by K. Anderson
“Ok, that’s easy.” Jess replied.
“Also, I will leave a list of menus on the fridge. You should have everything you need to make dinners. We eat at 6:30 every night. Jasmine is supposed to help with dishes after dinner. Don’t let her sass you.” Maggie instructed.
“That will be a little harder. Jasmine is turning into a firecracker!” Jess laughed.
“Finally, I will need you to pick up Paul’s suits and shirts from the dry cleaner on Tuesday. The tag and the cash are pinned to the fridge. I will be back Thursday night so I can get his suits to the cleaner for next week.”
“No problem sis. Happy to be able to help out.”
Jess smiled at her sister. Jess knew she was probably too eager to help out with the family. For some reason, Paul was ridiculously attractive to her. She couldn’t put her finger on why. He was tall, dark hair and dark eyes and his smile always made her happy. But it was something beyond just basic physical attraction. There was something that happened to Jess when she was around Paul that made her feel girly and flirtatious and safe all at once. She knew she would never act on these feelings because she adored her sister, but she liked the secret giddy rush she got when they all hung out together.
* * * * *
They got back to Maggie’s house and unloaded the car. As Jess helped put the groceries away she was amazed at the organization of her sister’s kitchen. There were no Tupperware containers of questionable leftovers in the fridge. The ones that were there bore masking tape with the date the food was prepared. There were no fruits and vegetables past their prime. No open containers of half-eaten Chinese food. This was so remarkably different than Jess’s own fridge she seriously wondered how Maggie managed to do this with two kids and a real job.
She and Maggie went to prepare the den where Jess would sleep.
“Would you mind grabbing the plaid sheets from the linen closet?” Maggie asked.
Jess went down the hall and opened the closet. Again, she noted the strict order everything was in. The sheets were stacked neatly; all folded the proper way that Martha Stewart demonstrated on television. Over the counter drugs were sorted by category - pain, stomach and digestive issues, lotions - and placed in individual canvas bins. Hair ties and clips each had their own containers. This boggled Jess. Her own linen closet was a combination of things thrown in haphazard, which meant when she needed an aspirin or pillowcase she when on a treasure hunt.
Jess picked up the sheets and returned to the den.
“How do you keep everything so orderly?” she asked her sister with genuine interest.
“Paul taught me.” Maggie replied. “He hates having to search for stuff when he needs it. Drives him crazy. So he showed me how to fold the sheets, helped me set up the house in a way that pleases him. I just make it part of my chore list to keep things in order. Makes the household run better, I think.”
For some reason the thought of being told what to do and having a chore list made Jess weirdly excited. She liked the idea that someone other than her could set this stuff up and just make it her job to maintain it. Her biggest obstacle in maintaining her own house had been that she just didn’t know where to start. She had tried to organize things, but after twenty minutes of sorting or after binging at The Container Store her desire to organize dissipated and she would be left with a pile of stuff on the dining room table that would then take another two weeks to deal with.
As she and Maggie made up the futon in the den, Jess drifted into a fantasy about meeting someone who would organize her house and tell her what to do. She laughed at herself when she realized that the idea of a man telling her how to organize her linen closet was making her slightly aroused. Too much time watching the DYI channel, she thought to herself.
She and Maggie finished prepping the den and walked into the living room. The kids were playing a loud round of Shoots and Ladders on the floor with The Tree Friends playing on television.
“Can I get you something to drink?” Maggie asked.
“Lemonade would be good.” Jess replied.
She sat on the couch and watched Denver and Jasmine while Maggie grabbed the drinks.
Maggie sat down and pulled a pad and pen out of the end table.
“I will make you a list of dinners for the week. Also, the kids usually have oatmeal for breakfast during the break. There are fixings for PB and J sandwiches and some veggie buffalo nuggets in the fridge for lunch. Make sure they drink plenty of water throughout the day. They get almond milk with dinner. If they want a treat, you know where I keep the cookies stashed.”
At the word cookies, both kids turned and looked at their mom.
“Cookies?” Jasmine asked.
“Sweetie, you can have one after dinner.” Maggie replied.
Jasmine looked a little crestfallen. However, her brother took a turn at the game and it sent him sliding down a shoot and back behind her. Jasmine laughed and forgot about the cookies.
Chapter Three
At 5:30 Maggie and Jess started making dinner. It was nothing elaborate, just soft tacos. Jess started chopping the vegetables to sauté while Maggie prepped the chicken. They heard the garage door open. Paul was back from his golf game.
“How are the two loveliest ladies I know?” he asked when he entered the kitchen.
“Good Sir. How was your game?” Maggie washed her hands and poured Paul a glass of iced tea.
“Not too bad. Got a chance to catch up with the guys a bit. Colin got a promotion at the firm. Jay has his regular girl drama. It was cool.” Paul sipped the ice tea then kissed Maggie on the forehead.
“I’ll leave you two to dinner. I am going to work in the den for a bit.”
* * * * *
After dinner, Jasmine helped Maggie and Jess clear the table.
