Chapter 7: Grumpy

His alarm didn't go off.

He spilt coffee on his tie.

He got to work only to find out that someone had parked in his parking space.

He had to walk a block to his office in the pouring rain.

He had to sit in wet clothes until they dried.

It was fair to say, that Jimmy Neutron was not having a good day. In fact, he was downright grumpy.

Jeffery made a mistake on the CIA account that could have lost billions if Jimmy hadn't caught in time.

Meaning he had to spend over an hour and a half on the phone with the head of the CIA, assuring him that not all his employees were dipshits.

He spent his lunch hour, holed up in his office, eating his leftover pasta that Cindy had made the night before, muttering and swearing to himself. He was ready to do nothing more go home, which being the CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation rather prevented. He sighed and pushed his Purple Flurp can around his desk with a pencil.

Cindy texted to say that she thought that the alternator was going out in her car and would probably have to be replaced. He texted back that the way his day was going, he wasn't surprised and that all he wanted to do was go back to bed and crawl under the covers.

She didn't respond.

5:30 couldn't have come soon enough and he quickly packed up his briefcase.

He all but shoved back Charles the doorman in his haste to get to the elevator. The more he thought about it, the more and more appealing crawling back into bed sounded to him. That seemed like a pretty good idea.

He made up his mind to do so.

He slammed open the door.

He stopped.

The smell that wafted through the penthouse was downright amazing. He sniffed again. It almost smelled like his mother's homemade fried chicken and mashed potatoes. Intrigued, he followed his nose to the kitchen.

Cindy stood over the stovetop, humming along to the Foreigner song on the radio, stirring intently.

"What is all this?"

She must have heard him come in (well, he did bang that door pretty hard) as she didn't jump at the sound of his voice, but merely looked over at him before turning her attention back to the pot. "You've had such an awful day. I decided to do what I could to make it better."

He walked over to the oven and opened it, taking a whiff. "My mother's fried chicken recipe?" He said in disbelief.

Cindy nodded. "Yeah. She gave it to me a couple months ago. I've been saving it." She emptied the pot of mashed potatoes into a bowl. "I hope you're hungry." She moved around him to put all the food on the table.

He stared at the food. Then at his wife. "You-? All this for me?"

She laughed, a musical sound that was welcoming to his ears. "Of course silly! I'm your wife! And when you have a bad day, I'm here to fix it!"

He quickly crossed the room to where she was and kissed her deeply, running his fingers through her hair. "You are amazing." He whispered to her.

She laughed again, this time a breathless laugh. "You're not to bad yourself." She gave a playful tug on his tie, "Now hurry up! The food is getting cold!"

The rain came down in torrents against the windows, but for the first time that day, Jimmy didn't mind. He sat down his mug of hot chocolate and briefly glanced at the screen where Casablanca was playing (since she cooked, he gave her the opportunity to pick the movie. Which thankfully was not Titanic), before turning his attention to his wife. Cindy was curled up against him, her head on his chest, and her body buried underneath her favorite fuzzy blanket, her eyes glued to the screen. He couldn't help but smile and kissed the top of her head. "I love you."

"Hmmm?" She tore her eyes away from Humphrey Bogart and moved her head so she could look up at him. "I love you to Jimmy," she said with a smile before cuddling back against him.

He kissed the top of her head again.

He pulled the blanket around them tighter.

He wasn't grumpy anymore.

A/N: Just a little light fluff. Thanks for all the reviews, likes, and alerts! You guys rock!