Chapter 3
A bang woke up Jeff, who was still asleep downstairs when he saw the clock read 1:17AM. He felt bad for not wanting to look around the house when he first entered, but opted to find the quietest room in the house and fall asleep there where no one else was. Trying to sleep on the ride home was unsuccessfull, with Lillian giving Randy singing lessons in the back seat and John having his stero turned up as loud as it could go. Every now and then he could feel his cell phone vibrate in his pocket, knowing it was Candice, but he ignored it, hoping just for twenty minutes of sleep. But of course he didn't get it. He settled for six hours instead when he crashed onto the couch as soon as he saw it.
What was troubling him now though, was what fell from upstairs that caused such a loud sound so late at night.
Standing up from the couch and fixing his crooked clothes, he reached for the guardrail for the stairs, slowly walking up. His eyes still half shut, he could barely make out all the pots and pans on the floor, until he stepped on the handle of one, sending it flying to the side where it crashed against the wall. "Oh..." he mumbled, quickly rubbing his eyes.
"Sorry," he heard a small voice say from the other side of the kitchen. He looked up, seeing her standing on top of a chair, staring down at the mess beneth her. "Did I wake you?" She stepped down and around the pans to make her way towards Jeff, who was slowly rubbing his foot. "Are you hurt? Sit down, I'll get you a band-aid..."
"I'm fine, are you OK? What are you still doing awake, everyone else is sleeping." Picking up a pot from the ground and placing it on the counter, he looked at the much smaller woman, waiting for an answer. "I'm Jeff, by the way," he introduced himself, sticking out his hand.
"Oh shit, sorry. Ness," she shook his hand in return, looking up at him. "Want to help me make a pie?"
He cocked his head to the left, scanning her quickly. She had a familar face to her, with her tan skin and almond shaped eyes. It was as if he knew her from somewhere, but couldn't remember from where... "a pie? At...1:25 in the morning?" he questioned, trying to take his mind off of her features.
"Well, yeah...that's what I asked," Ness reponded, tucking a strand of brown hair behind her ear. "It's OK if you don't want to, I'm just doing it to bug John. It can wait until the afternoon when he gets back from the gym." She shrugged her shoulders and walked back to the chair that she was on, standing on top of it and smiled, "there's the pan," she showed to Jeff, her smile getting wider. "So, we do this now, or the afternoon. What do you think?"
The sweatshirt she wore earlier was draped over chair in the living room, leaving her in a blue tank top to match the blue track pants she was wearing. In her barefeet, the bottom of the pants reached just the tip of her toes, almost covering them like a slipper. While she shuffled across the kitchen floor, Jeff continued to stare at her, taking in her skin tone, her curves, the tattoo on the lower left side of her back that was exposed..."Have we met before?" he blurted out, his southern accent apparent at his quick burst.
Stopping in her tracks in front of the refridgerator, Ness looked at him quizzically. "Backstage maybe?" she answered with a shrug, taking a bag of apples out of the drawer. "You don't seem familar, and with hair like yours, I don't think you'd be a forgettable person." Ness gave him a wink as she bit into an apple and tossed one to Jeff, "start chopping, Rainbow Bright, I'm going to go get the flour and salt."
Jeff continued to stare at her in amazement, and watched as she began to work her way around the kitchen, knowing where everything was. He could see her lips move as she talked to herself and would stop to think for a quick second, ticking off everything she has done off of her fingers. The way her lip would get sucked into her mouth while she was stirring the ingredients together, and he silently stood there, cutting up the apples evenly into the glass measuring bowl. "You've made apple pie before, right?" she asked, taking him out of his thoughts.
"My mom used to every Wednesday," he said with a faint smile. "She'd sit it out on the front window sill, and my brother and I would race home to have the first slice. He usually won, only because he'd push me into a tree on the front yard..." Jeff stopped and took a bite out of a fresh apple, leaning against the counter while he watched Ness continue to stir. "You know, you don't look like a Cena," he mentioned.
"You don't look like a wrestler," she mumbled, stopping to put her hair in a ponytail. "Besides, I look more like mom anyways." She didn't bother to look up at the youngest Hardy which she continued to make the crust, pouring everything in the pan. Pinching the sides of the dough to make the ends curl, she stole the bowl away from Jeff to dump the rest of the ingredients to finish the pie, finally placing three strips of mix on top and placing it in the oven, setting the timer for an hour. "There," she spoke to herself, hands on her hips and staring down at the oven. "Stay awake for another hour, then bed. Sound good?" her brown eyes looked up at Jeff, waiting for an answer. When his mouth opened to respond, he had the words on the tip of his tongue, but closed his mouth and decided to say nothing. "Whatever, I'm going out for a cigerette."
Grabbing her sweater, a book, and smokes off the chair, Ness left the kitchen and back to the patio outside, shivering at the coldness. Sitting in the plastic chair that Lillian and herself sat in earlier, she turned it around so she was facing the house, looking up to the far right window and grinning when she saw Randy standing there, looking down at her. She took a drag out of her cigerette and blew the smoke up at him, sliently laughing to herself when he turned around and closed the curtains on her.
