And any of it was likely to attempt giving AJ and ulcer if he didn’t have a whole breakfast with it and even that might be questionable. He was probably safer to stick with his usuals of whatever he could find in the kitchen when it was kept stocked. Despite having little of what they usually had on the shows however he had flipped over to a cooking show and was watching with half interest as they were going over stuffing chickens “for a perfect Mother’s Day dinner”. Though in the Swafford house that usually involved keeping out of the kitchen as undoubtedly there would be something covering the walls and ceiling before everything was finished. There were still tales of the epic Flour War of ‘24 that would likely be passed down to their children and that was just an attempt to make pancakes.
“Didn’t I say something about it possibly needing another run?” The whole lint catch probably needed a good cleaning out, but that would have to wait until she was done of course. If it was anything potentially dangerous and likely to catch fire he would have already done something about it. AJ got up from the sofa, almost suggesting she follow if she wanted to do so instead of sitting back down. “Though all this food on TV is making me hungry. Anything I can get for you?”
And just as she had suspected, he didn’t even notice her meager attempts at trying to be sexy. Not that she was surprised by this. Mari was about as sexy as Elmo on Sesame Street. It wasn’t her fault that she reeked of a week day morning children’s show. She tucked a few strands of curly brown hair behind her ear and nodded. “You did,” she replied and glanced over at the TV where he was watching something about food. It was enough to make her grin. How did everything in her life manage to revolve around food?
“Sure, what do you have?” He had stood up, so if he was going to get something for himself, it was probably a good thing to go with him. This was the first time she’d been to his home. She didn’t want to just lounge about anywhere while he wasn’t even in the room with her. Besides, she was curious about what was in his fridge. “Or I can make something for you if you have the right ingredients. Did you have anything specific in mind?”
Oddly it was not her attempts that went awry, but a combination of hoping she wouldn’t notice that it was undone and not wanting to embarrass her pointing it out. Wasn’t that a little like telling someone that their zipper was open on their pants while they were in the middle of some big presentation? Mari had always come across as some virgin queen and he only enjoyed being the one responsible for making her blush, not being the one pointing out more reasons why she should.
He made a scoff that was meant to sound more like he was suggesting “you mean what don’t I have” until he actually started thinking about it... “Milk, water, cranberry, orange, and apple juice. Not all together though. They have their separate bottles and all.” Listing off what he did have though would take a while. Everything for ham sandwiches, instant oatmeal, Cheerios, and a large bag of mixed lettuce were the first things that came to mind. Living alone meant never having anyone think you were weird for eating cereal for dinner with some juice. “Might also be some Diet Pop in the back if you look. But I don’t even know what to start suggesting. Sandwich?”