24. PAST: All I Ever Find in My Tub Are Spiders
At first, after Chrissy and an untypically hungover Janet discovered Jack passed out in their bathtub on the morning after Eleanor's going away party, she was not impressed. The cute but hopelessly klutzy young man seemed to her somewhat ridiculous. Not to mention his roving eye and hands which always roved towards Chrissy whenever she was nearby. Or when she wasn't, then towards the nearest buxom blonde.
Looks like we've got a live one there, Janet thought. Certainly, one who would bear watching like a hawk.
That first day, she sat him down and, as sternly as she could, set down the main ground rule: No hanky-panky. No romance or anything even resembling romance between the roommates. If he had other ideas, there was the door.
Janet knew she was bluffing. They were stuck for one-third of the rent. Not that Jack seemed all that prosperous. He was, in fact, even more broke than the two of them. He was still in school, and the only accommodation he had been able to afford until then was a bed at the local YMCA hostel. Still, he did take odd jobs whenever he could find them, so hopefully he would be good for it. But even more importantly, he was studying to be a chef. Which meant that there might be some long overdue home-cooked meals in the offing.
Neither Janet nor Chrissy were any good in the kitchen. In Chrissy's case, it was due to her general cluelessness and Chrissy-ness. Janet, however, felt she would be quite capable of putting together an edible meal if only she had had a half a chance to learn. But she had never had that chance, given how jam-packed her life had been ever since she moved to L.A.
They needed Jack as much as Jack needed a roof over his head. But Mr. Roper, their stuffy landlord, would never allow a young man to share an apartment with two young women.
Janet believed in sticking as close to the truth as possible. But once in a while you just couldn't get by without a white lie. She had to convince Mr. Roper that Jack was gay – a lie which Mrs. Roper, who loved "the kids" and always took their side, helped them perpetuate. In his view, that made the situation quite respectable.
At first the idea of a guy studying cooking seemed weird. Until she tasted Jack's cooking, which was delectable. The chance to have their very own accomplished chef in their kitchen was too tempting.
Jack was more than just a cook. More than just a chef. He was an artist. His work and his studies seemed to be the only things in life he took seriously. Also, cooking was the only time when he was not a klutz. The rest of the time it was hard to believe that Tripper was his actual last name and not a most apt nickname. He was constantly tripping over every object in view, starting with his own feet. But when he was working in a kitchen, he was a Michelangelo, Rudolf Nureyev and Zubin Mehta all rolled into one.
That this man would pick something so life-giving, so vital and at the same time so inherently sensual for his life's work spoke volumes. Watching him cook was in itself a treat – a very sexy one…