Okay, this has lots of potential for laughs as well as fluff. And you know I'm not gonna pass that opportunity up.
This will probably be a couple parts long, to honor the slow burn part of the request. Enjoy!
—
It was a stupid idea. A totally, utterly, stupid idea.
Jade barely even knew the woman. Well, in some roundabout way, she did. Perrie Edwards, a good friend of Leigh Anne Pinnock's, who happened to be a close friend of Jesy Nelson's, who happened to be Jade's childhood best friend.
She supposed that's why she was sitting on her couch, body tense, waiting for Jesy and Leigh Anne to arrive with Perrie, who was practically a stranger to her. Now, that almost stranger and her would be living together for the duration of the quarantine enforced in the UK due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
In Jesy's words, "at least you'll have someone other than your pets to keep you company. Now you won't go crazy."
That had yet to be seen. Jade was pretty positive that with Perrie in her house, she'd go even more insane. But one look into Jesy's pleading eyes and she'd agreed because really, there's nothing she wouldn't do for her friend.
Her phone buzzed, and she picked it up to see a text from Jesy saying they were almost at her house. Jade stood up, pausing to look at her dogs.
"Teddy, Lola, behave," she warned the two. Teddy let out a little yip and Lola just rolled over. Of course, when the doorbell rang a few minutes later both dogs took off toward the door, barking at the top of their lungs.
Jade groaned, rushing over and scooping Teddy into her arms as she opened the door. "Hi Jadey," Jesy all but cooed, sweeping into the house and wrapping Jade in a hug. "And hello Teddy!"
"Jes, you're acting weird," was Jade's only response. She set a squirming Teddy down and beckoned the two other women inside. "Hi, don't mind my dogs. They're just excited."
The blonde, whom Jade assumed to be Perrie, chuckled and bent down to scratch Lola behind her ears. "They're both adorable," she said.
"Yeah well, wait until you have to spend every single day with them," Jade joked, smiling fondly at Teddy as he nudged her leg.
"Anyways, this is Perrie," Jesy said, gesturing toward the blonde. "And this is Leigh Anne."
"We've met before Jesy." Leigh Anne rolled her eyes and flashed Jade a pearly white smile. "Nice to see you again."
"You too," Jade replied, giving in and scooping Teddy back up into her arms.
"Well, we should probably head out," Jesy said. "Gotta do the big shop before everything goes on total lockdown."
"Me too," Leigh Anne said, giving Perrie one last hug. "Give each other a chance, will you?"
"No promises," Jade replied playfully, giving Jesy a one armed hug. "Stay safe. Wash your hands!"
"Okay mum," Jesy laughed, squeezing Jade's hand before she stepped out the door after Leigh Anne. "Bye you two!"
Jade waved until the door swung shut. A silence descended over the two of them and hung there for a few seconds before Perrie broke the ice. "Lola's the sweetest," she said. "Is she a French bulldog?"
"Yeah," Jade answered, grabbing one of Perrie's bags as Teddy wriggled out of her arms again. "I'll show you to your room."
Perrie nodded, grabbing her other bag and followed her. "Thanks, by the way," she said. "I don't know many people who would let an almost stranger stay with them."
"Yeah well, I'm not most people. Besides, I've heard plenty about you from Jesy," Jade replied, flashing Perrie a smile before opening the door to the guest room. "I know this isn't much, but I hope it's okay."
Perrie took a step into the room and looked around. A bed was pushed into the far corner of the cozy room, next to a window that overlooked the front lawn. On the opposite wall there was a dresser, and a small bookshelf at the foot of the bed. On the pristine white walls were a couple simple paintings of flowers.
"Tasteful," Perrie noted, setting her bags down on the bed. "It's not like I'll be spending too much time in here anyways, right?"
Jade shrugged. "Whatever you want," she replied. "For the duration of your stay, this house is as much yours as it is mine. Oh, and the bathroom is the next room over."
"Thank you," Perrie said again, and Jade just smiled in reply. She turned to leave the room, then stopped at the doorway.
"By the way," she said over her shoulder, "I have two cats as well. So don't get freaked out if one jumps on your bed in the middle of the night. They usually stay upstairs when guests are over, but I thought I'd let you know anyways."