Watching from the kitchen window, Jeff rested his head in his hands, staring down at the sink. He knew she was familar from somewhere. Her voice, her body, her eyes...he had seen them all before, right in front of him. Just to reach out and touch her...she was so familar...
His cell phone was viberating in his back pocket, and he knew it was Candice. She always called him at unpopular times during the night, just wanting to "talk". Refusing the believe the rumours of her cheating ways, normally Jeff would talk to her, proving the guys how wrong they were, because if she was with another man, then why would she be calling him? He glanced at the screen, just in case he was wrong, but he was somewhat right; she did leave a text messege reading:
Just a few more final touches before you're my husband.
XOOX
Candy
"What are you reading?" Ness suddenly asked, appearing beside Jeff by sitting on the counter. "Messege from the girlfriend?"
"Fiancee," Jeff corrected her, finishing the final touches of her messege back to her. "We're getting married in a month. She has a Diva shoot to do, then two days after that, she's going to stay there on the beach, and we're all flying out for the wedding."
"A beach wedding? That's cool. With the ocean and stuff..." her sentence was cut off by the timer, causing Ness to giggle. "I need your help again. See the table out there? I need you to put that bench on top of the table, then I need you to put that chair on top of the bench, k?"
Scrunching his eyebrows together, Jeff looked down at her, unsure. "Aren't you going to fall and hurt yourself?"
"Not if you catch me." She gave him a smile as she put the oven mitts on, taking out the pie. Standing paciently by the door, Ness looked at Jeff, nudging her head in the door direction, "come on, before the pie gets cold."
Walking over to open the door, Jeff let her out first, following close behind her as she walked over to the bench. "I don't understand," he said quietly, looking up at all the open windows. "Why am I stacking everything on top of each other? You should really consider this..."
Laughing to herself, she kicked a chair towards him while she sat down on another one. "Hey, I know you're just looking out for me, but really...can you just do it? If not, I can get Randy, he won't mind helping me out. I could always reward him after." Jeff shook his head at her attitude while he picked up the bench and placed it on top of the table. "Vertical," she ordered. "The bench has to go vertical. I can't reach John's window like that."
"Ness, I really think you should reconsider this," Jeff hesistated before he picked up the bench again. "All this just to get John to cheat on his diet? Really..."
With a shurg, the brunette walked back towards the door, "it's cool," she called back to him over her shoulder, "I'll just get Randy to do it for me." Even though he had just met her, just hearing her say Randy's name made his stomach turn. When the patio door began to slowly open, Jeff used all of his strength to make the bench stand upwards, not even flinching when it fell onto his shoulder. Pushing it back up, he stood there while it wobbled, making sure it wouldn't fall again. Grabbing the plastic chair that she had kicked towards him earlier, he climbed on what little room was left on the table, carefully placing the chair on top of the bench, having it sit inches away from John's window.
"Hey," he called back to her, guilty for giving into her ways. "I'll give you a boost."
Smiling to herself, Ness turned around with the pie in her hand, moving towards him. "Thanks," she said, giving him a smile. "Hold onto this." Handing him over the pie, she climbed up on the small space the table had, stood on her tip toes and reached the top of the bench, using her upper body strength to pull herself up. When she finally got up on the chair, she waved her hand for the pie, and placed it softly on the window sill, leading into John's room. "Perfect," she said, giving the man at the bottom a thumbs up.
Jeff gave a thumbs up back before he watched miss a step off the chair and let out a scream. All he had to do was step forward and hold out his arms, but before he knew it, there was Ness, breathing heavily while she looked up at him, her brown eyes wide in shock. "Are you OK?" he managed to ask once he placed her steadly on the ground.
"Yeah," she answered, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Thanks, that would've been nasty," she joked, lightly slapping him on the arm. They walked back to the door in silence, stopping at the bottom of the stairs in the front hall. "I'm going to bed," she whispered, seeing a bedroom door open. "Thanks for helping..." she played with the draw strings on her track pants as she looked back up at Jeff, "do you want to come down town with me tomorrow? I have John's laundry to do, and other things..."
With a shrug, Jeff glanced down at his feet, ignoring the glare Randy was giving him from the top of the stairs. "I...I don't know. Maybe, if the guys don't want to do anything..."
"Cool. So.. goodnight," Ness said, giving him a small wave before she headed up the stairs into Randy's arms. He placed a kiss on top of her head, holding her tight as his fingers roamed her back.
"Hey baby," he moaned, letting her go and watched her yawn. "Ready for bed?"
She groaned her response, leaning against his body while she grabbed his hand and lead him to her bedroom. Allowing him in first, she turned around to stare back down at Jeff, who was still at the bottom of the stairs. Ness bit her bottom lip as she looked down at the at the bottom, whispering an "I'm sorry,", praying he would hear her.
He smiled sadly back at her, shrugging his shoulders and watched as the door shut and listened while it clicked quietly, ignoring the loud giggle that came from behind it shortly after. With his eyes on the ground, Jeff watched his feet move forward and back downstairs, crashing back down on the couch.