Jennifer woke from her exhausted, sated doze with sudden hunger pangs. It had been a while since they'd eaten those sandwiches on the plane that Max had brought for them. Jonathan was still fast asleep, so she kissed him softly and extricated herself from his embrace. Leaving him in bed—on her bed, technically—Jennifer found her underwear and a robe to put on so she could search for some food.

She hadn't been in New York for months. There was no way the housekeeper had left anything in the kitchen. Maybe she could call for some delivery. A pizza or something.

But upon entering the kitchen, she did not find it empty. She found Max standing at the stove, stirring something. He looked up as she entered and smiled. "Hey there, Miss Edwards. You hungry?"

"Starving. What are you making?"

"It's almost dinnertime, so I'm doing a sauce for pasta. Nothing too fancy, since we been travelin' all day. I got a wine breathing on the counter there, if you wanna start pouring. And if you wanna eat something now, I picked up some cheese and crackers," he said, pointing to the pantry where he'd presumably put everything.

Jennifer made a beeline for the pantry and scarfed down a handful of crackers before coming up for air. She was craving something salty, and these did the trick.

Her heart dropped. Salty food and binge eating. Oh damn.

She put the worry out of her mind for now and came back to Max. "Can I help with anything?" she offered.

"I was gonna make garlic bread, so you could slice that baguette if you want," he replied.

Jennifer was perfectly capable of that. She wasn't much of a cook, having never really needed to bother, but she wasn't completely helpless. "When did you go shopping?" she asked, taking out a long serrated knife and a cutting board. She didn't do much with any of these things, but at least her kitchen was properly stocked.

"I knew you hadn't been here in a while, so we'd need food at some point. And then I could hear a little bit of you and Mr. H having a big conversation and then the door closed, so I figured you'd be a while. I just got finished putting everything away and started the sauce when you came in here. Mr. H coming?" he asked.

"He's still asleep," Jennifer said, blushing slightly.

Max just hummed in understanding.

Time to change the subject. "Mr. H mentioned you do most of the cooking?"

"Yep. Butler, cook, chauffeur, whatever else. When Mr. H started his company and it got big enough that they officially made him CEO of Hart Industries, he told me I should be CEO of the house. So I guess that's what I am."

Jennifer laughed, "I think that's great! Especially because I'm really not much of a cook. I'd like to learn from you, though, if that isn't overstepping."

"Sure," he answered. "Whenever you want, come on in the kitchen and I'll put you to work. Best way to learn is by doing."

"I'd like that, thank you."

And she meant it. She hadn't really thought she'd be anyone's wife anytime soon, but now that she certainly would be, she knew she wanted to be a good wife. After all, Jennifer Edwards liked to be good at everything she did. Being married was no exception. Thank god for Max, though, because she'd be utterly lost if she was expected to be the kind of wife who cooked and cleaned and kept house. She'd never had to do any of that before, and it wasn't like she had a mother to teach her how. Now she didn't need to. Not if she didn't want to. They had Max.

The kitchen door opened and Jonathan walked in barefoot wearing just his slacks and his shirt completely open. Jennifer felt her body tremble at the sight of him.

"Come on," Max complained.

"Oh sorry, Max," Jonathan apologized, reaching to do up the shirt. Obviously they kept better decorum in their home.

Jennifer had finished cutting the bread, so she hurried over to Jonathan. "No, here, let me. Me and Max can compromise."

Jonathan looked at her curiously as she buttoned his shirt from the bottom up. She left three buttons undone so a large, gorgeous swath of his chest remained visible. Jennifer leaned in and kissed him just below where his gold chain lay. "There. Perfect," she proclaimed.

Max looked over to see what she'd done and grumbled, "Yeah, fine."

"Listen, I'm gonna take a quick shower and get dressed a little more properly, and Max, I'll be back in fifteen minutes to help out, okay? Jonathan, Max got cheese and crackers if you want something before dinner. And there's wine," she told him.

Jonathan caught her arm before she left and pulled her back, kissing her soundly and then releasing her. "Hurry back," he said in a low tone.

Well, that settled it. Jennifer had to get out of there before she did something to really make Max complain.

The three of them had the delicious dinner together, prepared expertly by Max with Jennifer's assistance. Jonathan helped out by setting the table for them and making sure the wine was poured for everyone. Jennifer's kitchen was very small, so it was best that there weren't too many cooks trying to move around in there. They all sat at the dining table in Jennifer's apartment, sipping their wine and talking about nothing important. It all felt easy and natural. In less than a week, Jennifer had become a seamless addition to Max and Jonathan. There were three of them now.

When the wine and pasta and bread were all gone, Max cleared the table and Jonathan offered to help with the dishes. Jennifer put things away as Max washed and Jonathan dried. It was a tight fit with the three of them in there, but they had fun. It was a glimpse into the future for the three of them, and Jonathan couldn't have been more pleased about it.

After everything was done, Jonathan was eager to take Jennifer back to bed. Jennifer showed Max the guest room across the hall, and Jonathan ushered her back to her bedroom. Their bedroom.

