Page 44 of Rival Hearts

Besides, Riley had to go grocery shopping in the morning, and it made more sense for her to clean the kitchen as she put the groceries away.

When Riley woke up at seven thirty Tuesday morning, she was excited for the day, but also a little apprehensive. What if Jett was still having second thoughts about their relationship? But still, the two of them were meeting and Jett was fulfilling her promise to help Riley learn to cook, and Riley took that as a positive sign.

Riley skipped breakfast, which she knew was a bad thing, but was also a habit of hers. She struggled to eat anything before ten in the morning, and also if she was going to cook with Jett, she wanted to make sure that she had an appetite.

When she went to the grocery store for ingredients, Riley was shocked. She normally bought premade or easy-to-cook box meals that she still somehow managed to butcher, but she didn’t know that grocery stores had so many different kinds of food.

Riley knew the basics of what to get—eggs, bread, milk, and cheese—but she didn’t know what else she needed, and she was surprised at the variety of foods that there were.

When she was looking at cheese alone, she was shocked to see over a dozen different kinds. Riley didn’t know what any of them meant, but she decided to get several, just in case.

She did the same with pastas, sauces, and other types of food. Riley was at least familiar with vegetables and fruit. She wasn’t a great cook, which just meant she’d snack on produce when she didn’t feel like attempting to make something a little more filling.

She grabbed her favorite fruits and vegetables, as well as some that typically needed to be cooked, like squash. Riley hadn’t thought to ask Jett what she wanted to cook, and now she was regretting that decision, but at least she would have lots of food for the next couple of weeks. And for the most part, anything extremely perishable could be eaten without cooking. Like the vegetables.

When Riley got back home, she didn’t have much time to put everything away and clean the kitchen, only about an hour. But she figured that if Jett came to her apartment while she was still cleaning or putting things away, she probably wouldn’t mind that much. At least, she hoped not. But now she was second guessing herself on things that she never used to.

Riley did actually manage to get everything put away and cleaned in time, working at super speed. And when Jett knocked on her apartment door, Riley opened it with a smile, her hair a little disheveled.

“Hey,” Jett said, standing in Riley’s doorway with a backpack on her shoulders.

Jett looked beautiful in denim cut offs and a casual green t shirt. Her skin shone with good health and her eyes were hopeful. Her smile was shy.

Riley smiled at Jett. “Hi,” she said. A backpack was a good sign. It meant Jett was planning to stay. There was a small, mostly ignored part in the back of Riley’s brain that was worried that Jett was coming to break things off, but seeing the backpack reassured her that wasn’t the case.

Jett came inside and put her things away and went straight for the kitchen.

“Let’s see what you have to work with,” Jett said.

“I just went grocery shopping,” Riley said, “so it’s definitely a lot more than it was yesterday.”

“Perfect,” Jett said and continued to look in the fridge and cabinets. “Oh, great, you have everything for one of my favorite foods. Let’s make lasagna.”

“Okay,” Riley agreed and watched Jett go through and lay things on the counter. Noodles, sauce, different types of cheese, a can of spinach, an assortment of vegetables and a casserole dish.

“So, I don’t usually add meat to my lasagna,” Jett said, “but I do like to add spinach to the sauce. You know, make it a little healthier.”

“Sounds good,” Riley said, and Jett began to show her how to chop veg and they set to work.

Riley was amazed that Jett knew how to do it without any kind of written recipe, only using her memory.

“I do sometimes use recipes when I cook, especially when it’s something complicated or that I don’t cook often,” Jett said. “But lasagna is pretty easy and it’s also one of my favorite foods, so I make it whenever I have all the ingredients, which actually isn’t that often. Most people don’t have what they need just lying around.”

Riley felt proud that she managed to get the ingredients for one of Jett’s favorite foods even while having no clue what she was doing.

Jett started by preheating the oven and showed Riley how to mix the spinach into the sauce and beat an egg into the cheeses.

“Do we have to cook the noodles?” Riley asked.

“Nope,” Jett said. “When we layer the lasagna, the liquid in the sauce and cheese will seep through and cook the noodles as it bakes.”

“How long does it take to cook?”

“About an hour,” Jett said. “Sometimes longer.” Jett frowned. “I probably should have shown you how to make something that doesn’t take as long. You’re probably already starving.”

“It’s okay,” Riley said. “I’m not super hungry yet, so waiting a little bit is good with me.”

Jett smiled at her, but Riley was definitely lying. She was starting to regret not eating breakfast that morning, but it was okay. She was used to going entire shifts while barely eating if she ate at all. She could wait another hour or so.

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