Aurora, Chapter 03 

"Hot Chocolate and Melting Snow" 
(P-M1g1, H-N)
An (eventually) erotic story by Katryna
Last updated 12/17/06 

This adult story is (C) by Katryna. It may be redistributed subject to a few 
provisions but may not be sold or otherwise used for profit and must have this 
heading attached. Please read my legal notice as downloading, redistributing, or 
reading this story signifies your agreement to the terms and conditions outlined 
within it. 

Joe pulled the door to behind him, giving Aurora some privacy as she dried 
herself. He glanced around the bedroom momentarily. The master bedroom was the 
second largest room in the cabin, and one of the least irregularly shaped. The 
door to the bathroom occupied one corner, just past where the chimney, bare 
brick on two sides, passed through the room. Beyond that lay the main entrance 
to the bedroom and the folding door to the bedroom's walk-in closet. To the left, 
as viewed from the door, was the full-size bed and one of the cabin's plethora 
of bookcases. Two more bookcases stood along the left hand wall, between the bed 
and the far wall; the second nestled into the corner, next to the desk. 

The desk itself held two monitors, a CRT at its center and a flat panel to the 
left of the first monitor. Three computer towers, of various degrees of 
modernity, sat under the desk, with two more atop it. The satellite modem's 
green LEDs were blinking, indicating that the storm was disrupting the signal 
but hadn't damaged the physical transmitter. Regardless, he flicked the large 
toggle switch on the small, clearly jury-rigged control panel next to it. He 
heard, dimly, the whirring of the bargain-bin electric motors as they retracted 
the satellite dish into the dome-like weather shield he'd constructed for it. 

There were a couple of shirts hanging off the sides of the bed, but neither of 
them were particularly long, and both of them he'd worn two days in a row before 
leaving them on the bed. These clearly wouldn't do. Joe passed the desk and 
opened the closet's folding door, then began to wade toward the dresser at the 
back of the closet, through the sea of boxes, binders, unshelved books and 
miscellaneous junk that blanketed most of the closet floor. He had a fair number 
of clothes he'd accumulated over the years, some of which he hadn't worn since 
high school, hanging in a deceptive semblance of order on the rails on either 
side of the closet. His sweaters, overshirts, and other winter clothes were 
nearest the front, but few of them would be long enough to cover her, and 
besides, the cabin was warm enough that they really weren't needed. He made a 
mental note to turn the thermostat up a bit, then continued looking. 

Two-thirds of the way to the back he found a suitable t-shirt, a black one with 
an obscure band logo emblazoned on the back and breast. It had hung down below 
his waist when he was a Sophomore; it should suit her just fine. He tugged at it, 
then tugged again harder, and finally, on the third tug, the damn hanger 
released the damn shirt. He clenched it in one hand, turned, and began to make 
his way back to the door. 

Joe paused when he was halfway there, however, blinked then sighed and smacked 
his forehead. He turned to his left and pulled his worn blue terry bathrobe, 
hanger and all, from the rail, then disentangled the hanger from the robe and 
returned the former to the rail. He pondered for a moment, then shook his head. 
There was no way in hell any of his adult-size underwear would even come close 
to fitting her, and he hadn't retained much in the way of either exes' lingerie 
or underpants from his own childhood. Best to skip it. He staggered to the 
closet door then stepped through into the bedroom. 

He crossed the room and, finding that the door to the bathroom was still pulled 
to, he slowly, cautiously pushed it open. "Aurora?" 

"Yeah, I'm here." 

"I found a shirt that should work. And you can use my bathrobe too if you like. 

"Wow...thanks," She exclaimed happily from the other room. 

"All right if I come in, or...?" 

"Um...sure, go ahead. I'm decent enough, heh..." She responded with a slight 
giggle. He pushed the door open and walked through, slowly. Aurora was standing 
beside the tub with the towel wrapped around her torso, covering from just about 
the beginning of her breasts to halfway down her thighs. Joe was mildly 
disappointed, but he forcefully reminded himself that he'd seen more than enough 
of her already. He held out the tshirt to her, and she reached forward and took 
it. She shook it out, glanced down at it, then giggled. 

"What's so funny?" He asked. She looked up, a bit startled and definitely tense, 
but his expression was one of affectionate puzzlement, not annoyance, and she 
relaxed visibly. 

"Oh, nothing...just, I know this group." 

"Yeah?" 

"Yeah. My dad loved them." 

