Day 79: In Which He's Lost In Thought
Elsa found him sprawled on the living room carpet staring at the ceiling with a deeply concerned expression on his face.
"What are you doing lying on the floor?" she asked.
"I'm thinking."
"And you couldn't do that from the couch?"
"Something like that…"
Sighing, Elsa sat cross-legged next to him and patted him on the stomach. "So? What's wrong?"
He scowled, his pensive quietude starting to make her wary.
"I wanna eat ribs."
She blinked. Her mouth opened, but then she closed it as his words played in her mind another time. Unable to find their hidden meaning, she asked, "You're having an existential crisis because you're hungry?"
"Maybe I'm pregnant."
She definitely was not expecting that kind of remark. Elsa pursed her lips, discreetly checking him for signs of any drug consumption. "... Am I missing something here?"
"The number of pregnancies in my social circles has increased lately. You think sympathetic pregnancy is a real thing?"
"Even if it was, that's probably not your case."
He looked at her with furrowed eyebrows. "So I'm not pregnant?"
"I think you just miss eating out." Elsa smiled. "If it's of any consolation, I may have a decent oven recipe saved somewhere."
Jack shook his head with a finger held up in her direction. "Are you telling me that you can make ribs at home?"
"Yeah, it's pretty easy actually."
"And you never considered sharing that information with me before?!"
She leaned back with a shrug. "Well, it requires a lot of slow cooking, and honestly, I'm not entirely comfortable leaving you unsupervised in the kitchen for that long."
"Say whatever rude thing you have to say, Elsa. I'm stuffing my fucking face even if I have to burn down this whole building to do it!" Jack got on his feet with a roar, flames of determination burning in his eyes as he stormed past her.
"We don't even have the ingredients yet—will you listen to me, you idiot?" Elsa hissed as cabinet doors were mercifully yanked open and pans started clunking in the kitchen.
"Are you gonna help me or what?!"
"Dear God, you're seriously going to burn the building down…"