"Back to our reality!" He slammed the trunk of the taxi and gave it a tap to signal the driver that everything was taken out.

"Reality is subjective."

"Huh, are you trying to be philosophical with me, Jess?" He sneered and pulled his luggage with his good arm.

Jess wasn't listening for she was already talking to the doorman of her building.

"Leave it," she said as she cocked her head towards the elevator in the building lobby. "They'll send our luggage upstairs."

"Okie Dokie," he replied, observing Jess give the building attendant a fist bump before stepping inside the elevator.

Watching Jess interact with people who could be considered beneath her, but she treated them as equals, made the Jess in San Lucas appear to be a completely different person.

When Jess interacts with people of lower economic status than her, you can never tell by her bearing that she can stay in a resort that costs an ordinary employee a whole year's salary for a single night stay.

It is one of the reasons why he admired Jess other than her looks and her brilliant mind. Yes, she can be bitchy and be an ice queen, but when it comes to treating working people, Jess is always polite and fair.

"Little Miss Jessie, " he called her attention because he caught a glimpse of her already checking her emails.

"Hmm," she just grunted in reply, not taking her eyes off her smartphone.

"While I'm staying in your place — again," he emphasized on the last word, "...what are you going to feed me? I don't think I can survive with just pasta alone."

"Why are you worrying about such a thing? We have so many options when it comes to food; like eating out, delivery, my pasta, eating out," she retorted to his complaint. It irks her that he won't shut up about food.

"Well, I don't think we should go to places with too many people," he said gently, trying to remind her that her life was still in danger.

"Don't you watch a thriller movie, Luke? The bad guy will get you when you are alone in the elevator not when you are eating a steak in a five-star restaurant."

He wasn't able to answer back because the elevator already dinged open to their floor. Jess casually approached her door and pulled out a key card from her wallet that Luke never saw before.

His eyebrows raised up in puzzlement when Jess after swiping the odd-looking key card on the lock panel of her door, entered a series of number and waited for it to blip and then, she pressed her thumb on the keypad, input another series of numbers, and turned to him, "Put your thumb for the biometrics."

He did what she said without question.

After his fingerprint was recorded on the keypad, Jess entered another set of numbers before she finally pushed the door open.

"Tadaima," she said in a clear voice as soon as she stepped inside the house.

"Okaerinasai."

Luke who was closing the door behind was startled by the Japanese sounding voice that echoed in the foyer.

"Who was that?"

"An additional security measure. Do not think that I am not taking the threat to my life seriously. I don't like to panic over those jerks because I don't feel like dancing under their thumb." "Later I want you to record your voice too and I will have it in the system."

"What do those two words mean? In my appreciation of Japanese culture, I never encounter those words; I'm more familiar with the words, kimochi, chotto matte ojisan, — among other things."

"Disgusting!" her lips curved in contempt as she snarled at him.

The Japanese words Luke said can mostly be learned by watching a specific site that should not be named. The fact that he prefers ojisan made her roll her eyes so far back in her head.

Luke acted perplexed by Jess' disgust at what he said. He grinned inwardly at the possibility that Jess had also watched her porn from the same sites he had visited on the dark web.

"Tadaima means I'm home, while okaeri nasai roughly translates to welcome home. I had those words recorded in my security system under voice recognition. I didn't use them before because I don't feel the need to add another level of security to enter my house."

"Oh, I see. But, I don't like using those two words. They sound so wholesome." he grinned maliciously.

"Luke —" she uttered his name in a warning tone.

"I mean," he shrugged his shoulder that wasn't broken, "...if we are thinking of putting voice recognition on top of my thumbprint on your door for security measure, I should say words that people would not normally say when they entered that door," he explained pointing at her main door as he leaned against the island counter.

Jess didn't say anything and just took some chicken out of the freezer. She placed the frozen chicken in the sink and ran water over it to defrost.

"Don't tell me you didn't think of that when you chose those Japanese phrases."

"I did. But I don't want you to use the Japanese words you know," she sneered.

She took out a rice cooker from the cabinet above the sink. She retrieved a small bag of rice from the pantry and expertly cleaned it without using a strainer.

"I'm not thinking of using kimochi for that!" His eyes widened when he realized Jess was judging his choice of Japanese words.

She rolled her eyes as she chopped garlic and threw it in a pot with some cracked black pepper, bay leaf, then added some soy sauce and vinegar to it.

Then she strained the pre-cut chicken and patted it dry with paper towels. She added the chicken to the mixture in the pot.

"Just record what you want, make sure it's clear audio and I'll add it in the system," she opened the pantry again, and opened a can of pineapple chunks, poured it over the chicken which was now submerged in the strange combination of soy sauce and vinegar and other spices.

"What kind of witchcraft are you up to, Miss Jessie?"

As she placed the pot on the stove under low heat, she replied, "You said you didn't want to eat my pasta, so I will make you my favorite childhood dish."