"Gah, now that makes me feel old..." He grumbled, then shrugged. "Uh, I guess I'll 
give you some space to get dressed," He stammered, turning to leave. 

"I'll be right out, then," She replied. He glanced at her, having half-registered 
an almost vestigial trace of disappointment in her tone. He wondered about it, 
but merely smiled weakly and nodded. 

"All right. Tell you what, I'll throw as many of your clothes into the dryer as 
can go in one, and I'll get some hot cocoa going. Sound good?" 

She paused for a moment, blinked, smiled. "Very. Thanks again," She responded, 
obviously surprised. He was beginning to get the impression that generosity was 
something with which she wasn't very well acquainted. His brow furrowed slightly, 
but he forced his expression to remain more or less neutral. Maybe he'd ask 
later, if she didn't bring it up first. 

He hoped she hadn't noticed his hesitation; it would be far too easy to 
misinterpret. He studied her expression for a split second on his way out the 
door. She seemed a little confused and unsure, but not upset. 

He put the matter out of his mind and exited through the door into the master 
bedroom, pausing a moment to part the curtains of one of the two windows above 
the bed and glance outside. The snow was coming down heavily and at a pronounced 
angle; the blizzard was still going strong. He shook his head and turned, 
closing the curtains, then walked past the chimney and opened the door that 
stood between it and the hall closet. He stepped out into the longer "leg" of 
the inverted L-shape of the second story hallway, pulling the door shut behind 
him.. The stairs were about five feet ahead, and he noted with some amusement 
that he had basically "come full circle" in the process of helping the girl. He 
rounded the corner and headed downstairs, almost sliding from step to step, and 
reached the bottom in about eight seconds. He'd been practicing this, 
unintentionally, for years, on the stairs of his parents house, his schools, the 
apartment building he'd moved out into, and the cabin he'd inherited. 

Joe slid off the last step onto the wooden floor and headed into the living room, 
glancing at the bookcases lining two of its walls as he did so. His legs and 
side were beginning to ache from having been pushed so hard earlier, but he 
gritted his teeth and tried to ignore the pain; this, too, he'd been practicing 
unintentionally for years. He knelt, teeth clenched, beside the fireplace and 
grasped the still-damp pile of her clothing, wadding it together a bit with his 
hands, then rose to his feet. He turned and walked out of the living room, 
passed the stairs and then the dining table at the near end of the combined 
kitchen-dining room, then through the kitchen itself. 

He passed the more or less continuous mass of counter and appliances along the 
kitchen wall on his left, glancing at them as he did so. The dishwasher was 
installed under the end of the counter nearest the table, with two small 
cabinets separating it from the cabinet beneath the sink. His toaster oven was 
located above the dishwasher, with the microwave to the right of it. The stove 
was directly adjacent to the sink, and the refrigerator was sandwiched between 
the stove and the wall next to the laundry room door, which he now stood in 
front of. 

He fumbled with the door to the laundry room and made, for the umpteenth time, a 
mental note to either fix or replace the damn knob. Finally, he managed to open 
the door. He reached in and flicked the light switch on, then walked past the 
yawning aperture of the basement stairs and into the small, cramped space that 
the washer and dryer shared with a set of metal shelves full of tools and 
assorted junk (this and bookcases, he thought with a slight chuckle, were the 
predominant decoration themes in the cabin), then pulled the door to rather than 
closing it. The last damn thing he or Aurora needed was for him to be stuck in 
there with her clothes. Joe set the damp bundle on top of the dryer and began to 
sort through it. Her socks, jeans, turtleneck, and panties were, according to 
the tags, fine for the washer and dryer both. The sweater he'd have to be more 
careful with, but she needed it less urgently, at least inside the cabin. 

He opened the washer tossed the clothes in one by one, taking the sweater and 
looking around for something to hang it from. The small room didn't give him 
many options; there were few objects from which a sweater could be readily hung, 
and none of them were even vaguely clean. He finally gave up on finding 
something for it and grabbed a hammer and a largeish, clean-looking nail from 
the shelves. He lined the nail up with one of the unfinished wall boards of the 
room, then gave it one good, hard pound, driving the nail about halfway in. He 
figured that it would do, and so he hung her sweater carefully from the nail. 

Once he'd dealt with the sweater, he turned and poured a small amount of laundry 
detergent into the washer with the clothes, set the wash/rinse cycle to cold/cold 
just in case, and started the washer. The faint sound of a miniature waterfall 
emanated from the machine as it began to fill. Five seconds later he remembered 
to switch the cycle knob off "regular" and onto "permanent press," again, just 
in case. 

