He winces and blushes a little at the implied rebuke (though he's reasonably sure she didn't mean it any more than mild teasing), and returns to math with her, as best he can. 

✨ math ✨

It is very cute how delighted she is. (He really is starting to like her. Still confused on the actual owning her question.) 

Eventually, the shower turns off, and his dad calls down "I'm coming downstairs, just so you know!" and then after a minute or two, actually descends the stairs. 

"So, what's the verdict," he asks them. "Is she staying for dinner?" 

John looks at Rosy to confirm before nodding. "Yes, she's staying for dinner." 

"Sounds good to me," his dad says. "Rosy, is hamburger casserole ok? Do you have any allergies or anything I need to worry about?" 

She shakes her head. "I have no idea what you mean by hamburger casserole but I am ready for adventure!"

"I like her attitude," John's dad says to him. "She seems great. You locked the doors, so she can't run off, right?" He winks. 

"Daaaad," John says, dropping his head onto the table again. "He's kidding, Rosy." 

His dad chuckles, and John continues to be embarrassed. "I'll go nuke the casserole, we can meet in the kitchen for dinner in say, 10 minutes? Is that good for everyone? Or are you in the middle of some harrowing math problems?" 

"Ten minutes is fine by me."

"Excellent. I'll let you know when it's ready. Enjoy your mathematics!" And he heads off into the kitchen.

"I'm sorry about him," John says, head still on the table, still feeling embarrassed. (He's pretty sure Rosy somehow doesn't mind, but that doesn't change how he's feeling at the moment.) 

"Why? He's great."

"He expressed his like of you by suggesting that I lock the doors so that you can't get away." (Which, by the way, is ironic or something, in context. Not funny at the moment, but possibly Rosy finds it hilarious.) "Facetiously, to be clear. But still. He's just like that."  

"Yes, like I said, he's great!"

"You two are going to get along great while I sit at the table with my head in my food waiting for the embarrassing jokes to end, aren't you." This was not an outcome he had predicted. He should have. Is it too late to rescind the offer of dinner? (It is, and also he doesn't really want to rescind it.) 

She puts her hand over his and gently squeezes it. "Hey. I'm here for you first."

Oh.

"I... appreciate that." He sighs, and lifts up his head. "It feels really weird, having someone be sweet to me like this." 

"If all goes well I plan to keep doing it until it feels totally normal."

"It make take some time." He suddenly has a thought to ask about magical life extension (her family clearly ages and dies (right? someone would have noticed if they didn't?) so maybe they don't have any?) but now is very much not the best time. He sighs. "We could try doing some math for eight and a half more minutes? Or something else? I have no idea what else we would want to do though." 

"I could hug you but it seems like if I hugged you for eight and a half minutes you might implode, so let's do math."

He sputters for a moment and laughs a little, and then, math. 

And then: "Soup's on! It's not actually soup by the way, it's more of a meaty cheesy pasta mishmash, but sometimes we just have to say colloquialisms. Come and get it while it's still hot. Unless you prefer it cold, in which case you may need to wait a while longer." 

John sighs. "He's not normally this bad, I promise. Come on, we should go eat." 

"No, I'm delighted. Lead on."

Of course she is. (This is probably a good thing?)

There's a wooden table in the kitchen, with three chairs at it. John sits in his usual seat, and indicates for Rosy to sit in the one his mom uses, since she's not here to be using it now. The casserole is in a large white casserole dish, and is, more or less as described, a mixture of elbow macaroni and ground beef, mixed with tomato sauce and yellow cheese, which is slightly bubbling from its trip to the microwave. There's also a dish with green beans and potatoes, which have been warmed up as well. "Serve yourself," his dad says, and gestures to Rosy to put food on her plate first. "Also, would you like anything to drink?" 

"Water?" she suggests, taking an aggressive helping of adventure.

"Water we can do," he says, heading off to fill a glass with it. John fills his plate with food as well when Rosy is done serving herself. His dad comes back with the glass of water, then sits down and serves himself. 

For a little while, there's nothing but chewing, but once Rosy has had a couple bites, John's dad says, "So, how's your adventure? Is it everything you've ever dreamed of?" 

"My adventure is wonderful," she says. Is she talking about the food or the boy or both? Truly, who can say?

John's dad misses the fact that she could be talking about John (and so does John, for that matter), and simply replies with an "excellent." 

Then after another bite of food, he says, "so, tell me about yourself. John's never mentioned you before, I assume because he had other more important things on his mind."

"No, it's because I was going around pining from afar until today when I finally gathered up the courage to ask him out."

"Really? Pining over that one there?" He gestures at John with the back end of his fork. "Are you sure you're not mistaking him for someone else? Someone better looking and better dressed?" 

"Daaad" John says, trying to make it clear to Rosy with his tone of voice that his dad is joking.