As soon as the door was closed, he started kissing her. Jennifer moaned into his mouth and deepened the kiss. His hands wandered her perfect body, squeezing every delicious curve he found. But when his palm found her breast over her blouse, she pulled back.

"Jonathan, do…" She trailed off, stepping back out of his arms and looking down at her feet.

"What is it, darling?" he asked. Something was obviously wrong, and he worried he'd done something to upset her. He wasn't sure what, since nothing he'd done just now was anything he'd not done many, many times in the last few days.

She stammered an awkward response. "Do…do you think we could just…go to bed? I'm a little sore and…"

Jonathan immediately took her back in his arms to just hold her. "Shh, of course we can just go to bed. I'm so sorry that I…"

"No," she interrupted, hugging him. "No, you don't need to apologize. I know we've been rather active the last few days, and now I'm tired, but…"

He interrupted her right back. "You never need to explain if you're not in the mood, darling. I'd never…I mean you don't think I'd…"

"Well, I've never had to stop you before…"

Jonathan realized neither of them was very good at finishing a sentence in this conversation. He led her over to the bed for them to sit down side by side. "Jennifer, I want you to know how important to me it is that you enjoy yourself whenever we're together. I don't ever want you to feel uncomfortable or do anything you don't want to do just to appease me. I won't be upset if you're not in the mood, I promise."

She looked into his eyes and sighed, "You really are perfect, you know that?"

He smiled, feeling a little bashful and prideful at the same time. "I don't know about perfect, but I love you too much to ever want to do anything you don't want. So we'll just go to bed. As long as I can kiss you goodnight and hold you when we fall asleep, I'll be happy."

"Of course," Jennifer answered, laying her head on his shoulder. "I want you to kiss me goodnight and hold me when we fall asleep every night for the rest of our lives."

Jonathan turned his head to press a kiss to her hair. "Every night, darling," he promised.

And that was exactly what they did. They took turns in the bathroom to brush their teeth and get ready for bed, and they curled up together, lazily kissing for a while until Jennifer turned out the lamp on her nightstand and they snuggled up to go to sleep.

The next morning, Jonathan woke to the sound of Jennifer's soft voice. But she wasn't whispering sweet words of love to him. She wasn't talking to him at all. He blinked his eyes open and saw her sitting up in bed whispering, "Shit, shit, shit!"

"Something wrong?" he asked groggily.

"Oh…I…"

There she was, nervous around him again. Jonathan wanted to ease her worries right away, whatever it was she was upset about. He sat up and scrubbed his face in his hands to wake himself up. "Jennifer, what's going on?"

"You don't want to know," she said darkly.

He frowned. "I'm pretty sure I do."

She bit her lip, trying to decide what to say. And then she just came out with it. "My period started."

"Oh." He didn't know what else to say.

"I noticed the symptoms last night, craving salty food and then it was a bit sore when you touched me, and I thought I had more time but I don't, and now I have to go to the drugstore to pick up some things because I didn't think to pack everything in an easily accessible place and I don't have anything here because I've been gone for six months," she rambled.

Jonathan took her hand. "Why don't you just write down what you need and Max will go pick it up? And I can run you a hot bath and hopefully that'll help with the soreness," he offered.

Jennifer stared at him with wide, shocked eyes. "What?" she asked incredulously.

"Come on, let's get up. Put your robe on. Lemme find my shirt, hang on." At Jennifer's request, he'd gone to bed bare-chested. She seemed to like that quite a bit. But it did annoy Max when he wasn't fully dressed.

Jonathan took her hand and led her out to the kitchen where Max was making eggs. He wished them both a good morning.

"Max, Jennifer needs some things for her time of the month," Jonathan said.

"Oh sure, just write down the kind you want, Miss Edwards, and I'll go to the drugstore right after breakfast," Max told her, hardly looking up from the stove.

"You're going to buy tampons for me?" Jennifer asked weakly, as though the concept of such a thing was utterly unbelievable.

"Hey, I told you yesterday, I'm the CEO of the house. Gotta make sure the house is properly stocked. You need 'em, I'll buy 'em," Max said.

Jonathan spoke low, explaining to Jennifer, "This isn't the first time Max has had to…keep the house stocked."

She made a small whimper of disbelief.

He couldn't help but chuckle slightly. Jonathan knew this was unusual. It shouldn't have been. More men should know what women go through, especially men who claimed to love women. Jonathan had seen too many girls at the orphanage go through puberty and screech and holler at the unfairness of it to not at least try to help make things easier. The other boys would tease the girls or be too disgusted with things to even find a mean joke to tell, and Jonathan never understood that. And even without those experiences, Max had made sure that Jonathan respected women and treated them—and everyone—with kindness and understanding. He never flinched about things like that. When Jonathan had girlfriends staying at the house, Max always made sure the bathroom had supplies. Every woman had been very appreciative of that, and Jonathan was glad that in a world of unnecessary cruelty towards a woman's natural experiences, he and Max could be kind.

Jonathan led Jennifer to the small kitchen table. "Here," he said, kissing her cheek. "Have a seat and let's eat some eggs."