“Why don’t you make the coffee tonight?” Maggie suggested.
“Sure.”
Jess put the kettle on to heat and got the beans out of the crock on the counter to grind. She filled the French press with grounds and poured the hot water over them. Maggie handed her a spoon and Jess stirred the grounds so they would steep. Once Jess pressed the grounds to the bottom of the pot she got the cream out of the fridge and grabbed a coffee mug.
“Not that one,” Maggie corrected. “Paul takes the solid color mugs.”
Jess thought this detail was a little odd and persnickety but she was the guest and there to help after all.
Jess added the cream and took Paul his coffee in the living room where he was reading to the kids.
“Thanks,” he said. “Nice work. Just the right amount of cream.”
Jess smiled the immediately corrected herself. She should not be responding like this to her sister’s husband. His thank you made her feel warm and fuzzy. It wasn’t like bringing coffee was some grand task and she shouldn’t be so pleased with herself for earning his praise. Bad Jess! She scolded herself in her head and walked back to the kitchen to finish clean up.
* * * * *
Jess closed the door of the den and started to get ready for bed. The room still smelled like Paul, a combination of something like sandalwood, black pepper, and musk. As she changed into the oversize t-shirt and boxer shorts she brought to sleep in, she could hear Paul and Maggie moving about in the master bedroom next door. She couldn’t make out the words they were saying, but the tone of the conversation came through the wall. Whatever they were talking about, Paul was doing most of the talking. She could tell he was using short sentences, but it was deep and gentle.
About twenty minutes later, faint sounds of sex started to emerge. Between long periods of relative silence, she would hear some type of kissing or sucking and a few muffled moans. Jess was envious. Her own sex life with Rick was dull and predictable. Same twenty-minute session twice a month, in the dark, under the sheets.
Jess put in her earphones to watch a movie on her computer and tried to give her sister some privacy. Still, she found herself a little jealous that her sister was having such f
un with Paul.
Chapter Four
The next morning the house started moving about five. Maggie’s flight was at seven. Jess got up, pulled on yoga pants and a tank top and walked into the kitchen. Maggie was bustling about making sure she had everything she needed for a week away.
“I don’t have time to make coffee, would you do it?” Maggie asked.
Jess prepared the French press as she had done the night before.
“Travel mugs, please” Maggie said on a pass through the kitchen to the mudroom to get her last pieces of laundry for the trip.
Jess prepared two travel mugs. One black, for Paul, which she prepared first. Then one for Maggie: cream, two sugars and an ice chip. Her sister had been drinking coffee this way since she was fourteen. Jess handed Maggie and Paul their respective mugs on their way out the door.
“The kids will be up in a couple of hours. I will be back in forty-five minutes. Please have scrambled eggs and two pieces of toast for me when I get back.” Paul instructed.
“Thanks,” he added so as not to sound too bossy.
Jess brushed her teeth, washed her face and began to prepare Paul’s breakfast. There was something both comforting and exciting to her knowing that he would come back and she could serve him breakfast exactly as he wanted it. Knock it off! she scolded herself. She had a husband. They had been together for a little more than three years and she really liked him. Nothing wrong with him or anything, it was just that she didn’t get the excitement with him that she craved. While she would never admit that she liked Paul telling her what to do, she did like being a little submissive. Rick was committed to a “relationship of equals” which to him meant she had to make as many decisions about things as he did. His sex drive and imagination were nearly non-existent anymore. This got old to her.
She placed a pat of butter in the skillet, cracked three eggs and turned on the heat. She gently stirred the eggs until they formed soft curds. She plated them and sprinkled a little salt on them. She placed two pieces of sourdough under the broiler and kept a hawk’s eye on them until they browned just right. She was setting the plate on the dining room table when Paul came back.
He came in and sat down. “Thank you, this looks great.”
“You’re welcome. Can I get you anything else? Another coffee? Jam?” Jess inquired.
“Jam would good.” Paul said.
Jess grabbed the boysenberry jam from the fridge and a small knife from the drawer. She went to sit in down on Paul’s right.
“Left side, please.” Paul corrected.
Jess moved the jam and knife. She looked to Paul for approval. He made no response as he began to dig into the jar.
Paul noticed Jess had not moved after setting down the jam.
“Yes?” he asked.
“Nothing,” Jess said and quickly stepped back to the kitchen. She began to fry two eggs for herself. What was that about? She asked herself. She stared at the eggs as the edges of the whites popped in the butter in the pan.
She plated her own eggs, poured a second cup of coffee and took them in to the dining room. Paul was just finishing breakfast.
“I am going to work for a bit,” he said and got up from the table. He left his plate sitting there.
Jess finished breakfast and cleared the table. She heard Denver pad into the kitchen. “Morning kiddo!” she said.
“Hi.” Denver smiled.
“Do you want breakfast?” Jess asked.
Denver nodded.
“Go sit at the table and I will make you breakfast. Do you want brown sugar or raisins on your oatmeal?” Jess asked.
“Waisins!” Denver shouted.
