Chapter 792

• Joanna gave her young friend a smirk. She wasn't exactly a whiz in the kitchen, largely because she regarded cooking as one more symbol of female servitude. But she said, "Okay, I'll help you."
• She actually wasn't much help, and mostly she just watched Vanessa efficiently prepare a fine meal of spaghetti with meat sauce, a salad, and garlic bread. Jack peeked into the kitchen every so often, experiencing a kind of cognitive dissonance as he watched his ex-wife and his current lover becoming fast friends--or, at least, tolerating each other.
• Almost immediately after dinner was over, however, Jack abruptly got up from the table and said, "I have to do some studying," and locked himself in his den, on the other side of the hallway from the living room.