Miss*Fortune

Miss*Fortune 7

When Keith got back home from work, he was yet again to see another transformed form of his old garbage-dump of an apartment. It was now cleaner than before and it already started to look much livable. He was happily surveying the surroundings when his eyes fixated on a young lady who was, by that time, cooking dinner. Keith looked at her from top to bottom while focusing his attention on the clothes she was wearing at the moment.

"Those clothes..." The young man started

"Weren't these the ones you wore yesterday?!" Keith exclaimed "What happened to the ones I bought earlier?"

"Oh, you're back!" The lady looked at the direction of the voice "Those were very hard to move in so I quickly dried my clothes. Don't worry, I washed yours as well"

"That's not the problem here, what a waste of my effort" Keith folded his arms and shook his head as if to imply that such a simple activity took much of his energy

"Oh come on! Just return it! You just bought it earlier so it'd probably be fine!" Althea rolled her eyes before adding "And besides, those weren't my size, so yeah" she said in a low, quiet voice

"Ah hah! I knew it" Keith laughed "I should've picked size L huh? Or maybe it'd be better if you'd go on a diet?" He stared at the lady with a sly grin

"EXCUSE ME?!" Althea took time to put gravity in her words, carefully enunciating each syllable in order for the now laughing Keith to know what she was getting at. She raises one of her brows and then adds,

"Uh oh, it looks like I made too much food, maybe I should feed the extras to the stray dogs since they seemed MUCH DESERVING" She finished

"I'll return it, I'll return it! Come on, don't get mad, I was only joking..." Keith says while hiding a giggle

"But, don't you think you should keep the underwear? The lady at the shop told me it made women look and feel sexier..." The man said while imagining how Althea would then look if she did wear them.

Keith's imagining was going smoothly until the time he realized that he was imagining a girl in her undies and, that this was the very definition of "Lewd thoughts". The young gentleman slapped both his cheeks until it turned red and whispered to himself "Don't be a pervert Keith! Think of something else! Uhmm..."

"Hey Keith! What are you doing? Dinner's ready and you'd better hurry before I change my mind and feed these to the dogs!" Althea cuts in as she places some dishes on the table

"Cooooming!!!" Keith happily says as he almost skips to the table and takes his seat

"Don't do that! It's unbecoming for a man." Althea lectures him as she sits on the opposite side. She quietly ate for a while until she stared at Keith in wonder.

The young lad notices this and looks back,

"Anything wrong?" he asks the lady in front of him

"You don't seem like you're gonna cry today huh?" the lady let out a small laugh before taking another bite

"Don't remind me of that, it's unbecoming for a man" Keith imitates Althea

"True!" The lady laughs in return, "but it does pique my interests" she adds

"Oh! You're curious about me?" Keith flashes another sly look

"Not to the point of forcing you to spill it out" Althea smoothly dodges while gently moving a spoonful towards her mouth

Keith looks at Althea and curved his lips into a small smile. Although the lower half of his face was smiling, his eyes told a story that was totally different.

"It's about my sister" he quietly said

"W-Wait, you're actually telling me this?!" Althea exclaims in shock

"Why not? Dinners are meant to be spent with a hearty conversation or am I mistaken?" He asks leaving the girl speechless

"Well, she used to anyways. And she was a really bad cook." He then adds

"Was...? You mean..?" Althea asks, stopping halfway from eating without looking away from the man sitting in from of him

"Yeah. She initially had a really frail body, but ever since our parents passed away, she took care of business on her own while supporting me and my studies. In the end, her body could not handle it anymore and.... Well, it just happened..." Keith looked at the other side of the room as he lets silence fill the room.

Althea looked down at the table and blinked. She took a deep breath and let words come out of her mouth, "Sorry for making you retell this..." the lady quietly said without looking up

"Don't worry about it! It's a thing of the past after all!" Keith says as he laughs the awkward atmosphere off

"Besides, you're now here with me..." He gently utters as he paired it with a gentle smile

Althea, now looking at him, stared blankly for a moment before her face slowly changed its color. Along with it, Keith's face, facing the lady as well, also burned as he came to yet another late realization.

The young lad suddenly panicked and quickly tried thinking of any action to change the mood.

"I-I-I mean, to cook dinner in place of my sister! Hahaha, that's right! Weee" Keith quickly added as he performs another show of silly set of actions which were unbecoming of a man.