inkspresso

you're staying for dinner

Jack enters the apartment after his shift. Ava still has one more hour to go. He takes off his shoes and sighs, relieved.

"Mom?" He calls out as he starts going further into the apartment. Jack went to the living room, where she usually is.

He pauses once he sees his mother sleeping. Jack smiles softly and presses a loving kiss on her forehead. He heads into the shower.

Jack scrubs his body, but nothing will ever remove the sweet aroma of coffee from him. It's embedded in him at this point. It's stuck in his hair. It's under his skin. No amount of shampoo or shower gel will remove it from him.

Once he puts on some more comfortable clothes, he heads into the kitchen to snack on something. It was still a bit early to have dinner.

"Mom! I'm home!" Isla announces from the front door.

Jack peeks his head out of the kitchen. "Mom's sleeping." He says quietly.

Oh, sorry." She covers her mouth.

Isla steps into the kitchen and steals a cookie from Jack.

"How was school?"

"Boring." She groans. "Can you help me with my algebra homework?"

"Lemme see it."

She takes off her backpack and shows him her homework.

Jack takes one good look at it. "Oh, linear equations are easy. All you have to do is find the value of x." He stretches his hand to get a pencil.

He patiently shows her how to do the exercises. "And when you pass it to the other side, the positive numbers become negative and vice versa. So that's why it's that way." He hands her the pencil. "You try it."

Isla does the exercises on the dining table as Jack makes rice for dinner. Oh yeah, that's right. Jack officially knows how to make killer rice. Thanks to his mom, who taught him. He definitely didn't learn to be Zach's type.

"Done." Isla sets the pencil down.

Jack lowers the heat and sits next to Isla. He checks her answers. "See? You got it now."

"The teacher makes it sound complicated." She groans. "Can you help me with my English homework too?"

"Sure." He smiles softly. "What is it about?"

"Uhm... It's about like Shakespeare and stuff."

Jack hums and grabs his phone. "I know someone who can help you better than I do." He dials Zach's number.

"Hello?"

"Hey Zach, it's Jack."

"Yeah, I have your number saved, I just wasn't expecting your call."

Jack chuckles. "Can I ask you for a favour?"

"It depends on what it is." Jack could practically hear his smile through the phone.

"My sister needs help with her English homework. Shakespeare. Can you help?"

"Uhm, sure. I've studied him. Is she coming to the coffee shop?"

"I thought you could maybe come over?"

"Sure. Uhm, quick question, where do you live?" He asks.

"Just go outside, first door to the left. Third floor. Apartment B."

"Alright, gimme two minutes." He hangs up before Jack could thank him.

"Who was that?"

"A... friend. He goes to the café like at night. He keeps us company." Jack smiles softly.