Joe turned and started to walk out of the laundry room, then stopped and smacked 
his forehead again with a sigh. Why had he put her clothes in the washer? They 
were already soaking wet and needed drying. "Force of habit?" He wondered aloud 
as he opened the washer again. He saw, of course, that they were now floating in 
cloudy water covered with soap suds. "Well, they need a wash *now*," He muttered, 
shaking his head and sighing again. 

He opened the door again, turned the light off, and walked out of the laundry 
room, pulling it to once more. The cocoa he'd promised her sounded pretty 
delightful to him as well. He just hoped he wasn't out. 

Joe turned to the row of four cabinets along the inner wall of the kitchen, 
parallel to the laundry room door, opened the second from the right, and was 
relieved to see that there were still two containers of cocoa and plenty of 
sugar among the assorted canned and boxed goods that filled the nearest cupboard. 
The contents of the one to its right included vanilla extract and marshmallows. 
Perfect. He mentally worked out the proportions for a double batch of cocoa, 
then pulled out a saucepan from one of the cupboards on the opposite wall, set 
it on the stove, and began to measure and mix sugar and cocoa powder with an 
amount of water that seemed an order of magnitude to little to properly suspend 
the mixture, yet managed to. When he was finished, he switched the burner on and 
began to boil the gooey mixture at the bottom of the saucepan. 

He stirred for a few minutes before he heard a muffled grunt and scraping noise 
of her forcing the bathroom door open. A moment later he heard soft footsteps on 
the stairs behind him, then the boards of the cabin floor. He glanced over his 
shoulder and smiled as he mixed the now-bubbling chocolaty ooze at the bottom of 
the saucepan. Aurora rounded the corner a second later and returned his smile. 
He looked her over for a moment before catching himself. The t-shirt hung 
loosely on her small frame, the hem hanging down to about four inches above her 
knees. Her arms were thrust into the sleeves of the bathrobe, which were 
continually falling down over her hands despite her hiking them up. The robe 
itself was open, the tie hanging loosely. She seemed to have blotted her hair a 
bit, but it was still quite damp, and he imagined that a sizable damp spot was 
forming on her robe. He deliberately ignored the obvious double-entendre formed 
from the extension of that thought, mentally kicking himself yet again. 

She walked into the kitchen and moved next to him, resting her elbows on the 
counter. "Hi," She said, smiling slightly. 

"Hi," He responded. "Feeling better?" 

"Much..." 

"If you want a towel to wrap around your hair or something..." 

"Nah, I'm fine." 

"You sure?" 

"I already sorta dried it. It's just getting the robe wet, don't worry. And I 
left the door open, so it won't get all steamy in there." 

He shrugged and continued stirring. "All right. Um, Aurora, could you go to the 
refrigerator and hand me the milk? There's one jug open I think." 

"Sure," She said, moving around behind and past him. She fumbled with the latch 
a bit before she finally managed to get the refrigerator door open, then looked 
around a bit inside it. She smiled, then giggled. 

"What?" He asked, glancing over a her, smiling quizzically. 

"You think you got enough pomegranates?" She asked, still giggling a bit. She 
shook her head slightly and reached up on the highest shelf of the refrigerator, 
looked closer at something, and after a moment pulled a gallon jug of milk, 
roughly half-full, from the fridge. She set it on the counter next to him. "Here 
ya go." 

"Thanks," He replied as he reached up to one of the wall cabinets above the sink 
and opened it. He felt around for a few seconds, his attention focused on the 
chocolate mix he was stirring, and finally pulled down a glass cup measure. He 
set it on the counter, then paused his stirring to turn down the stove. He 
unscrewed the cap of the jug and lifted it, measuring out a cup, then poured it 
into the pan with the chocolate. He stirred for a moment, then started to 
measure another cup. 

Aurora's borrowed clothing rustled slightly as she moved to stand beside him, 
grasping the spoon and working to imitate the rate and force with which he'd 
been stirring the cocoa. Joe smiled as he poured the second cup of milk in, then 
another. After about a minute and a half he'd finished adding all the milk he 
was using in placing of the water that the recipe called for, and related this 
to her with a chuckle as he replaced the cap on the milk jug. 