Jess made his oatmeal and prepared a bowl for Jasmine. She set Denver’s on the table and went to wake Jasmine.
She entered Jasmine’s room and sat on her bed. She rubbed the girl’s back gently until she awoke.
“Mornin’ sleepy head. Breakfast is ready.”
Jess wanted kids, but they hadn’t been in the cards yet. She loved playing mom. Maggie’s kids were so well behaved and sweet. Her job as aunt was the best. She got to do all the fun stuff and never really had to discipline them or argue about bath time.
She sat with the kids as they ate breakfast and outlined her day. Nothing too taxing. She would do the dishes, help the kids make their beds, take them to the park for a bit, and then she had to get dinner on around 5:30 p.m. Easy day, she thought.
Chapter Five
Jess got back to the house at three with the kids.
“Let’s do a little quiet time. You both should take a nap.”
Actually, Jess wanted to nap herself. Running around with a three-year-old and five-year-old was exhausting.
The kids went into their bedrooms and lay down. Jess went into the den and set her phone alarm for 4:30. She needed to be up in time to start prepping dinner tonight. She left the door open so she could hear Denver and Jasmine in case they got up.
The pillowcases on the futon reminded her of her sister. There was some combination of laundry detergent, fabric softener and Oxy Clean that her sister had used since she left for college. The smell always reminded Jess of Maggie. She texted Maggie:
How was the flight? All’s good here. Kids are napping.
There was no immediate response. Jess was not surprised. Maggie had a cross-country flight today, and then had to get settled into the hotel before a business dinner. It would be six in Florida, so Maggie was probably getting ready for dinner.
Jess closed her eyes and tried to drift off to sleep. The light of the late afternoon sun coming through the gauzy blinds in the den warmed the sheets and released Paul’s smell that had settled in the room from his years of working in here.
Jess let her mind wander. Her eyes closed she found herself absentmindedly thinking that Paul would come home early. He would see her sleeping there and wander into the den. He would lay down behind her and wrap his arms around her. She sighed and settled deeper into the pillows. She could feel Paul’s imaginary hands resting on her waist. They worked their way under her thin blouse and she pictured them drifting from her side onto her soft stomach. The breeze felt like his breath on the back of her neck, warm and soft. His hands would slowly run up her torso and onto her breasts.
Jess’s eyes shot open. What the hell was she thinking? This was her sister’s husband. This was the man her sister had two kids with. This was a man who had never shown her any romantic intent, never accidently touched her, never strayed too long with a hug. Why was she lying there in his house picturing him touching her!
She pulled her laptop onto the futon and pulled up Netflix. She started to stream an old sitcom just to take her mind to something more appropriate. She watched for a few minutes and began to drift off to sleep.
Her alarm went off at 4:30. Thank god, no weird dreams about Paul, was her waking thought. She shut her laptop and sat up. She got up, went to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of iced tea. The kids were still asleep so she would have a few minutes to herself before prepping dinner.
* * * * *
After dishes were done, Jess made the nightly coffee. She poured Paul his cup, solid mug and cream, and took it to him in the living room. The kids were sitting on the floor engrossed in some cartoon she did not recognize. She set Paul’s coffee next to him on the end table,
“Here you go,” and let her hand trail over his shoulders as she turned back to the kitchen.
She made herself a cup of coffee and then sat on the couch next to Paul. He was reading some nonfiction work that she had never heard of. The title was something like, Playing Well with Others. Jess assumed it was about management techniques but the image on the front didn’t make sense for that. She dismissed it and watched the cartoon with the kids.
When the episode finished, Jess said,
“Ok Denver, bath night!” and got up to run the bath. Denver padded into the bathroom carrying a plastic whale.
“So is this your bath buddy tonight?” Jess aske
d. Denver nodded and smiled broadly.
Jess undressed him and helped him into the tub. As she washed his hair, she began to sing, “The itsy bitsy spider went up the waterspout….”
“No!” Denver shouted. “Sing the fishy song!” His little fists hit the water and splashed Jess.
“I don’t know the fishy song. Can you teach me?”
“I do.” Paul said.
Jess whipped around and saw Paul standing in the bathroom door. He had been watching her bathe Denver. Jess blushed and turned away.
“Here little fishy fishy, swimming in the water. Where my dear are your sons and your daughters?” Paul sang in a soft tenor.
“Yay!!” Denver splashed gently and smiled. “Sing Daddy, Sing!”
Paul continued the song while Jess bathed Denver. She did not know the fishy song and hadn’t heard Maggie sing it before. She took Denver out of the bath, toweled him off and put on his Tigger pajamas. She helped him brush his teeth then put him to bed.
Once she got Jasmine settled in for the night she picked up the mugs from the living room and put them in the dishwasher. She got herself a glass of water and sat on the couch. Paul was reading again.
“Mind if I watch a little TV?” Jess asked.
“Not at all,” Paul said.
Jess began flipping through the channels looking for something to watch.
“I can teach you the fishy song,” Paul offered. Denver loves it sung to him at bath time.”
Jess smiled. “Sure, that would be great.”
