PANIC ROOM • KENJI KON

BONUS CHAPTER 2.2

The bed shifted beside her.

"There's nothing wrong with you."

"Maybe living on Isla Nublar mentally stunted me," she talked with her hands, her eyes glued to the ceiling fan, which was twirling, twirling, twirling, around and around above her. "Maybe I'm doomed to work at some stupid little diner. I'll forever be making four dollars an hour hoping strangers like me enough to tip me, only for my boss to steal all my tips. I'll be miserable and lose IQ points every time I have to deal with a Karen who's upset that there's one too many ice cubes in her iced tea. And I'll—" Kenji looped his fingers through her hand, stopping her manic hand waving. Eva sighed. "I'm losing it. I'm trying so hard not to cry, but I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I don't know anything about anything. Everything I want to do seems too far away; they're so many lightyears out of reach, they'll only ever be dreams."

"Hey, you're thinking way too hard about this." Kenji sat up, and gracefully pulled Eva's head into his lap as leaned back against his headboard. "You're absolutely flushed with anxiety. When was the last time you did something just for the hell of it?"

"Probably when I impulse bought a ticket to San Francisco six months ago to see you."

"See? That's bad."

"How's—"

"What happened to yelling at Mr. Chrisley almost every day just because he's being sexist, or pulling all nighters in the library when we weren't supposed to be in there in the first place, or that time you set your coach's desk on fire without him knowing during class?"

"I was a kid then. I'm not a kid anymore," she whispered.

"You're still the Eva I met all those years ago."

"She died on Isla Nublar. Sorry to disappoint."

Eva began picking at the skin around her fingernails, but Kenji swooped in and stole her hands, placing kisses to her knuckles.

"You're still my Angel."

The room fell silent, and the silence felt rather strained, and all Eva wanted to do was to climb back into the shower and cry. Instead, she rolled around to her stomach and wrapped her arms around Kenji's stomach. "Can we stay here for a few minutes?"

"We can stay here as long as you want."

"Or until your Mom breaks us up and sends me off to bed downstairs."

"Oh, yeah, wait—" he slid out from under her and hopped across the room, yanking the door open. "Okay, door's open. Come here, Angel," he said as he climbed back into bed, pulling Eva into his arms.

"I love you," she whispered, looking up at him from under her eyelashes.

"I love you," he whispered back, running his fingers through her hair. "I love you more than you could ever know."

~~~

"I'm ready for penetration."

Kenji spun around on his feet. "WHAT?!"

"Put it in, Kenji." Eva fluffed her bag.

"We are in a grocery store!"

"Put the chicken in the bag for fucks sake, Kenji."

He slapped his hand over her chest and breathed a sigh of relief. "Don't scare me like that."

Eva wacked his shoulder with the empty plastic meat bag, which did absolutely nothing to him. "We! Are! In! A! Grocery store!"

"That's what I'm saying!"

"You have a dirty mind," she said as she fluffed the bag once more.

Kenji picked out a large pack of chicken breasts and slid it into her bag. "That's on you. You were so saying that shit on purpose." Eva set the chicken into the shopping cart. "Why are we getting chicken?"

"I'm doing something for the hell of it," Eva said with a smile. She ran her thumb between the shoulder strap of her purse and her chest. "I'm cooking dinner for my favorite person in the world, and his brothers and Mom. I'm doing a nice thing here."

"Wait, Brand is coming? He was just here on Sunday. He only comes on Sundays."

"I convinced him to come with the promise of free food that he's probably never tasted before."

Kenji gasped, "oh, I'm intrigued. What are we making?"

"It's a surprise, but it fits into the category of Chinese food!"

"I'm guessing we're getting more than chicken?"

Eva nodded, and began to list off on her fingers, "we also need peppers, broccoli, carrots, baby corn cobs, water chestnuts, sesame oil, jasmine rice and a few sauces. Oh, and bok choy. I love bok choy. Favorite vegetable, followed closely by water chestnuts and baby corn cobs. Maybe if we're lucky we can get a frozen vegetable pack that has the latter two. Oh, I really hope your Walmart has bok choy. Sometimes they don't have it and you have to get up at the crack of dawn to go to an Asian market for it."

Kenji raised his eyebrows as he grinned. "Do I have to worry about bok choy coming between us?"

"No, but you should definitely worry about the baby cobs. I'm gonna steal every single one in the pan. I'll be the Cob Queen."

Kenji snorted, and Eva shoved his shoulder. He dipped his shoulder and spread his arm dramatically in front of him. "Lead the way, Cob Queen."

"I don't know where I'm going, Pretty Boy."

"Oh right. What do you want next?"

"Veggies last, cold second to last, so I guess we should get other snacks next. I'm kinda in an Oreo kinda mood. You know where that is, Captain?"

"Follow me, your highness."

~~~

Oh, this top is so cute!

Eva flicked through the sunflower-covered sleeveless shirts on a rack in the women's section of Walmart. Kenji had disappeared to god knows where, and Eva was bored. Their cart was full of snacks and food and frozens and their veggies, and they were all set to check out, but Kenji was nowhere to be seen, and the top was very cute indeed.

Eva held a medium up to her chest then shook her head and reached for the large, wondering if she had time to try it on before the chicken tapped out and went bad.

"Okay, are you more of a honey lemon kind of girl, or a rose blossoms kind of girl?"

Eva looked around, noticing Kenji approaching from the direction of the checklanes. "What?"

He held up two bottles of body wash: one a golden yellow, and the other a glittering pink.

Eva's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she continued to stare at her boyfriend until she realized and gasped, tilting her head as she chuckled. "Oh, honey, I'm not taking a shower with you when you live with two other people."

"But this is the perfect time!"

"Why?"

"Because we're both here?" He said in a questioning tone.

Eva laughed as Kenji dropped both body washes into the cart. She scoffed, then gestured to the body washes that were freely sitting and slightly smooshing her bread rolls.

"What? If you won't use it, I'm sure Mom would appreciate free body wash."

Eva smiled at the thought, prompting Kenji to ask a very accusatory, "What?"

"Nothing."

Kenji shot her a look.

"It's just, I never imagined you calling someone Mom so comfortably. I'm happy for you."

Kenji flushed pink, and offered an awkward smile. "I'm happy, too." He then turned on his heel, heading back the way he came from.

"Kenji, chicken!"

"One minute!"

"What are you even doing?" she half-shouted over the store.

"Looking for shampoo for you!"

She sighed, then yelled, "Get conditioner, too! But none of that two in one crap!"