She was incredulous. "Who'd make cocoa with water?" She asked, making a face, 
then giggled. He shrugged and shook his head, pulling open a drawer and fishing 
out a set of measuring spoons. He unscrewed the cap of the vanilla extract 
bottle, and poured two measured tablespoons into the pot. She cocked her head. "Isn't 
that too much?" 

"It's actually better this way," He responded, then set the spoons in the cup 
measure and the cup measure in the sink, for future processing. He smiled. "Trust 
me." 

"Okay..." She replied dubiously, then shrugged, still stirring the mixture. He 
smiled. 

"Want me to take over?" 

"Nah, I'm good," She responded. 

"All right," He replied, glancing down at his watch. 02:27. He looked at the 
cocoa for a moment, then glanced at her. "Uh, it might be done now...wanna taste-test 
it?" 

"Sure," She said, smiling, then, hesitating a little, she dipped the tip of her 
slender index finger into the cocoa. She looked quizzical, then slipped her 
finger deeper, up to the second knuckle, and smiled. "It's warm...could use 
another minute though," She commented, pulling her finger out of the cocoa. She 
raised it to her lips and wrapped them around it, sucking the cocoa from her 
finger with a smacking sound. "Nice and creamy," She added with a grin. Joe 
swallowed and smiled back. He stirred the cocoa for another minute, then turned 
off the heat and moved the pan to a cool burner. 

He reached up and reopened the cabinet above the sink, pulling out two mugs at 
random. He set them down on the counter, and they both glanced at them. She 
giggled, and he saw that he'd pulled out the blue cup with his Alma Mater logo 
in gold and the cup his cousin Daphne had picked up for him at an engineering 
convention several years ago, with a company name and logo displayed on one side 
and, in large print, "dependable, top-grade petroleum additives" on the other. 
Daphne had predicted, quite correctly, that he would be amused by the irony, 
though he suspected her intent included a quasi-subtle crack at his coffee 
preferences as well. He laughed as well, and shrugged. "Which cup do you want?" 

She shrugged as well. He smiled and grasped the handle of the Alma Mater cup, 
lifting it over the pot, then fished a ladle out of one of the drawers in the 
counter and used it to fill the cup with cocoa. He reached up and grabbed a 
paper towel, using it to wipe up the inevitable dribbles of cocoa on the side of 
the cup, then handed it to her. He gestured, indicating the bag of marshmallows 
on the counter. "Take as many as you want." 

"Thanks," She said, and picked up two small handfuls of marshmallows, dropping 
then carefully into the cocoa. He chuckled and shook his head slightly. 

"Greedy little thing, ain'tcha?" He commented, with a grin. She stuck her tongue 
out and they both laughed. He fished a spoon out of one of the drawers and 
handed it to her, and she began to stir the marshmallows into her cocoa, 
watching in fascination as they melted, while Joe filled his own cup and took a 
more modest number of marshmallows. He took a spoon and stirred his cup. "So...whatcha 
wanna do?" 

She shrugged. "I dunno. That bit about the fire sounded good..." She cocked her 
head slightly. 

"Sitting in front of it, you mean?" 

"Yeah." 

"Sure," He said, and smiled, heading back through the kitchen towards the living 
room, slowly and carefully to avoid spilling cocoa. She followed, a few steps 
behind, with similar caution. They reached the living room, and he noted that 
the fire, while it had burned rather low, was still going. He glanced at their 
boots, sitting unattended in small puddles on the pine floor. He shook his head 
and walked to the far end of the sofa, setting his mug down on the end table 
next to it. He turned, reached down, and scooped up their boots, grabbing his 
with one hand and hers with the other, then carried them to the entranceway and 
set them down on the stone floor of the entryway, then vanished into the kitchen 
for about five seconds before returning with some paper towels. 

Aurora was sitting on the near end of the couch, cocoa in hand. As she saw the 
paper towels, she set it down and started to get up. "Sorry," She said, blushing 
a little and glancing at the puddles left on the floor by their boots and her 
clothing. "I can help clean those up..." 

"Nah, it's ok. This'll only take a second," He replied as he dropped a few paper 
towels onto each puddle to blot them up. He set the roll on end on the floor, 
and sat down on the couch, then reached over, grasped his cocoa mug, and took a 
sip, savoring the taste. "So...what brings you out here, anyway?" 

"Eh...just...you know. Got bored at home, went exploring. It's beautiful out 
here in the woods, especially in the Winter...it's so peaceful and...pure, I 
guess." 

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Isn't it a little late for you to be running around 
out here, though?" 

"Aunt Kara doesn't really notice," She confided. "I sneak out a lot. It's so 
boring around the house." 

