The Cheerleader And The Nerd

Chapter 23

It started roughly about four days ago. I’d stumbled across one of Alex’s cookbooks and was just interested in trying out some of the dishes. It could also have something to do with Jayden telling me earlier that day that he didn’t like fast food takeouts. As soon as I got home, I persuaded Sarah to help me with it and after three hours of trying, two burnt and two half cooked ones, I’d finally made the perfect lasagna! Well as perfect as I can get to.

The net day, I first cooked lunch for the Andrews.

Heck, it was my first time cooking for anyone.

And to say I was proud would be the understatement of the century! I was absolutely ecstatic!

Now I found that if I had all the ingredients and the instructions from the cookbook, I could make a fairly good dish. Of course, only simple dishes. So now, I made lunch every day and Alex cooked dinners.

Jayden sighed. ‘’You don’t have to cook, you know. We could just order takeout.’’

‘’You hate takeouts,’’ I pointed out. In the last week I’d found out a lot of things about Jaden that I didn’t know before.

A light pink tinge crept up his cheeks as he scowled in my direction. ‘’So? It’s not like I never eat takeouts. I’ve had to eat them for half of my life. I just prefer a home cooked meal over it, is that so wrong?’’

‘’No, which is exactly why I want to cook,’’ seeing his doubtful look I insisted further. ‘’Jayden. I want to cook for you. Its not an obligation or a chore, I want to do this.’’

Holding out the book as I flipped through the pages. I needed something fairly easy to make and something which wouldn’t take a lot of time. Jayden smiled and shook his head, accepting my answer. After a few minutes I asked him, ‘’What do you feel like eating? Anything specific in mind?’’

‘’I don’t care what you make, Lee, it all tastes great. I honestly didn’t know you could cook.’’

‘’I couldn’t, I mean I still can't, technically,’’ I muttered, as I flipped through more pages. ‘’I just follow the book.’’ I waved the book at him before flipping through the pages again.

‘’I know, but it turns out pretty decent,’’

‘’Is that a compliment?’’ I murmured, caught up in looking for a good lunch yet keeping up the light flirting we had going on.

‘’Maybe, maybe not.’’ He cheekily replied as we settled in a comfortable silence once again. I finally decided on making pasta with garlic bread. Zach and Zoe liked Italian food.

‘’How does pasta sound?’’ I asked, tilting my head. Jayden looked up and gave me an adorable smile.

‘’Sounds great,’’ he admitted, ducking his head down and staring intently at his book. Putting down the book, I placed a hand on my hip and cleared my throat, tapping my heeled boot on the floor. He looked up again, and raised an eyebrow at me. ‘’Yes?’’

‘’I wasn’t done,’’ I smirked, as I slowly walked up to him, sashaying my hips. He had to tilt his head up to keep his eyes on me and it actually felt nice for once to be the taller of the two. Like straddling a bike, I lifted one leg and placed it on his other side, and straddled him, wrapping my arms firmly around his neck.

‘’Riley,’’ he murmured in a husky voice, dropping the book on the kitchen table behind me and placing his hands lightly on my hips.

‘’I have an idea…’’ I whispered, placing butterfly kisses on his neck. Slowly trailing my lips down, I let my hands – which were wrapped around his neck – creep up and play with the strands of his hair.