Witness Testimony Filed Under Operation: Simmer & Surrender
©ESR 2025

Ready to meet the Kitchen Cast?
Want more Benny? See Feline Files Entry 1 & the #StarbucksMisadventure 6 part series!

(This entry introduces the Storm “Oro” & the Flame character dynamic and resides in the Sacred & Sensual category. This is their Origin Story, it’s a bit saucy.)

🎙️ Testimony Report: Benny the Cat

📍 Location: Kitchen Countertop, Between Knife Block & Forgotten Banana

🕵️‍♂️ Status: Peeping Tomcat Extraordinaire

📁 Classification: Absolutely Not Safe for Tuna

⸻

Track 01: “River” – BRKN LOVE

For the sway. The slow pull. The breath between breaths.
Initiates subject’s soft melt sequence.

Track 02: “Take Me to Church” – Hozier

Not a song. A confession.
His palm on the curve of your spine. That look in his eyes like you’re scripture rewritten just for him.

Track 03: “Wicked Game” – Chris Isaak

For the lean-in. The half-laugh at the edge of danger.
She’s still holding a knife from chopping peppers. He likes the odds.

Track 04: “The One That Got Away” – The Civil Wars

When neither of you move, but your shadows kiss.
And even Benny knows not to interrupt.

Track 05: “In the Air Tonight” – Phil Collins

The beat drops. So does the apron.
This is where the kitchen becomes the scene of a crime.
Of passion. Of heat. Of burned tortillas.

Track 06: “Sweater Weather” – The Neighbourhood

Because she’s wearing his T-shirt. And it’s oversized. And off one shoulder. And it might be the last thing between her and the rest of the evening.

Track 07: “No Diggity” – Blackstreet ft. Dr. Dre

The moment shifts.
She turns. He raises a brow.
You bet your ass there’s a dance-off happening with a spatula microphone.

Track 08: “Fever” – Peggy Lee

Because even the ice in the whiskey can’t compete.
And the kitchen timer is ticking down to zero inhibitions.

Track 09: “Let’s Stay Together” – Al Green

As the tequila breathes.
As the silence turns warm.
As his hand finds hers and doesn’t let go.

Track 10: “Your Song” – Elton John (acoustic cover)

When everything else fades.
The neighbors, the recipe, the world.
And all that’s left is the rhythm of two people who didn’t know they were waiting for each other.

______

Transcript begins…

Look.
I’m just a cat.

A magnificent, emotionally complex, lactose-intolerant feline.
I’m not paid enough kibbles to witness the things I see in this kitchen.

But when he walked up behind her…the air changed.

I swear to Meow-ses, the temperature went up three degrees and the garlic salt started sweating.

He had that look.

The “I know your playlist by heart and I poured your whiskey just right” look.

And she had that sway in her hips like she wanted to argue but her bones were tired of fighting comfort.

The song?

River. By Brkn Love.
Fitting.
Because she told him—warned him—“I can’t dance.”
But he didn’t ask her to perform.

He just wrapped an arm around her waist like she was already in the rhythm and said, real low:

“You don’t have to. I’ve got you.”

And suddenly they were moving. Not in steps. In breaths.

Back and forth like a secret being passed between two people who don’t know what to do with the truth of each other.

The whiskey sat on the counter. Untouched. Forgotten.

Because the real heat? Wasn’t in the glass.

It was in the brush of his fingers on her ribs.

It was the way she exhaled like something old and jagged was melting.

It was in the kitchen lights flickering—not from ghosts this time, but from the electricity between them making the pasta water boil on its own.

And then—

Then the jalapeño rolled off the cutting board.

And I, Benny, bore witness to its tragic second career as a culinary martyr once more.

But I digress.

What matters is:

She didn’t step away.
Not when the song changed.
Not when he whispered into her hair.

Not when her body remembered what it was like to be touched like something sacred, not stolen.

They just stood there.

Moving.

As if the entire world was soft jazz and hardwood floors and one pair of arms finally, finally knowing what to hold onto.

⸻

📓 Benny’s Addendum – Final Notes

Left stove on low. Risotto’s ruined.
Both glasses of whiskey still full.
She sings a little louder by track 4.
He learns to two-step by track 7.
And by track 10… the lights are off, but the record still spins.

The apron? Never found.
Suspicion: Repurposed into a blindfold.