"That's for me to know." I joke softly and Jessica gives me a mixture of a pitiful glare and a pout, as she continues to drip all over my floor.
"But now that you've seen it you'll have to sign the same contract as the ACU personnel." I say as I walk over to my kitchen table where I keep a few extra ACU packets of paperwork.
"Hey Alec…thanks for what you said earlier…and for actually following through on being here with me, I don't think I could come here alone…" Jessica suddenly says as she walks over to me looking shy and uncomfortable to be admitting this deep dark secret, with her clothes off and the plush towel wrapped around herself the clothes I gave her are tucked underneath her right arm, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted to rip the towel off and bend her over the table.
"Your sister is here." I tease with a smirk and enjoy the annoyed blush and huff this drags out of the young veterinarian.
"Asshole." Jessica mutters as she leans over and grabs a pen from the pile in the middle of the table, and leans over the table, I can feel her giving me the side eye as I unapologetically lean back to look at her ass.
"Don't you have a girlfriend?" Jessica snarks but it lacks any real heat and sounds more like an interested girl fishing for info on a crush.
"It's complicated, we barely get to spend any time together…I spend more time with her mother than with her…maybe my workload will even out and I'll get to spend more time with her but until then…like I said it's complicated."
"Oh…" Jessica Harding manages to sound sad for me while also happy at the same time.
"I'm gonna whip something up to eat, would you like something to eat?" I ask Jess as I walk into the kitchen, "Uhh-yeah…you can cook?" Jessica asks me curiously, making me chuckle.
"You've met my dad right?" I ask but don't wait for a reply, "He's not much of a cook he'll down right forget to eat when he's passionately working a dig and he's always passionate about a dig so…I learned young so I could take care of both of us." I tell her as I hear a chair scraping against the floor.
"Yeah, I kinda know what you're talking about, Sarah and I were raised by our Dad, we pretty much grew up on a Safari with a roving camp, sometimes most times dad was so engrossed in his work that he'd forget to take care of Sarah and I…so Sarah and took care of each other and him." Jessica shares some deeply personal stuff with me as I start opening six cans of sliced potatoes.
With the cans open I grab out a pasta strainer from a cupboard underneath the island, turning on the faucet with my elbow, holding the strainer over the sink I dump can after can into the strainer washing the potato slices off.
Grabbing a large plate from the same cupboard, I set it down on the counter, and place the strainer on top of the plate.
A laugh escapes me, as I grab out a stick of butter, and one of those small to-go cream cheese containers, and a gallon jug of milk, setting them on the large wooden counter, before grabbing the large saute pan off of its hanging hook.
'I like that this is a gas cooktop and not an electric one.' I think as I lean down and get the flame to where I like it, and peel the wrapper off of the stick of butter, it's half a stick for every two cups of milk.
Grabbing out dry and wet measuring cups, -1, 4 cups wet measuring cup -1, half cup dry measuring cup, -1, one teaspoon measuring spoon.
Setting the larger measuring cups on the counter I walk over to the pantry and grab out the large container of salt usually used to refill salt shakers, a bottle of ground black pepper, and a bottle of diced chives.
I measure out one teaspoon of salt, and pour it over the melting butter, I measure out one teaspoon of black pepper and pour it over the salt on top of the butter, and follow it up with a measured out one teaspoon of diced chives, and dump them on top of the black pepper, salt and butter.
Throwing the teaspoon in the sink, I grab the large container that is labeled as flour, open it and scoop out half a cup of flour, setting the measured out flour on the counter.
I turn to the milk and pour four cups worth of whole milk, into the 4 cup liquid measuring cup.
'Need one of those, silicone scraper spatulas.' I think and my hand goes to a drawer instinctively. Inside is an assortment of spatulas, grabbing out the type I need. I close the drawer.
Seeing that the butter isn't melted yet, which I appreciate as it's giving me time to assemble everything, I walk over the fridge and there are four ham steaks waiting for me to cook them on the bottom shelf, grabbing them out returning to breakfast island, opening the cupboard, grab out a cutting board, close the door open the cutlery drawer and grab our a sharp knife.
Taking a quick look at the pan that is currently melting the butter for my Rue, finding that it still isn't quite done melting.
I start opening the ham steaks, stacking them up on the large cutting board, taking my knife., I slice out the knubs of bone, then slice up the ham. 'Should be enough.' I think and wash my hands then I grab my other dry ingredients, and return them to the pantry to put them away.
Walking back over to the island cooktop, I grab the gallon of milk from the counter and return it to the fridge, looking through the fridge for a moment I find a large bag of shredded mega extra supremely sharp white cheddar cheese.
'I know not everyone likes cheesy scalloped potatoes and ham, but I love it.' I think while returning to the counter I set the bag of cheese down on it, and find my butter is approaching the sweet spot for rue making.
"I'm forgetting something…what am I forgetting?" I ask myself in a soft murmur, before it clicks.
'Need a casserole dish, and to preheat the oven to 350°.' I think and do those things, getting done just as my butter hits the sweet spot, sprinkling in the flour using the rubber scraper/spatula to mix the butter and flour together, grabbing the measuring cup containing the four cups of milk, slowly pouring the milk into the pan almost like making gravy, I zone out as I take the rue into it's last stages, only really coming out of my zoned out state when it comes to mixing in the cream cheese, and the sharp cheese, cheesy rue getting it to just the right thickness, before turning off of the heat constantly stirring the rue with my left hand.
With my right I reach over grap a handful of potato slices, throw them into the casserole dish, then grab a handful of cut up ham pieces and then throw them into the dish, repeating the process until all the ham and potatoes are in the large casserole dish, which is only about a minute, I grab the saute pan's handle take it off of the burner and pour it over the casserole dish and use the scrapper to help scrape all the rue out.
With the pan scraped clean I set it in the sink and start mixing the ham, potatoes and rue together in the casserole dish.
With that done I pull open a drawer and pull out a roll of tinfoil, covering the casserole dish with tinfoil, I throw it into the oven and set a time for thirty minutes.
'Only reason to use canned potatoes over fresh is to not have to wait two hours for them to come out perfectly tender.' I think and walk out and sit on the couch.
'Why's she just standing there like that.' I wonder while looking at Jess who is standing awkwardly by the table now in my sweat clothes holding her wet clothes out in front of herself.
"Right, forget about your wet clothes." I admit feeling somewhat embarrassed at myself, while standing up walking over to her and taking them from her.
I head outside to the little clearing near the jungle and over to the clothes line and start hanging up Jessica's clothes for her, when I get to her panties I swear I can feel her glaring at my back as I hand the plane Jane white panties up.
Walking back into the house Jessica is definitely glaring at me with a bit of a rosy tint to her face and neck.
I don't joke about the innocent underwear choice as I sit down on the couch and pat the cushion next to me, "Come on sit down and get comfortable, I don't know how long we're going to be here." I say as Little One runs over and jumps up and curls partially on my lap and partially on the cushion to the right of me.
Jessica comes over and sits down eyeing Little One with suspicion, "Did they make her part Labrador or something?" Jessica finally gets over her discomfort and asks me a question about Little One. Little One didn't quite know what Jessica asked but she knows it's insultive so she raises her head and shows off her sharp teeth.
"Easy baby, you just don't act like the raptors, Jessica is used to." I say gently to Little One and appease her with belly rubs.