“Can I make you something? Are you hungry? Would you like coffee? Tea?”
“Tea would be lovely. But I can make it.” He opened another cupboard and frowned. “Where is all your food?”
“I have food.” She moved towards a pantry off to the side which had a large freezer. She pulled up the lid and grabbed a frozen microwaveable meal. “See? I have heaps. What do you feel like? Mac n’cheese? Hmm, you seem more of a shepherd’s pie man. Or maybe a roast? Pretty sure I have a roast in here.”
“That is what you eat?”
“Sure. I mean I buy some fresh stuff when I go into town.”
“And you drive there in that truck with no seatbelt?”
“Uh-huh. It’s okay, I drive slow. I used to attach a bungee cord as a makeshift seatbelt but it just got annoying.” She drew out a frozen meal. “Score, I have beef or chicken.”
“Isaac!” Archer called out.
“He doesn’t like to be called that.”
“I am not calling him Doc.”
She shrugged. No skin off her nose.
“What is it? I’m busy,” Doc snapped. She thought it suited him.
“Caley wants to know if we want roast chicken or beef.” Archer pointed at the packets of food she held. “She lives on frozen meals apparently.
Doc frowned. “You what?”
“There’s nothing wrong with frozen meals,” she defended. “They still have all the necessary nutrients.”
Right? She actually had no idea. They were convenient and quick, which were her two main criteria.
“They’re okay sometimes,” Doc answered. “At least we won’t get salmonella from them.”
“Did he just insult my cooking?” she asked Archer.
“He has a phobia about eating stuff other people cook. Think it’s got something to do with his OCD.”
“I don’t have fucking OCD,” Doc muttered. “I just like things to be put away. In their place. And I don’t appreciate getting food poisoning. It’s not that weird.”
Sure. Uh-huh. Not weird at all.
“See, microwave meals are fine,” she told Archer.
“You shouldn’t be living on microwave meals alone,” Doc continued. “You need fresh vegetables, fruit, protein.”
It was Archer’s turn to give her a look of triumph. Rats.
“It’s not like I can just pop out to the grocery store,” she mumbled. She shoved the meals back into the freezer. “If you don’t want to eat them, that’s fine. Help yourselves to whatever you like. There’s extra bedding in the closet in the spare bedroom, if someone wants to take the couch. Excuse me, I’ve got work to do.”
She walked into her office, knowing she wasn’t exactly being hospitable. But it wasn’t like they were invited guests. And she needed a little bit of space right then.
* * *
“That went well,” Isaac stated the obvious.
Archer glared at him. He opened the freezer and pulled out the two frozen roast meals, then searched through and grabbed a third one.
“I didn’t mean to insult her.”