"How come?" 

"Cause, Aunt Kara's always busy with her boyfriends or something for church or...well, 
you know...and we don't get good channels up here. And the internet conenction's, 
like, a crappy dialup and my computer's, like, ancient..." She continued, ending 
in a shrug. "Read all the books we have lying around. Gotta do something..." 

He nodded his agreement. "So, you live with your Aunt?" He asked, cocking his 
head. 

"Yeah..." She said, swallowing inconspicuously. 

"How come?" Half a second later he regretted the question; she seemed, he 
realized, distinctly uncomfortable on this topic. He didn't want to make her 
nervous or ashamed... 

"My mom and dad...they...we got in a car accident..." She said, trailing off. 

"Oh...I'm...I'm sorry," He said, looking at her, the floor, then her again. She 
nodded and whimpered softly. He extended an arm slightly, and after a moment she 
scooted over next to him, nestling against his side as he wrapped his around 
around her shoulders. 

"'Bout...'bout three and a half years ago," She continued. "I think the other 
guy was drinking but I'm not sure..." 

He hugged her tighter and sighed, shuddering slightly as he thought back to the 
accident that had taken his father from him nineteen years ago. "Let's change 
the subject," He suggested, and she nodded, smiling weakly. "So, what's the deal 
with your Aunt?" 

"She's the only grown-up relative who isn't in another state," Aurora explained. 
"She...I dunno. She's decent enough but I don't think she knows what to do with 
a kid..." 

He nodded. "That describes most of my relatives too," He said. 

"What about you?" She asked. 

"I dunno..." He responded, and shrugged. 

"I think you'd do all right with a kid," She said, then pondered for a minute. "Um, 
do you have any...?" 

"Nah; I live here alone..." 

"Well I figured that much, but, I dunno, if you were, like, divorced or 
something..." She shrugged. 

"I am, but we didn't have any kids. I haven't heard from her for...like four 
years now." 

"Oh...I'm sorry," She said, wincing slightly. "Let's change the subject. Um, how 
old are you, anyway?" She asked, cocking her head. 

"29. You?" 

"Wow. Um, I'll be 13 in March." She grinned sheepishly. "Makes me feel like a 
kid," She said, and giggled. 

"Can't imagine why," He replied, grinning, eliciting more giggles from her. He 
felt nice and warm inside, hearing her laugh, so young and innocent and alive. 
Most definitely alive. 

She sipped her cocoa, and he followed suit. After a moment, he paused. "Oh...by 
the way, I, um, kinda threw your clothes in the washer by accident..." He said, 
sheepishly, and as if adding insult to injury, the washer began to spin audibly 
roughly three seconds later. 

"Huh?" 

"Your clothes. I was gonna dry them, but I dumped them in the washer without 
thinking about it. Which means they probably won't be ready for at least another 
hour..." He said, smiling apologetically. 

She shrugged. "S'ok. I'm all right." 

"The robe and shirt are all right?" 

"Yeah, they're comfortable enough, it's just..." She trailed off, blushing. "It's 
kinda weird, you know..." 

"Hmm?" He had a good idea of where she was heading with this line of thought but 
didn't want to risk jumping to conclusions and spooking her. 

"Being...not having...underwear, you know..." 

"Ah. You're not cold or anything, though?" 

"Not cold...a little coolish but it's not bad. It's just, um, kinda weird, 
feeling nothing but air on...you know...down..." She stammered, blushing deeper. 

"Your butt, you mean?" He asked, suspecting otherwise but letting her bring it 
up. He wasn't sure whether she was comfortable talking about it, especially with 
a guy she just met, 

"Well yeah, that and...my...cootchie..." She said, turning bright red and 
smiling sort of apologetically. "Sorry," She said after a moment. 

"Sorry for what?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. 

"Aunt Kara says its not good to talk about it...that it, you know, bothers 
people..." She said. 

"Doesn't bother me," He responded, and shrugged, smiling. The smile graded into 
earnestness. "You can talk to me about whatever you want, Aurora. Really." 

"Really?" 

"Cross my heart." 

"Hope to die?" He nodded and smiled. "Wow...that's...pretty cool actually," She 
said, and smiled. "But yeah...it's...sorta weird..." The blush was slowly 
creeping back over her face. "Makes me feel...um, kinda free and kind of exposed 
at the same time..." 

"If it's uncomfortable for you I could try to find something..." He began. 

