No. No. All that complicated court room battle over the apartment made me dizzy.
Yes. Very waffy. I liked the homey, cooking scene. Very enjoyable and fun.
I'm so glad that Lauren came back to force Clark to pamper to her every need... I mean, to visit her Aunt Lois's apartment. So, she's just like Lois, only she can cook.
"So … tell me about Lois then." Clark was torn. Lauren probably needed to talk about her best friend. Plus there was a desperate need, inside Clark, to reconnect with Lois … to strengthen his memories of her, but he also dreaded being overwhelmed by emotion. Still he'd asked, so he waited for Lauren to reply.
I'm so glad Clark now has someone with who he can talk about Lois. Only he can't, since she doesn't know that he knew her. Hmmmm. How would Lauren feel if she fell for Clark and THEN found out he's the same man her Aunt was obsessing over? I mean, once she knew he was Superman, it would make some sense, but at the same time that might be weird for her. Just another hurdle for this couple, if they decide to make their friendship into dating territory. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
"Sounds like you babble, too." Clark teased, finally opening his eyes and looking at her.
Red flag, Lauren! How does this stranger know that Aunt Lois used to babble?
"There were so many Aunts and Uncles and Great Aunts and so on. Grandpappy was an only child but Grandma's second … well first husband really, as she never had chance to marry daddy's father - that's why my last name is still Lane - came from a very big family. But Aunt Lois was everyone's favourite.
I'm lost. I thought that Lauren was Lucy's granddaughter. Am I wrong? Did Sam have another daughter along the line? Or did Lucy have a daughter out of wedlock before she married? Is she saying that Lucy had a son out of wedlock and then married (another man) but didn't have any more children, yet there were many aunts and uncles?
I got a bit lost here.
"Everyone loved her." Lauren sighed.
So, when Lauren says that they're opposites, does she think nobody in the family loves her?
Or am I reading too much into this? Or is she just talking about the cooking angle?
But Aunt Lois was everyone's favourite. She had so much love to give, to everyone. I asked her about it once. She said that Clark had taught her to love. He'd also taught her the value of friendship, and family, and making sure you never regretted your actions … or your in-action. I try to be just like her." Lauren paused and her lips trembled. "But I'm not. I regret everything." Her voice was so shaky filled with tears. "I never told her how much she meant to me, and I never told her I loved this place." She paused again. "I never told her I loved her."
Clark took Lauren's body into his arms. Neither did I, he thought. At least, not when she believed me, or wanted to hear it.
Cue: Clark's crying with regret. Lois lived because Clark taught her how to love.
"I think I'm going to start visiting just for your hugs, Clark, and not only to remember Aunt Lois," she chuckled quietly.
He'd have a line out the door if he offered them for free... well, out the door and down the block and across the country...
"Stay. Lauren, I've made enough for at least three people. I would have just frozen the left-overs." Clark quietened his voice. "Please. Stay, and have dinner with me."
Liar! You would have just eaten it all, Clark. Admit it.
Lauren immediately walked over to the refrigerator and pulled open the door. "Do you have any mascarpone?" she asked while reaching in and pulling out some milk and some butter.
This made me laugh. That's not something just ANYONE has on hand.
"Sounds great … but I do have ice cream, or maple syrup, or even some merengue, and we could do an Eton Mess."
Have no idea what that is, but it sounds yummy.
Does he want Aunt Lois to cook, because her method is particularly disorganised and I can tell you that not a single thing she ever makes is edible and …"
She suddenly stopped. Clark's amused face, and quiet chuckles had done nothing to stem her babbling, but when she began mentioning Lois … and using present tense, rather than past, he knew his face had changed. Possibly the shock, or the pain, or … something … was showing, because Lauren clearly realised what she'd been saying at that moment.
So hard to think of someone you love in the past tense.
Clark took his fruit to the other side of the kitchen and made sure his body hid the surreptitious use of his speed. Pretty soon there was a bowl full of diced pineapple, sliced apple and kiwi, orange segments, grapes and cherries.
Clark! SHE'S right there! And she's a food editor, which means she knows you can't cut up fruit that quickly without a little help from a man from Krypton. What are you thinking?!
He resumed setting the table and wondered if his memories of Lois would ever result in the same. Surely there would come a time when his heart would not ache, like it was pierced by an arrow, at the thought of her. Surely, fifty years of parental memories were stronger than two years of friendship. And if that pain could fade, then surely this pain would too.
It's a different kind of ache, Clark.
"It's okay, Clark. It's another OCD thing. I have to clean up in the kitchen immediately after I'm done with something. Mostly because I can't start any cooking if there is mess, so I then spend ages tidying up, and have no energy left for whatever I want to bake. So I just make sure the kitchen is always tidy."
Nah. It's not OCD. It's what they drill into you at culinary school. My hubby's the same way.
"The coffees!" Lauren was looking at him with wide eyes and her hand covering her mouth once more. It seemed to be an instinctive movement for her. She dropped her hand and Clark saw her smiling. "We forgot them. Aww, they'll be cold."
"Uh, no. I'll go look, but I'm sure they will be fine." Clark strode into the living area with the ice-cream and a spoon. Placing them on the table he then lowered his glasses and sent a little dart of heat into each mug. "It's okay," he called to Lauren, then straightened up as if to show that he'd been checking with his hands. "The mugs are quite good, heat retaining, you know."
Clark, your cape is showing.
Clark reached behind him and flicked on a lamp, not wanting to move from his cross-legged position facing Lauren, with the bowl in between. He put his spoon back in the bowl, fishing out some pineapple and ice-cream. As he brought it back to his mouth he looked up. Lauren was staring at the lamp behind him. She opened her mouth, then closed it. She dropped her spoon back in the bowl and looked at her wrist, checking the gold watch inherited from her Aunt.
Oh, no. Clark, what did you do to freak her out? Did you levitate a bit to reach the lamp?
"I don't mind. You can stay, if you'd like." Clark tried not to sound desperate and lonely.
"I think … I'd like to stay … and that's why I have to go." She turned, opened the door, and was gone again.
Eeep! She likes you, Clark. It's the equivalent of Lois slamming the door in your face on your first date. Wait, this Clark didn't get that experience, did he? What's going to happen next?!
I hate waiting.
I'm surprised no-one found my hidden message and commented on it ... or are you keeping it to yourself?
Um.... I think I missed it. I'll have to double check.