Jenny was not very fond of cheese. Truth be told, she wasn't very fond of most dairy products, though cheese had to have been the worst by far. She despised the way it molded to her teeth when she clenched it shut between them, shuddered whenever the cheese would sop up the saliva in her mouth while she chewed before oozing it back out again. She hated its fettid stench, hated its colour (in every form), and most of all, she hated its name.
Cheese, she would think to herself. Who would think up such a horrid word? It doesn't roll from the tongue in a very pleasant manner, now does it?
And then she would think to herself again, I should not ask myself rhetorical questions because I always feel the need to answer them as well.
Ironically, Jenny was the proud owner of a gourmet pizza joint. Her entire life's savings had gone into the construction of the elegant little restaurant; she'd even tossed in a bit of love because the foundation needed more support and she was fresh out of steel bars. It was her everything, that gourmet pizza joint—that is, it was her everything until the day Elijah turned up on her doorstep.
Elijah was a scrawny lad of thirty or so, with skin the color of silk and ivory's lovechild and the smidgen of a gap between his two front teeth. The rest of his teeth were quite askew, slanting strangely to each side. They also appeared to be a tad too small for his mouth, but then again, no one ever really paid enough attention to Elijah's mouth to even care. No, Elijah's power lay in the windows to his soul. The windows were tainted a most stunning shade of blue, so blue that they were not green or gold or even brown. It was those very windows that captured Jenny as she opened the door that fateful day she found him waiting outside the door of her gourmet pizza joint.
"Good heavens!" she cried, stumbling backward in her shock. "Why, your eyes are a most unnatural shade of blue!"
"Yes," Elijah said simply. He was far too accustomed to such outbursts to be affected or even flattered, and so he continued as if Jenny had never spoken a word. "Ma'am, I need your help. See, I've got these gloves"—he drew a pair of hand-knitted gloves from his coat pocket and flashed them before Jenny—"and I really need to find the owner. Something about them's just... I don't know. I just need to find her, alright? And I think you might be able to help."
"Is that so...?" Jenny took the gloves from Elijah and examined them closely, even sniffing them a few times and tasting the fine wool from which they were knitted. "They do seem familiar, yes. Won't you come inside for a moment? It may very well take me a while to come back to my senses and figure out where I know these gloves from."
"Well..." Elijah shifted from side to side and chewed on the inside of his cheek as he considered the invitation. "Yeah, alright. I don't have to be back on set for another hour, at least."
"Very well, then!" Jenny exclaimed, and she beckoned Elijah inside. Once he stepped past her threshold, she added, "Pardon me, good sir, but would you mind telling me your name? I do very much enjoy catering to my guests by name."
"No problem. It's Elijah. Elijah Wo—"
"Splendid," Jenny went on. "Then I shall call you 'Elijah'. Is that quite alright?"
"Um... Sure." Elijah removed his stocking cap and glanced around the pizza joint, his brow furrowing as he did. "Uh, ma'am? Why's this place so dead? I mean, shouldn't there be customers or something?"
"Oh, there never are," Jenny said with a dismisive flick of her dainty hand.
"But it's a restaurant."
"Yes."
"And restaurants usually have customers."
"Quite right."
"Customers who are eating at said restaurant."
"I'm afraid to admit that I don't see your point."
Elijah shook his head and released a heavy breath. "Ah, nevermind."
"Mm. So, tell me, Elijah. From whence came these finely-crafted gloves?"
Elijah cocked his head, his mouth hanging open as he tried to comprehend Jenny's painfully simplistic manner of speaking. The poor dear drew a blank, saying, "I'm sorry...?"
"Where did these gloves come from?"
"Oh! I found them. Side of the road. They look like they could be worth some money, you know? So I figured I'd find the original owner and return them. For money. You know."
Jenny stroked the gloves with each of her gnarled fingers and watched Elijah closely as she did. The lad was rather handsome, she couldn't help but notice. A woman couldn't help but notice such a thing, after all, and Jenny was indeed a woman.
I am in love with him, she thought, her eyes growing wider as the realization became more and more clear. Yes. I believe that I must love him. Why else would I find him so attractive? Those teeth, that smooth white skin. Whiter than cheese... Whiter even than cheese...
She grinned and clutched the gloves tightly. She understood now what had to be done. Not that she hadn't understood it before; after all, she'd only just met Elijah, so her entire mindset was a little skewed.
"Elijah, my dear, would you mind coming into the basement with me?" she asked, voice laced with sweet nothings that had never before gotten the chance to be uttered into some man's ear. "I believe my record book is there."
"Record book?" Elijah asked
"Oh, yes. It is where I keep records of everyone I've ever known. The lady who owns these gloves— Oh, I'm quite certain she is listed there."
Elijah's unnaturally-blue little windows brightened from within with joy, and he nearly skipped along behind Jenny as they descended into the basement.
The jolly little man did love the prospect of money.
--
Five hours later, Jenny marveled over her latest culinary creation, a pizza so lovely in appearance that she nearly wept. Her love for Elijah had been baked deep into its crust (she did enjoy stuffed crust, after all) and the cheese bubbled deliciously, as brilliantly white as—
Well. One cannot compare a thing to itself.
Jenny abhorred cheese, you see, but cheese substitute was quite a different story in her book. All it took was a little breaking-down of the protein, a bit of grinding down for texture resemblance... Simple, really. She couldn't be sure why she hadn't thought of this before. The pizzas she could have been devouring all her life!
But this one pizza would do. She sliced it beautifully and took a bite, savoring the sweet flavor of everlasting love and innocence and iris.
(Oh, yes. She figured last-minute that an iris or two would add a nifty touch to the final product, as well as a bit of color, and she was most proud of her decision.)
The gloves lay by her side as she ate, as poised and sophisticated as the lady who must have first adorned them. Jenny didn't know who this lady was, but she was thankful that she had unknowingly provided such an effective pair of hand-protectors. They were maroon, you see, and hid the stains very well.