"Nah, it's ok. Um...it's...kinda cool actually..." She blushed deep and shrugged 
apologetically. "Is that...weird?" 

He smiled and shrugged. "It's nothing to be embarassed about," he replied, 
shivering slightly. 

She cocked her head a bit, then shrugged. "I guess not..." 

"So you live in town, right?" 

"Yeah. One of the smaller houses. It's a few miles from here..." She sipped her 
cocoa; both of them were down to half mugs. She smiled at him and took another 
sip. 

He nodded. "Pets or anything?" 

"I wish," She said with a sigh. "I'd love a nice big shaggy doggy or something..." 
She smiled wistfully, and he hugged her again. "Aunt Kara won't let me get one 
though. Says they scare her, they're too noisy, they're too much trouble to 
clean up after and care for, and she won't believe that I'd really do it." 

"Why not?" He asked, cocking his head, genuinely surprised. He certainly had no 
doubts about her competence or integrity. 

"'Cause when I was little I wasn't always good about chores and stuff," Aurora 
replied. "And I guess she can't..." 

"...get her mind around the fact that you're not little any more?" 

"Exactly!" 

"Blech. I always hated that." 

"You got that too?" 

"Why do you think I moved up here?" He asked, and they both laughed. 

They were silent for a moment, drinking their cocoa down. After about thirty 
seconds, Aurora set her mug down. "So whyyyyaahddhhmmm" She began, interrupted 
by a prolonged yawn. She gave up on trying to say anything and waited for the 
yawn to pass. "Ah, geez," She said at last. "What time is it?" 

He checked his watch. "Almost oh-three-hundred," He said. She blinked, looking 
at him half-comprehendingly. "Three AM," He corrected himself. 

"Holy sh...err...wow..." She caught herself, blushing a bit. "That late?" 

"Yeah. And I told you not to worry about what you say." 

"Heh, all fucking right, that's absofuckinglutely goddamn bitchin'" She chirped, 
breaking into a fit of giggles. 

He rolled his eyes and lightly swatted the edge of her butt, where it was tilted 
up off the sofa cushion slightly, drawing a squeak and further giggling from her. 
"Pottymouth," He said with a grin. She stuck her tongue out again and they 
laughed. 

"Well...it's late...I probably oughta finish this up and then get ho--" She 
paused. "Um, it's still snowing, isn't it?" 

"Most likely," He responded. "At the very least getting through the snow to a 
decent road, even in my Jeep, is gonna be a bitch and a half. And don't even 
think about trying to hoof it; I didn't drag you out of the river and all the 
way here just to let you go off and freeze to death anyway." 

She nodded agreement. "I...did I...remember to thank you for that?" She asked, 
cocking her head and smiling warmly. He nodded. "Oh. Well, thanks again..." She 
threw her arms around his neck, hugging him and inadvertently pressing her 
fledgling breasts against him. He tried to ignore it and hugged her back. 

"Yeah. Um, you're more than welcome to stay here tonight, you know..." He said, 
and shrugged, as she took a long sip of cocoa. "Though I guess you don't have 
much of a choice." 

She smiled. "I'd like that," She said softly, and smiled, warmly and, he thought, 
a little nervously. He was a bit puzzled, but mentally shrugged. 

"Well, let's finish the cocoa first," He said, and she nodded agreement, 
bringing the mug to her lips and sucking the last bits of creamy cocoa from it. 
He followed suit, draining his about two seconds later, then held out his hand. 
"Here, I'll take care of these. And I'll put the rest of the cocoa in the fridge; 
we can just microwave it tomorrow." 

"Ok," She said, and smiled. He grasped both mug handles in one hand, bending 
over and reaching down with the other to pick up the paper towels he'd left on 
the floor. As he stood back up, he half thought her eyes suddenly darted 
guiltily away from him, but he wasn't sure. He said nothing, again shrugging 
mentally, and walked into the kitchen. He opened the cabinet under the sink and 
dumped the soggy paper towels into the trash, then set the mugs in the sink. 
After pulling a round plastic container from the cabinet next to the one he'd 
taken the mugs out of, he lifted the pan and carefully tipped it, pouring the 
rest of the cocoa into the container. He set the pan in the sink and put a lid 
on the container, then set it in the fridge, one rack up from the pomegranate-crowded 
bottom shelf. 

Joe closed the refrigerator door, turned, and walked back into the living room. 
Aurora smiled, and he returned it. "Now, let's see about finding you a place to 
sleep." 

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