“Oh, okay,” I said, a little baffled by this. Jenny had never really struck me as the cooking type. Alice must have seen my confusion, because she smiled.

“Shane said they’re trying to cook more. According to her Jenny already can pretty well, but she doesn’t know how to make very much. Shane wants to buy new kitchen stuff, but she wants to let Jenny try ours and see how it works so she can see if she wants to buy that brand…or something. I don’t know; it’s a little weird and domestic for me when it comes to those two, but whatever, right?”

“Well, they’re roommates. It makes sense to me. If they cook they’ll save a lot of money, even if it’s just a few more meals a week than what they cook now. And it can be fun. Like, a bonding experience I guess. It’s not just an idea for married people, you know,” I told her, smiling when she blushed a little. “I think it’s pretty cute, actually. I wonder if Jenny’d let me help?”

“You want to bond with Jenny now?” Alice asked.

“Why not? Don’t look at me like that, she’s my friend. And don’t think I’ve forgotten about the whole thing from before, Al. I want you to feel like you can talk to me. Even if you think I won’t want to hear it.”

“I know,” she whispered. “I do know I can talk to you. I just really don’t want to get into it right now, okay? It’s really stupid. So can we drop it for now?”

I sighed, but finally I nodded and kept cleaning the house. “Didn’t we just have this done before we moved in? We haven’t been here very long. How the hell is it so damn dirty already?”

“I have no idea. Maybe we should think about getting a maid or something…”

“Alice, that’s ridiculous. You’re a neat freak, and I…well I’m not as into it as you are but it’s not like I live like a pig or anything. I don’t think we need to hire a maid.”

She shrugged and got some more Windex. “Okay, but this house is a lot roomier than anywhere either of us have lived for a long time. And we’ll both be going out of town quite a bit, so maybe it’s not the worst idea I’ve ever had,” she grumbled.