Once back home, Jennifer took the grocery bags to the kitchen, then rushed to the living room to lay down on the sofa. She needed some time to rest and calm herself down. A lot of strange things were happening today.
She drifted off to the sleep, only to suddenly awake sometime later. She looked over at the digital clock sitting on a cabinet near the TV. At least an hour had passed! "Shit," she uttered, before admonishing herself for using profanity. She rarely used it, and even then, it was a "dang" or a "crud". This stunned her a little, as it wasn't really like her at all, but seeing that time was getting away from her, she decided to think on all of this later. She needed to put the groceries away and start preparing dinner. She wanted to make sure she had it ready by the time her husband Michael came home from work.
After putting everything way, especially the stuff that needed to be refrigerated, she then proceeded to start on making dinner. She was so into cooking for the next hour or so that all of the strangeness seemed to drift away to the back of her mind.
Until Michael arrived.
The door opened and closed. "Honey? What is that smell?" came his voice.
Hearing his voice, Jennifer walked out of the kitchen and greeted him. "I thought we could have something new tonight."
"Well, that explains it. Whatever it is, it smells awful," he said.
Jennifer looked confused. "What?" She sniffed the air. Now that she noticed it, it did have an odd aroma to it. Not awful, just different. Like bitterness and spiciness together.
"What is it anyway?" he asked, frowning at the bad smell.
Jennifer was about to say, but then stopped. For the life of her, she didn't know. But how could she not? She had only been cooking it in the kitchen for the last hour and a half!
Walking back into the kitchen, she looked at the pot full of stew. Okay, yes, that was right. She remembered that she was making stew. She had made stew before, but the smell was always very pleasant. Standing over the pot still cooking on the stove, the smell was more potent than by the front door, and she could tell that the aroma was quite unpleasant.
"It's okay, honey," Michael said. "We can just order a pizza or something."
Jennifer peered into the stew, seeing things bobbing in the broth that she didn't recognize. She remembered putting a bunch of ingredients into the pot, ones that she had bought at the store earlier that day, but she didn't remember buying these things. She even had a feeling that what was in the pot wasn't stew at all, but something else ... something vaguely familiar ... like something from her past ...
"Honey," came the voice of her husband. He was standing right behind her, causing her to jump.
She spun around and glared at him. "Don't scare me like that!"
"Sorry. What's gotten you so jumpy all of a sudden?"
"Nothing," she said, maybe a little too quickly.
Michael paused, then said "I just wanted to know what you wanted on the pizza."
"Uh, mushrooms and onion," she muttered, before turning back and looking into the still-cooking pot of stew.
"I'll call in the order," he said, before leaving the kitchen.
Jennifer turned off the stove and was about to turn away, but she stopped, and looked at the stew again. It would be a shame to waste all of that. Even though it did smell kind of repugnant. She grabbed a ladle and scooped some of the stew up and then brought it to her lips. She then chugged it all down. She had only meant to take a sip, but then she felt a compulsion to do more. Going down her throat, though, the taste was much better than the smell. So with that, she dipped the ladle in again and had more of the stew ...
"Okay, the pizza will be here in ... Jennifer, what are you doing?" Michael asked, coming back into the kitchen.
Jennifer turned around, an empty ladle in her hand. "I ... I guess I just wondered what it tasted like."
"And?" he asked.
"It's okay. But I think I'd rather have the pizza," she said. She dropped the ladle back in the pot, almost not noticing how at least a third of the pot was now empty. Had she really eaten that much of the stew? She didn't remember.
Oh well. She'd just ponder on it later.
Eventually, the pizza came, they ate it, watched a movie together on the TV, then headed to bed.
The moment Jennifer got to the bedroom, however, a strange feeling came over her. She felt a little more adventurous than usual. Normally, she'd just go straight to bed, but tonight, she felt like enticing Michael into having sex. It was unlike her, for sure, but her husband was more than happy to comply. And soon, they were going at it, being as loud as they wanted to be. Now that Annie was off at college, they had the entire house to themselves. It was amazing. Jennifer had no idea what had gotten into her, but this was some of the best sex she had had in a while. Michael didn't even question her about the ornate necklace hanging around her neck. It was odd, but she was thankful for it. She didn't want to have to explain it to him.
When they were finished, they cuddled in each other's arms, then drifted off to sleep.
