Wake Up Call (Part 1)

It was not the how Miranda woke up in a complete panic that was the oddity of that morning, in truth that was a rather common occurrence. It was rather the smell wafting through the air that had her on edge. It was the sweet and salty smell of some sort of pork frying away. Since she lived alone, and she had just been asleep, she was understandably distressed by the circumstance. Miranda moved as slowly as possible, thanking herself that she slept in pajamas and would not have to dress herself quietly. As she crept across the floor to the door, she kept listening for any sounds of movement coming from anywhere else in the apartment.

Her heart sounded as if it’s thumping were right in her head. Every breath she took sounding louder than she wanted as she placed her ear to the door. She did hear something. It was a voice, it seemed like it was either muttering or humming something. Miranda’s hand slowly inched for the doorknob and turned it. The slight click of the doorknob being fully turned made Miranda wince and pause before opening the door fully into the main room.

Miranda slid into the room with the door opened as little as possible, holding in her breath as she did so to try to suck in her stomach to reduce her profile as much as possible. Upon doing so she quickly crouched behind the nearby bookcase and poked her head out towards the kitchen. She couldn’t see anyone because of the limited angle but she could hear someone muttering about something. Crawling along the floor as carefully and quietly as possible she came to the kitchen doorway. She stood up and laid her back against the wall. She took a moment to steady herself. In that moment she caught sight of something on the shelf beside her. It was a bust of Thomas Aquinas and given the scenario it quickly became a potential club of Thomas Aquinas. Feeling the weight in her hands gave her an added sense of security that allowed her to confidently turn around the corner and face the intruder.

“I don’t know why you would...” Miranda begins to declare something before noticing that the bronze skin and the lightly flicking tail. She then remembers that she no longer lives alone. All the adrenaline seeps out of her at a rapid rate leaving her more tired than she would have been having just woken up normally.

“Oh hey, didn’t know when you got up so I just kinda just started to help myself.” Ellie says looking over her shoulder. Ellie then notices the bust in Miranda’s hand. A single eyebrow is raised before she fully turns around. “What do you have that for? If you were going to try and send me to hell or something you are going to need more than some old dude’s head. Try lighting some candles or get a cross at least, you got enough of them around the place...” Ellie rolls her eyes as she mentions a cross. Miranda then notices that Ellie is wearing the apron that she got as a Christmas gift, it was custom ordered by her dad to have a Far Side comic on it. It didn’t matter that Miranda didn’t really cook or didn’t like Far Side that much, she thought it was nice.

“Hey, you are wearing my apron.” Miranda stated trying to change the subject because she was entirely unsure about how to begin approaching what she had just went through. Also Miranda would like to avoid the mockery of Ellie as best she could.

“Yeah, and I am cooking your food... well, some of your food. Your point?” Ellie said gesturing with a spatula that was slightly shiny from the greased frying pan.

“Why?” Miranda was entirely dumbfounded.

“Because you need to eat, and I like to eat. So... figured it would work out for everyone. Man, you are slow in the morning. Are you like this every day?” Ellie asks with a face that rested somewhere between annoyed and amused.

“No, I... I uh, I thought that you were an intruder.” Miranda kinda mumbles her way through her confession, “So, I... well, I grabbed this statue and was going planning to... ya know... hit you with it.” Miranda’s embarrassment was evident based on her looking anywhere but at Ellie, who was just watching and listening to her in growing confusion. “But once I knew it was you, I was not going to hit you with Thomas Aquinas. Only if you were some intruder... that uh... was making... break... fast. Hmm...” Miranda is now considering how in retrospect she should have figured that it was not some sort of murderer whose calling card was eating breakfast in the persons residence.

“Wow, so you were going to hit me with a statue you named for making you breakfast?” Ellie states in the most unamused tone she could muster.

“OK, firstly, I did not name this statue. It is a bust of Thomas Aquinas who is very important in history and I did a lot of research on in college,” Miranda holds out the bust towards Ellie expecting that if she saw his face that she would instantly recognize him, this seemingly did not happen nor change Ellie’s expression, “and secondly, once I realized that you were not some sort of threat or, like, a breakfast pervert or something I wasn’t going to hit you.”

“I mean... if you want me to be those things, we can figure something out.” Ellie had a wide smile and a single raised eyebrow as her mind was obviously a whirl with the concept of ‘threatening breakfast pervert’.

“Oh god, stop that. I don’t want you to be an anything pervert in my apartment or on the job or just anywhere near me.” Miranda rubbed the bridge of her nose as she spoke trying to calm herself down.

“So, I can be a threat?” Ellie asks, obviously poking at Miranda in her frustrated state.