Perrie nodded. "I'll keep that in mind," she said, sending Jade a wink. Her stomach turned over and she gulped, giving the blonde a quick wave before ducking into the hallway.
God. Perrie hadn't even been here for an hour and she was already flustering her. Jade shook her head, trying to clear her senses. Maybe some fresh air would help.
She walked back into the kitchen and opened a window, relishing the cool breeze that blew in. She filled up a glass with water and took a sip. One of her cats, a tuxedo named Mickey, jumped up on the counter and nuzzled her hand. "Hey baby," she murmured, turning her palm over so she could pet him. Mickey began to purr, moving to lay against her chest, tail twitching.
She stayed there, sipping her water, petting her cat, watching the outside world until the sun started to set. Once the sun started to dip below the horizon, she shooed Mickey off the counter and began to prepare for dinner.
"Whatcha making?" Perrie asked as she entered the kitchen, leaning against the counter.
"Chicken, mashed potatoes, and squash," Jade replied, grabbing the necessary pots and setting them on the stove. "I figured I should make you a nice meal to welcome you, y'know?"
"That's sweet." Perrie grinned as she made her way over to Jade. "Any way I can help?"
She hesitated for a moment before answering. "On the bottom shelf, to the left, there's the bag of potatoes I bought yesterday. The carrots are in the fridge."
Perrie nodded and bustled off to do her part. Jade started the oven and grabbed the chicken, which had been sitting on the counter defrosting all day. She unwrapped it and placed it on the baking sheet. There, she added all the necessary herbs and spices to make it delicious, and pushed it off to the side to wait until the oven was preheated.
"You know what you're doing," Perrie remarked, dumping the carrots and potatoes onto the counter beside Jade. "I've never seen someone season chicken that fast before."
"You must not watch cooking shows a lot then," Jade replied, grabbing a cutting board and a pair of knives. "Can you cut up the potatoes for me? We should only need a few, considering it's only the two of us."
Perrie nodded, taking a knife from her, Jade choosing to ignore the tingles that spread through her body when their fingers brushed against one another's. She looked up, and her breath caught in her throat when she realized Perrie was staring right at her. The intensity of the blonde's gaze was enough to bring heat to her cheeks. Had Perrie's eyes always been that blue?
After a minute the spell was broken when Jade cleared her throat, and turned back to the cutting board. She was sure her cheeks were still pink. She fought to keep her gaze on the squash as she cut it up, Perrie working diligently beside her. She finished cutting the squash shortly after Perrie, the last part being significantly harder than the rest because she was working under the blonde's stare.
Finally, she dumped the vegetable into the pot, filled both with water, and set them on the stove. She covered both, and took a step back. The oven beeped, signaling it was preheated. She slid the chicken into the oven, and set a timer. "Now, we wait," she said, braving a glance at Perrie. She was still looking at her, but the intensity of the gaze wasn't as strong as before.
Waiting for everything to cook consisted mainly of two pairs of eyes wandering around the room, refusing to make contact with each other. Jade was glad for the distraction once things started picking up, and she was able to slip into autopilot as she mashed the potatoes and the squash. All awareness of Perrie left her mind until she backed up and bumped into her.
"Oh!" Jade let out a surprised gasp, and turned quickly to apologize. Turns out, Perrie had been filling glasses with water and their collision had caused her to spill the drink all over her shirt. "I'm so sorry!"
"It's no big deal," Perrie shrugged, looking down at her shirt. "It's just water. I'll go change real quick." She left, leaving a lingering hand on Jade's shoulder before exiting the room.
Jade exhaled, and rolled her eyes at her foolishness. How could she possibly stand to be cooped up in the same house as Perrie for all of quarantine if she was already feeling like this on the first day? Pull yourself together, Jade.
When Perrie returned to the kitchen, Jade was setting the table. The pots were keeping warm on the stove, the chicken in the oven. "Sorry I took so long," she said apologetically, "I don't know why I was so picky over choosing a simple shirt."
"It's fine," Jade said dismissively. "Can you grab the napkins? I'm almost done and I want to start serving soon."
"Sounds good to me," Perrie replied, grabbing the napkins and placing them on the table. "I'm starving. This all looks so good."
