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13

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He had walked into the kitchen by accident. He saw Nadia taking out a chicken from the oven and placing it on the table. She heard the gasp and looked up to see Ed standing in the doorway.

"I'm-I'm so sorry. I was looking for the washroom. Can you tell me where it is?"

Nadia smiled at him. "There is no need to apologize," Nadia said with her Latin accent. She took off her oven mitts, placed them on the table and approached him. "I could use some help in here."

Ed held onto his bandaged hand. "Oh. Would you like me to get Kathy for you?"

Nadia shook her head. "No. You'll do just fine."

"Umm.. Okay... Can you tell me where the washroom is first, though? Because my hand--"

Nadia looked down at his bandaged hand and placed it in hers. "Ohh! You poor thing! What happened?" She asked, rubbing his hand.

Ed felt very uncomfortable. "I burned it."

"Well, I'm going to fix it all up for you," She said, smiling.

She pulled him over to the counter. "Now you just stay right here." She walked out of the room and returned shortly with a container of disinfectant, box of tissues and a roll of bandage.

She lay his hand out on the counter and began unraveling the old bandage.

"You really don't have to do this. I--"

She placed a finger over his mouth. "Shh.."

Ed shut his mouth and watched as Nadia fixed up his wound. When she was done she took all the things she had brought and went to put them back.

She returned to him. "All better?"

"Yes. Thank you. But..." He looked down at his watch and saw it was ten minutes to five. "You should really focus on dinner now. Mr. Brinkley said five o'clock."

"Aww. You're just too cute," She said, playfully tapping him on the nose with her finger.

Ed backed away from her. "Mrs. Brinkley, I hardly think--"

She advanced on him. He continued to move backward, but he could go no farther when he bumped up against the edge of the table.

Nadia closed her arms around his neck. "Kiss me, Ed."

Ed was shocked. His eyes bulged and he squirmed out of her grip.

"Oh, a feisty one. I see," She said. "Well, you can squirm away all you want, you're not going to get away from me that easily," She said devilishly.

"Mrs. Brinkley! You're a married woman! I'm a married man!"

"Call me Nadia," She said and suddenly pushed him backwards onto the table.

Ed was at a loss for words. He tried to get up, but Nadia climbed up onto the table, pushed him back down and sat on him.

She grabbed him by the tie, bent her head down to his and began to kiss him madly.

Ed's hands went thrashing about on the table and began knocking various boxes and utensils to the ground. All of a sudden, his hand hit the pot, which held the chicken and it upturned onto the floor and made a large crash.

Nadia pried herself away from Ed and looked down at the upturned pot on the floor. She angrily banged a fist on the table. "Ohh, There goes dinner."

Ed, porting a look of complete shock over his face, along with smears of red lipstick, began to apologize. "It was my fault. I'm so sorry. I'm so--"

She looked back at him and let go of his tie. "No, it's my fault. I'm the one who's sorry." She got off of him, returned to the floor, adjusted her dress, and began cleaning up the mess.

Ed slowly got to his feet and bent down next to her to help.

She looked at him. "No, you don't have to help."

Ed nodded his head.

"You... you got a little something there..." Nadia said, raising a hand and trying to wipe the smears of lipstick off of his face.

He stood still as she did so.

"I'm sorry. It's just that Howard is so... I don't know. We just don't ever do anything... wild.. You know? And you're just so good looking..."

She turned his head to the left and to the right to inspect if all the lipstick was gone. "There."

Ed scooped the remaining mess into the chicken pot, stood up, and placed it in the sink. "What are you going to do about dinner?"

Nadia got up, wiped her hands, and shrugged. "I'll think of something. You should go on back now, they're probably wondering what's happened to you."

"Sure you don't need any help?" Ed asked.

Nadia shook her head, walked over to Ed and kissed him on the cheek. "You're sweet. Kathy's a very lucky woman."

Ed trudged out of the kitchen, tense from his latest 'adventure'. He walked into the living room and sat next to Kathy. He was silent.

"What took you so long?" Kathy asked.

Ed cleared his throat. "I dropped something and had to clean it up. Sorry, Mr. Brinkley."

"Well, as long as everything's back in place, it's fine by me," Howard said. He looked down at his watch. "Ooh, it's five o'clock. Come, let's all go to the dining room," Howard said, getting up from the loveseat. "We're having chicken tonight," He said, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

Ed and Kathy stood up as well and they all went down the hall toward the dining room. "I'm not so sure about that," Ed replied.