“No, can you just... be normal for a bit. Like, please.” Miranda groans as her head tilts back to have her look at the ceiling as she wonders why she allowed this problem into every facet of her life.

“Alright, you got put your friend away and come and sit down. Have some breakfast and coffee and chill the hell out.” Ellie turns back to the sizzling pan on the oven. Miranda stands there for a moment, confused about the sudden tone shift. Once she gets past that she ends up taking the advice of Ellie and walking to her table in the next room. As she does, she leans over and as casually as possible places Thomas Aquinas back in his place on the shelf. As she does a single word crosses her mind as the normalcy of the scenario sets in.

“Coffee”

Miranda turns around and heads back into the kitchen. She takes a moment to make sure that Ellie isn’t going to move into her way before she opens the cupboard. Miranda reaches for a rather large coffee mug on the second shelf. Feeling the smooth ceramic was surprisingly centering for Miranda given the circumstance, it felt very much like the day is back on the rails after how it started. Ellie just casually looked over to check what she was doing before going back to her cooking. It was an odd thing for Miranda to have someone else in this apartment but in that moment, it felt more like a change rather than a bad thing. She smiled a bit as she scooped a single tea spoon of sugar into her cup before setting it on coffee machine, probably the one mechanical item in the apartment she could not do without.

As the coffee machine heated up Miranda went over to the fridge to grab the cream. As she walks over Ellie gives a quick glance over her shoulder.

“Hey, can you grab some cheese while you are there?” Ellie asks causing Miranda to look back at her for a moment, not necessarily sure why. It could have been just the casual tone and how it seems like Ellie has just made herself more at home in Miranda’s home than Miranda was. Still, Miranda grabs the coffee cream and the block of cheese she had in there. Upon taking it out of the fridge and unwrapping it slightly from the crumpled plastic she then notices a sizeable chunk taken out of one of the corners with very evident bite marks.

Miranda has a moment of hesitation as she stares at the evidence of her after work snaking. Surely if Ellie were to see this, she would not let Miranda off the hook. This might even let her know that she could be tempted in some manner, the vice of gluttony clearly shown in such a perverse manner. Miranda tried to maneuver over to the cutting board beside Ellie as casually as possible. She had hoped that she could just cut off the piece without Ellie noticing.

Miranda set the block of evidence down on the cutting board and began to reach for the knife. Everything was going smoothly of Miranda’s grand plan to destroy the evidence of this lapse of character.

“Oh, hey. You don’t need to cut it. It’s scrambled eggs, shredding the cheese works better than just putting a big hunk of it in there.” Ellie shrugged a bit having barely raised her head to notice Miranda reaching for the knife. This meant that she missed the look of panic that rose on Miranda’s face as quickly as the blush across her cheeks. Miranda provided a nervous laugh as her hand was slowly pulled away from the item of her salvation.

“Yeah, alright. I’ll just get the grater...” Miranda had to jimmy the drawer a bit before it opened up and she began scouring the contents for anything that could get her out of this mess. There was a stroke of luck for Miranda as she found a small knife in the drawer. She was confused for a moment how it had gotten there and why it was not with the other knives, not to mention when she had gotten it. The moment soon passed as she quickly cut off the offending corner of the cheese block and popped it in her mouth.

“Wow, I can’t believe you.” Ellie stepped back from the stove for a moment to be able to look Miranda dead on. Miranda had a cold chill run down her spine as the thoughts ran through her head.

“Had Ellie known this whole time and only asked for the cheese because she knew that there was a bite out of it already? Had this been an elaborate set up to get some dirt on me? How much of my apartment had she gone through? How much does she know? Oh no, she is going to find something to blackmail me with and I am going to have to sell my soul to her and become her servant...” Miranda’s mind was racing with the possibilities that this Machiavellian demon had come up with.

“If you get to nibble on cheese then I want a piece too. I mean, I am the one that is making breakfast. Pretty rude to eat before me in my opinion.” Ellie was seemingly slightly more annoyed by this than Miranda had expected.

“Oh, haha, sorry.” Miranda calmed down and cut another decent chunk out of the cheese and handed it over to Ellie, “That one is bigger than the one I had just so we are even.” Ellie looks over at Miranda for a moment with the cheese slice in hand before pointing at her with it.

“That’s the way it should be, but I am not going to complain.” Ellie said more confidently than Miranda particularly liked, but she was more than happy to see Ellie turn back towards the stove. Miranda let out a silent sigh as she managed to get away with her dignity. As Miranda thought about it more though Ellie was right that she had been making breakfast for them and had not really gotten the appreciation that she probably should have. Miranda begun shredding the cheese on the grater and fell into a thoughtful mood.