5
Don woke up late the next morning. It was nearly 8 when he looked at the time on his phone. It was the best night's sleep he'd had in a while. Maybe it was all the other restless nights finally catching up with him. Maybe it was the masturbatory marathon and all-consuming orgasm of the night before. Maybe it was just having someone else in the house. Whatever it was, Don found himself feeling good and looking forward to the day. That was a feeling he'd missed.
He found Flora already up when he walked out to the family room. She was laying on the couch, reading. Her shirt was pulled up showing her panties and nice ass again. Don rolled his eyes.
"Hey Don," Flora said cheerily. "Sleep well?"
"I did," Don said as if it were a surprise. "How about you?"
"Yeah," she said. "Pretty good." She dog-eared a page and closed the book. "How was your jerk-off?" She smiled devilishly at him.
Don sighed, 'It starts already,' he thought. "It was good. It was great actually."
"I bet," Flora said knowingly. "So was mine. I think you're on to something with that denial thing."
Don didn't respond. She'd missed the point. Flora had simply turned Don's denial into a new move she hadn't yet tried in her constant game.
"Have you eaten?" he asked instead.
"No. I'm starving."
"OK. Let's go see what I have."
"Me?" Flora was incredulous.
"Yeah, you," Don replied. "I'm not your servant. If you want to eat, you have to help." He smiled, smoothing his coarse words.
Flora got up and followed Don into the kitchen. He searched the cabinet and fridge for ingredients. "Jesus, I need to go to the store. I think I've got enough to make a scramble though. How are you at cooking eggs?"
"What are eggs?" Flora asked flatly.
"Right," Don confirmed. "Start by dicing up some onion and bell pepper."
He got out a cutting board and knife for her, and plopped the onion and bell pepper onto it in front of her. While she started hesitantly chopping, he got out the rest of the ingredients and utensils they'd need. He walked her through the whole process, from heating up oil in the pan to sprinkling cheese on top of the cooked eggs. Flora was tentative at first, but grew in confidence as Don patiently coached her from step to step.
"And there you go," Don said with a flourish as she sprinkled the cheese. "That wasn't so hard, was it?" He served it up on some plates and they sat down to eat.
Don waited for Flora to take the first bite. "Should I eat it?" He asked as she rolled the food around in her mouth to taste it.
"It's not going to kill you," she told him.
Don took a bite. "Hey, that's pretty good. The eggs are perfect."
"They're eggs, Don. Eggs are easy." Flora waved his compliment away.
"Ha!" he scoffed. "Eggs are actually pretty hard to get right. You nailed it. The onions are caramelized, and balanced nicely with the salty ham. And the eggs are fluffy and moist."
Flora made a face. "Ugh."
"What?"
"I hate that word, 'moist'." Flora said it with disgust.
Don laughed. "OK. But they are. You did great."
"If you say so," she dismissed.
"How do you like that book?" Don asked. Clearly, Flora was not good at taking compliments, so he changed the subject.
"It's good," she said, taking another bite. "There's some things I don't get, though." Flora talked with her mouth full. "What's individuation?"
"Oh," Don said pleased. He'd never had a conversation about this before. It was a subject that had always interested him and nobody else. "It's a Jung thing."
"Carl Jung?" Flora asked.
"Yes." Don was excited now. "You know him?"
"Just the name,"she said before shoveling a huge bite onto her mouth.
"Ah." Don tried not to look disappointed. "He was a student of Freud's."
Flora perked up a bit. "The sex guy?"
"Yyyes, I think." The way she said it made Don wonder if there wasn't some porn actor by that name. "The father of psychology." Flora nodded, so he continued. "But Jung broke from Freud and a lot of that sex stuff. Individuation was his term for the process of becoming a complete individual." Flora looked at him quizzically as she munched. "You know," Don explained, "becoming a well-rounded person. I think it's a good book for you to read." Don blanched at his own statement as soon as it had come out of his mouth.