the worst. Maybe next time don't drink as much." Jack advised.

He is still sitting at his work table and I make my way to him "I never drink. Last night was a one time thing and it only happened because your sister and I started talking and ended up depressing ourselves. She suggested that we would drink our sorrows away and at the time it looked like a great idea." He has a look on his face that says "silly women". "Yeah, yeah, I know. It was really stupid but I can't change anything right now. Has the storm already passed?" As soon as I finish talking we hear a loud thunder.

"No such luck for you." Jack replies. Great, he is being obnoxious again. I pull up a chair and sit in front of him, ignoring his sassy remark.

"What are you doing?" I inquire.

"I am painting these toys." He replies.

On top of the table there were some toy cars and toy airplanes as well as some paints. You could also see some toys that were already painted.

"Can I paint one?" I ask him.

He looks at me with surprise on his face. "Don't you rather go look through some magazines or do some online shopping?" Now I'm mad. "You know, not all women are stupid, brainless and shallow creatures." And I get up to leave.

He gets up and grabs my arm before I have a chance to walk away. "I know, I'm sorry. Let 's not fight."

"You know, it's easier not to fight with you when you don't say stupid things like that." I remark.

"You're the one to talk" He states. "Come on, sit down, if you want to paint one choose which one you like the best." He let go of my arm and sat on his chair. I accepted his offer and sat down as well. I chose a small airplane and asked him "Which colors do you want me to use?"

"Just use whatever you like."