Wake Up Call (Part 2)

“Hey, I haven’t thanked you for this. I am just so used to living alone that this" Miranda gestures with wide arms in Ellie's general direction "...is a big adjustment. I figured that you would probably...uuuhhh, you would probably just kind of do your own thing” Miranda said trying to avoid saying something that would ruin her attempt at graciousness.

“I would be what?” Ellie shifted the scrambled eggs in the pan with the spatula.

“Well, I thought that you might have been more of a pain. I mean, most of the case was me trying to do my job while babysitting you.” Miranda erred on the side of honesty over trying to avoid lying to the demon whose job it was to lie.

“Yeah, well I mean you were also getting in the way of what I wanted. Let’s not forget that.” Ellie rolled her eyes as she said it, “but without me you wouldn’t have got him so that is another thing I am waiting for a thank you about.”

“Don’t push it, I would have gotten him. It would have just taken a while...and like let’s see how the breakfast turns out before I start handing out thank yous.” Miranda tries to find some balance between sounding defensive and not ruining the calm moment that was occurring.

“Oh, it will be good. I can assure you. I would have made something more if you had better ingredients on hand, but this should do fine. You have, like, zero good spices around. No red pepper, no chilies, no curry, like you only have one clove of garlic in your fridge...” Ellie shakes her head as she lists off the various spices, more amused than annoyed, “Like, you didn’t even have bacon or sausage. I had to pop down to a corner store to grab some.”

“Wait...what...” Miranda stops grating the cheese and looks over at Ellie, “You bought this stuff, when did you have the time? It hasn’t been payday yet, what did you pay with?”

“Oh, I just banged the guy in the storeroom.” Ellie said nonchalantly as Miranda was wide eyed in disbelief, “While he was out of it, I just sort of took what I wanted and left.”

“ELLIE, YOU KILLED A GUY AND THEN STOLE FROM HIS SHOP!!” Miranda shouted as her hands covered over her face in panic “YOU CAN’T JUST DO THAT! THERE ARE CAMERAS AND... OH GOD, I AM HARBORING A FUGITIVE!”

“Firstly, I didn’t kill him. I just fucked him until he couldn’t stand.” Ellie seemed confused to the reaction of Miranda, “Secondly, I left some money on the counter, so it wasn’t entirely stealing. There, no dead bodies and no stealing. Am I being a good girl?” Ellie said with a single finger over her mouth in a mockingly seductive manner to try to get more of a rise from Miranda. This then prompted Miranda's panic to turn into anger.

“God damn it Ellie, I was trying to be nice and thank you for the breakfast. If you wanted me to get you stuff to cook with you could have just asked. Like I could have just eaten simple, nutritious, and law-abiding oatmeal. Now you made all of this sin meal.” Miranda said rubbing the bridge of her nose out of frustration.

“Some might call it ‘sex-fast’” Ellie said stifling a laugh and being too proud of this word play.

“Not the time Ellie, like I thought that you just made this to be nice or something and not to torment me.” Miranda’s tone was pleading.

“Well, that is why I did it. Like, I don’t really need sleep so I just kinda napped for as long as I felt like, got bored, and then thought ‘I could just make breakfast’ Then I looked through your kinda sad fridge, saw the cheese with a bite out of it and figured that you could use an actual meal.” Ellie said with her chin cradled in the palm of her hand that was held up by her other hand.

“Oh...umm, well. That is kind of a nice thing to do. Can you just come to me first if you want something, like I can stock up the fridge more considering that both of us are going to be living here.” Miranda had been disarmed somewhat from the genuineness of Ellie’s statement, “Wait, you saw the bite in the cheese.”

“Oh yeah, hard to miss. You have some real chompers on ya.” Ellie has a sly smile on her face, “So, you take your coffee and go and sit in the next room. Let me finish up here and we can eat.” Ellie points over her shoulder with her thumb at the coffee which still has light steam coming off it.

Miranda opens her mouth to refute the claim about her teeth size before just giving up on it. She walks over and pours the cream in her coffee and walks out of kitchen. As she sits down and takes her first sip of coffee, she can hear some muttering and laughing coming from the kitchen, she decides that the best thing she can do at this point is settle in and save herself the stress. She wasn’t sure how having Ellie around was going to work out, felt very much like more of a blessing than she would have expected rather than the curse she knew Ellie could be.

Not too long after Ellie came over and settled down a plate of scrambled eggs with cheese, some crispy bacon, and plump sausages on it. Ellie sat across from Miranda with a similar plate. Miranda takes her first bite of the scrambled eggs. She was surprised at how fluffy they were and the how Ellie was able to get the tastes she did out of her admitted lack of spices.

“This is really good Ellie, like I am surprised.” Miranda took bite out of the bacon that was just crispy enough, “Oh, it is all good. Wow.”

“I could have done better... couldn’t even make shakshuka...” Ellie seemed sort of frustrated as she bit one of the sausages in half.

“Shak- what?” Miranda’s inquiry stopped her from eating the large forkful of scrambled eggs.

“Shakshuka, its poached eggs and vegetables that I used to eat all of the time when I lived in Morrocco.” Ellie munches absent mindedly on her meal as she reminisces, “I used to live it up with the upper crust, wouldn’t find a half-filled pantry in their homes. I used to pretend to be a servant for the nobles, it was a good con.”

“Wait...you lived in Morrocco? When was that?” Miranda is entirely focused on Ellie’s story and has dropped her cutlery and has leaned a little in towards the table reflexively as her interest in Ellie's story grew.

“Been loads of places. Where do you think I have been all this time? Just bumming around in hell or something?” Ellie rolls her eyes as if the question was ridiculous. Miranda pauses for a moment as she realizes that Ellie had stated exactly what she had thought. Ellie continues talking, not paying any attention to Miranda’s state.

“But yeah, that was probably thousands of years ago at this point. I mean, time isn’t really something for us demons.” Ellie says in a bragging tone. At the mention of time Miranda’s head shot up in shock, she quickly checks her watch, and the shock turns into full blown panic.

“Oh god, I only have an hour until work. I haven’t even showered yet! Damn it, damn it, damn it...” Miranda says quickly as she pops out of her chair. She quickly walks across the floor and into the bathroom.

“Hey, your breakfast is going to get cold!” Ellie shouted at her. Miranda promptly jogged back over, quickly finished her plate. Ellie watched as her attempt at being caring gets shoveled into the gullet of Miranda.

“It’s so good, I really appreciate it. I swear.” Miranda says through a full mouth. Ellie is not amused but she shrugs as Miranda runs back to the washroom. Once Ellie hears the shower turn on, she smiles a bit and grabs the coffee from across the table. She lightly sips it as she looks out the window.