"Thank you," she said, feeling her cheeks heat up at the blonde's compliment. She spun away quickly, grabbing some serving spoons and setting them into the pots. "I'll just cut up the chicken quickly, and we'll be on our way."
Dinner went relatively smoothly, filled with pleasant chatter and dodging eyes. After the meal, Jade retired to the study to finish some last minute things associated with work. Just as she was putting the finishing touches on the weekly report, her phone started to ring. She turned it over, delighted to see Jesy's name on the caller ID.
"Hey, Jes!" Jade said cheerfully. "How was the big shop?"
"Hey Jadey, you're cheerful," Jesy remarked. "It went well. I should be good to stay in for like a month now. I had to get a lot, you know how much Sean eats."
"I surely do," Jade replied, "and I'm just happy to talk to be best friend."
"We saw each other this morning." Jesy's voice was full of amusement. "How's Perrie settling in?"
"Good," Jade replied, hoping her voice wouldn't waver. "I cooked her a nice welcome dinner, y'know to be a good hostess."
"I'm sure she loved that," Jesy said. "Your cooking is to die for."
"Thanks babes," Jade grinned. "You just calling to check in?"
"Yeah, pretty much," Jesy replied. Jade could hear shuffling on Jesy's end of the phone. "Sorry, had to get comfortable. Just wanted to see if it would be okay for you two to stay together for this long."
"I think it's going to be okay," Jade said thoughtfully. "She's very pleasant. A good conversationalist. I think we'll get along quite nicely."
"Good!" Jesy said. "That's what I was hoping to hear. I gotta go, dinner's almost ready. Call me if you need anything, okay?"
"Of course, you too," Jade replied, blowing kisses into the phone. "Love you. Talk soon."
"Love you too!" Jesy said cheerfully, and hung up.
Jade smiled as she lowered her phone from her ear. Chatting with Jesy always left her in a good mood. She turned back to her work, sending the weekly report off with a press of a button and a click of her mouse. She leaned back in her chair, feeling rather satisfied. That is, until both her cats appeared in the doorway, meowing pitifully.
"Now what do you two want?" She sighed as they came over, rubbing against her legs. "Do you want some treats?"
At the word treats, both cats meowed loudly. "Fine, just this once," Jade said, standing form her chair. "Only because you've been so good today." Even as she made her way out of the room, she knew she'd end up giving her cats more treats in a couple days.
"Here you both go," Jade said, rummaging around in the cupboards for a moment, finally finding the bag of cat treats. Fortunately both Lola and Teddy were outside, so they were unaware of the spontaneous treat giving. She gave each cat a treat, and then put the bag away. Chip, her naughty Siamese, jumped up on the counter in an effort to get more.
"No," Jade scolded, shooing Chip off the counter. "Bad. Off you both go."
Both cats stretched and wandered off in their own directions, undoubtedly to their favorite nap spots. Jade watched them go, feeling jealous of their ability to sleep most of the day away. She grabbed her phone off the counter, and headed for the living room. With Perrie doing her own thing at the moment, now was the perfect time for a little television watching.
Jade settled down in her favorite chair, and turned the tv on, switching to the Food Network channel in hopes of finding a good cooking show to watch. She detected movement out of the corner of her eye, and turned her head slightly to see what the source of the moving was. Turns out that from her chair, she had a perfect view of the hallway where the guest room and the bathrooms were, and a perfect view of Perrie Edwards leaving the bathroom clad in only a towel.
Jade felt heat rise to her cheeks again and she turned away and tried to refocus on the television, knowing the image of a dripping Perrie Edwards in a towel would live rent free in her mind for the rest of the night.
As she predicted, the image lived on. Well after midnight, Jade was tossing and turning in bed, unable to get comfortable. Her mind kept wandering to the beautiful blonde sleeping downstairs, and whether or not she was thinking of her too.
"Get it together Jade," she scolded herself, whispering harshly into the still night air. This did nothing to quiet her mind, and it wasn't until the sun had started to rise that she finally fell asleep.
—
So that's part 1! This part was kind of an introduction to how this is going to go. The next part will very much be longer, and I might stretch it out to 3 parts, or just have a really long part 2. Oh well. Never mind that, hope you all enjoyed part 1 of Quarantined!