“Sorry, I don’t mean to make fun. I’m a Kira fan myself.” Or more accurately, she thought she was a Kira fan, but at the moment, she felt more than a little conflicted about it. “I mean, I really think she has a lot of helpful messages but…” She glanced at the juice. “Some of the stuff she sells seems a bit…”
“Predatory?” Jacob asked.
“No!” Bella said. “She’s not like that. She loves her people. You should see all the charity work she does.”
“I’m sorry, but I honestly think it’s all for show,” Jacob said. “She gives a bunch of money to someone deserving, but she also makes sure the world finds out about it. It’s just smart PR. And it works too. My mom and my sistersloveher—they’re all Kira disciples. In fact, my mom bought a ten-thousand-dollar anti-aging sauna that she really can’t afford from her website. She’s been using it every day for the last year, and I gotta say, she still looks old A.F.”
Bella let her shoulders drop. “God, hearing that makes me want to run out and buy a Big Mac.”
“Here,” Jess said, scooping some of her dinner onto the lid and setting it down in front of her. Taking a spoon out of her lunch bag, she handed it to her. “Eat up. I have too much and you have nothing.”
Bella dug in, moaning at the first bite. “This is so good.”
"It's the easiest thing in the world to make," Jessica told her. "I literally throw all the ingredients in my crockpot and turn it on for the day while I go off to work. And yes, I am old and I use a crockpot."
Lewis picked at the convenience store sub sandwich he was eating. "I seriously miss eating good food."
"I hear that," Tina said.
"None of you cook?"
"I live in the dorms," Lewis said with a shrug. "It's cafeteria food three times a day for me."
"I'm in an apartment,” Bella said. “But other than slapping a sandwich together, I'm basically useless in the kitchen."
"I'm sure you can make a pot of pasta."
"If you count Kraft mac and cheese."
"Instant noodles everyday over here," Tina said.
"So, none of you learned how to cook when you were growing up?"
Shaking her head, Bella said, "Nope. My job was to excel in school and swim racing. There was no time for anything else."
Jessica nodded even though she knew therehadto have been some time for her parents to teach her how to cook.
"Same here," Tina said. "Actually, my mom said it was better if I didn't learn how to cook because that would only mean I'd wind up with some husband who would treat me like a housewife."
"She's not wrong about that," Jessica said before immediately feeling guilty for throwing Mike under the bus like that. "I'm only joking of course.” Sort of.
Over the next few minutes, Jess ate while she listened to her classmates describe their lack of knowledge of all things domestic. She thought about how overwhelmed they all sounded at having to live in the adult world without having ever been given the tools to survive. When it was time to walk over to the classroom, Jess decided she could do something nice for them. “Don’t pack anything on Thursday. I’ll bring supper for everyone.”
“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” Tina said. “You’ve got enough on your plate.”
Jess smiled at her. “I want to. I really appreciate you inviting me into the study group. I’ve learned so much tonight and I’d love to do something nice for the group.”
After class, Jess called Diana to chat on her drive home. Things were still tender between them, so she veered the topic to the safe conversation of how ill-equipped her classmates were to take care of themselves. She talked about what each of them brought to eat, then told Di she was planning to throw something in the crockpot to bring on Thursday.
“So, essentially, you’re taking over where their moms left off,” Diana said.
Jess chuckled. “I guess I am.”
“Once a mother, always a mother.”
“So true,” Jess answered. “One of the guys, Lewis, had the sniffles. It was all I could do to stop myself from whipping out a Kleenex, holding it under his nose, and telling him to blow.”
They shared a laugh, then Jess said, “But seriously, how on earth did they all grow up without learning any actual life skills? The topic of laundry came up and one of the girls said she went out and bought two months’ worth of clothes—underwear and all—so she can just bring it with her when she goes back to Portland to visit her parents.”
