we will seek my buried inheritance

[self_composed]

Bella fixes French toast for breakfast to salvage stale bread, and, having seen Charlie off to work, hops in her own car and makes for Alice's house. She arrives at nine-thirty, and goes up to the doorbell and rings it.

Comments

[edgeofyourseat]

"Well, okay." He shrugs. "It's just, you know, I don't want you to squish your head."

[self_composed]

"I don't want me to squish my head either. I consider this only as a possibility if there are no hexes in the stash, and I'll probably decide against it anyway."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Okay."

[self_composed]

Walk-walk-walk. Past the rock. Down into a little ravine and up out of the little ravine. Trees, trees, trees. One extremely terrified deer charging away when Bella steps on a twig. Walk-walk-walk.

"Do you like cleaning ovens, or just like Hilary, or what?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Both of those!"

[self_composed]

"Okay, I'm stumped. What's to like about cleaning ovens?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"I think it's just one'a those things."

[self_composed]

Bella blinks.

"Is cleaning ovens a thing?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"...If by that you mean do I get off on it, yeah, kinda."

[self_composed]

"At some point I might need a complete list just so I do not have to be this stunned again," Bella informs him.

[edgeofyourseat]

"There is more stuff in the world that I could possibly do than I could ever actually do," he says, "and I don't know if most of it's gonna turn me on until I try it. I didn't know about cleaning ovens until this morning, by the way, I just thought it might be fun. And I was right! I was very right."

[self_composed]

"Ah-huh." Bella shakes her head slowly. "How about a list of things noted so far, and I can at least try to make some predictive models?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Sure. You want it right now?"

[self_composed]

"Write it down - and you could narrate it aloud as you go, too."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Okay," he says, and flips to a new page in his notebook. "Some of it's going to freak you out," he adds, although she probably knew that already.

[self_composed]

"Yes, I know, that's why I'd like to find out now instead of at some potentially inopportune moment."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Makes sense," he acknowledges. "Okay."

[self_composed]

Walk-walk-walk. Bella awaits information.

[edgeofyourseat]

Top of the page: Things that turn me on

First entry: Cleaning ovens

"I don't know why the ovens, though," he says aloud, and adds a little arrow leading to a clarifying point: (scrubbing is hot ???)

[self_composed]

"So it's not cleaning in general?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Um... a little bit," he says. "Good point, though."

Second entry: domestic chores in general (not very)

[self_composed]

Bella nods. "So there's that."

[edgeofyourseat]

He writes a few more things down.

"Okay, so far: cleaning ovens, i.e. scrubbing. Domestic chores in general. Pain. Getting beat up, with one exception, you know what it is, please don't make me say it. Really great clothes, on me or other people. Good food."

[self_composed]

"You get off on food," deadpans Bella.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Oh come on, in what way is Hilary's cake not a sexual experience?"