Page 25 of Robb

The list was dire: coconut water, baked beans, tinned spaghetti, tuna of a brand that Tahnee was pretty sure went out of business several years prior and was therefore probably no longer edible, unidentifiable fruit pieces in a plastic jar, stock powder, roasted chickpeas, some kind of soup that prominently featured the extremely unappetizing word ‘chunky’ on the label, the prerequisite jar of Vegemite that existed in every single kitchen…

Clearly Robb had spent the past ten minutes clearing out the entirety of the pantry. Tahnee wasn’t sure he should’ve bothered. Even the things that would be fine in some contexts absolutely didn’t work in combination with the other options.

“There’s some bread and frozen veggies in the freezer,” Robb said, still holding the milk up, as if he wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. “It’s not gourmet, but our nutritional intake will be adequate.”

“Do they not have takeaway up there in Sydney?” Tahnee demanded, snatching the sorry excuse for milk from his hand and putting it back in the pantry, shoving it right up the back where she couldn’t see it. “You know how to order food and make it come, right?”

Robb sighed an almost imperceptible sigh, and a part of Tahnee felt a little glow of victory. If nothing else, at least she was succeeding in needling him into some sort of emotional reaction.

I wasn’t actually trying to piss him off this time, though!

“The thing about safehouses,” Robb said with exaggerated patience, “is that they’re safe. You can’t just call up someone and get them to bring you things. You have to make do with what you’ve got.”

Tahnee supposed that that was reasonable… but that didn’t mean she had to like it. If she’d known that Robb was going to be like this, she would’ve ducked into the nearest convenience store and grabbed something before he could’ve stopped her.

Still, she’d be damned if she rolled over that easily.

“Do you hate your agents or something?” she asked. “Do you want them to get scurvy? Where’s the fresh fruit and veg?”

Robb frowned. “We won’t get scurvy from eating these foods for one day.” He tapped the jar of bright orange fruit bits. “And mangoes and peaches are decently high in vitamin C.”

“Of course you would know that,” she muttered. Louder, she said, “I stand corrected. This is a fully balanced meal.”

Robb’s frown deepened, though in a thoughtful way. “I’ll make sure to have a word with the team in charge of the safehouses. There should be a better range of food, I agree.”

“Well, then,” Tahnee said, somewhat mollified and unsure of what to do with her sense of mild outrage now that Robb had actually capitulated. “See that you do.”

Sighing, she opened the freezer and pulled out the loaf of bread.

“You know what?” she said, popping some slices in the toaster. “Stuff it. I’m in the mood for tinned spaghetti on toast. Do you want any?”

“I’ll have some beans,” Robb said.

Tahnee laughed as she opened the tin of spaghetti and upended it over a pot, the mass of mushy noodles squelching slowly out of the tin until they all fell out in a hurry, landing in the pot with a soggy splat. “What, you don’t feel like empty carbs on top of empty carbs?”

“As appealing as you make it sound, I think I’ll pass,” Robb said, fumbling with the ring pull on his can of beans way more than was necessary, muttering at it as it refused to budge.

Tahnee grinned.

Oh, he’s nervous. That’s kind of adorable!

“Here. Give me that.”

She took the tin from him before he could protest, and expertly pulled back the ring.

“Thanks,” he said as she handed it back, and she was relieved that at least he didn’t take the episode as a slight to his masculinity or some such bullshit. Robb might be a bit more strait-laced than her usual tastes, but she could deal with that – she just couldn’t deal with the idea of her mate being a dickhead.

“One of these slices is for you, by the way,” Tahnee said, waving a hand expansively at the toaster, like a lord gesturing to a servant, inviting them to partake of his delicious feast.

Robb blinked, looking a little surprised… but then he inclined his head.

“Thanks,” he said, and Tahnee’s stomach fluttered a little. Which was ridiculous, given that it was the bare minimum of good manners and didn’t mean anything in the grand scheme of things, but the whole thing just felt so domestic and so right that she couldn’t help her mounting excitement.

Maybe they could have this. A little home that was just for them, making lazy meals and slotting together seamlessly.

Maybe it would have been the right choice, all those years ago – to have told Robb that they should just throw their pasts away and settle down together, make a new life for themselves, free of everything they used to be, everything they’d since become.

Maybe…