I opened the door as Alec went inside and put all the things we bought on the kitchen counter. I closed the door behind me as I went and stood in front of the kitchen with my hands on my waistâjust looking lost.
"Now what?" I asked referring to all the things.
Alec pulled the ingredients out of the bag as he gave me a smile, "Now we cook. We are going to follow the instructions just as the video says."
"Okayyy. That's sounds like an idea."
He handed me his phone asking me to watch the first step to our recipe. The person took three types of cheeses- cheddar, gruyere and mozzarella.
Alec rubbed his hands together getting himself ready, "Tell me what do I need to do?"
"Take the three cheeses."
"Quantity?"
"One cup of cheddar. Three by fourth cup of gruyere. And..." I stopped when I saw Alec holding up his hand. I raised my eyebrows in a questioning way as he held the gruyere cheese in his hands.
"How much is three by fourth cup again?" He asked guiltily.
When I said that I didn't have a good feeling about two people who don't know how to cook, this is what I meant. We can't even tell the quantity right. How are we supposed to cook the whole thing without any mistakes?
"Uh." I looked at the video again, "it also says eighty five grams in a bracket, if that helps?"
He had a blank face as he blinked at me continually, "It might have if I was a balance machine used to measure stuff."
I gave him a fake laugh before giving a deadpanned expression. We continued to give each other the same expression before it hit me,
"Three by fourth cup. Oh my god, how dumb can we be?" I felt like face palming myself while Alec looked at me confused now, "It should be just a little less than one full cup." I sat on one of the stools which was in front of the counter.
"I don't know what you mean. But I trust you, we'll go with it." He said nodding his head.
I groaned a little before going and taking all the three different cheese from him, "You should go and boil the macaroni."
I haven't cooked before either. But looking at Alec right now, I can tell that I will be so much better than him in this.
Alec didn't budge from his place. I sighed and looked at him as I saw his sky blue eyes looking at me confused.
"The macaroni is boiled beforehand?" If anything he looked surprised.
At this point I had lost all my hopes. The guy doesn't even know that the macaroni is boiled beforehand. EVEN I KNOW THAT.
"It's my first time cooking." He smiled sheepishly.
IT IS MY FIRST TIME TOO! But still I knew this. Remind me why did he suggest to cook?
Oh yeah, no reason.
It was like he was reading my mind because he said, "Mrs Brown always cooked me food and I rarely had to go to the kitchen."
"Then why are you standing here." I muttered in a low voice so that he couldn't hear it. But he did because I heard him chuckle softly.
"Because I didn't want you to be alone."
As soon as I heard him I couldn't think of anything. It was like my thinking process was paused. I could hear the video still going on while Alec struggled with the packet of macaroni and boiling it nowâtotally unaware.
I nodded trying to calm myself. It was nothing, Serenity. Why are you thinking so much about it? Is it because it's been too long since I have been in a relationship? Or too long since someone showed me some concern? That's debatable.
I tried following the instructions but I couldn't help stealing a few glances at Alec. His back was turned to me and he seemed so much engrossed in his work.
He sure does workout.
I went back to my cheeses. And without any much delay I took a grater out to grate them all and then measure them.
Holding the grater in one hand I brought the cheese near it but I was surprised when I felt Alec's hand on my hand which was holding the grater.
I snapped my head up to look at him.
He was looking down at the grater in my hands. I couldn't help but gaze at his face and notice the way his blonde hair were covering parts of his forehead.
The second I caught myself staring at him I removed my hands from under his and cleared my throat looking around.
What was wrong with me?
"What are you doing?" I asked.
He looked up at me and smiled softly, "You were about to grate the cheese, right?"
"I was about to until you rudely came and intervened." I said stepping back a little.
He place his hand behind his neck and looked at me guiltily, "I am sorry. I just thought that I should grate them."
I raised an eyebrow at him.
"I mean, I just want to show you that I am not a complete gone case and I can grate cheese too." He said that so fast that even flash would be jealous of him right now.
I cleared my throat and sat on the stool giving him the permission. He seemed excited as he grated the cheese.
"Alec?"
He hummed in response without taking his eyes off.
"Don't you get lonely?" I asked him out if no where.
He looked at me and thought for a while, "Not really."
He was lying.
I could tell it because he was avoiding the eye contact and most of all because of the paintings hung up on the walls at his house. The ones he chose. It's ironic how he was the one to preach about how a painting is a window to ones soul while he is refusing to accept the truth.
"Yeah?"
"Of course! I have Mrs Brown. And my friends. Xavier, Nathaniel. Even Evelyn, Brian and Liya now. How can I be lonely when I have them." He laughed knowing fully well that laughing can make anything seem believable.
Even though I knew otherwise, I simply nodded my head at him because I didn't want to press him.
Not when it's not my place.
â¢â¢â¢
When I say we finally managed to pull it all off because the Mac and cheese was in the oven right now baking, it includes whole loads of argument, yelling, messy things. But still two people who don't know how to cook, finally managed to do it.
I must say I was proud of us both.
"I am so excited." I said as we were playing uno cards.
"It was fun cooking, wasn't it?" He asked smiling.
I am not sure about that. If me yelling at him when he did something wrong was his idea of fun then sure we definitely had A LOT of fun.
"You suck at playing uno though." He laughed.
My mouth dropped open, "Excuse meeee. I am just out of luck today otherwise I am the best at this game."
"You lost every round." He rolled his eyes.
"I just told you I am out of luck today!"
He waved his hand at me in dismissal. What? I was saying the truth! Why won't he believe me?
The oven beeped letting us know that our dinner was ready. We both sprung up on our feet and ran towards the oven as fast as we could.
OH MY GOD, doesn't it smell so good!
I waited for Alec to open the oven and take the food out.
"Hurry up." I mumbled while dancing on my two feet.
He opened the oven and suddenly we were greeted by the white smoke covering our faces. I tried removing it with my hand while coughing. I saw Alec do the same beside me standing to his full height.
Is it usually how it is? Is the smoke always too much?
"Maybe because it's too hot." Alec tried explaining with a laughter.
I nodded my head at him and asked him to hurry up again. Very carefully he put on a oven glove and took our Mac and cheese out.
Only it wasn't Mac and cheese anymore.
"H-how is this even possible? It smelled so good. We worked so hard." I felt my voice break.
It was burnt. How did we manage to burn it? We still don't know but we burnt it after doing so much of hard work and yelling. How could we? I wanted to cry.
"No. No. No. No." I continued while I saw Alec putting it on the kitchen counter, "Not our hard work going to waste!"
Alec pressed his hands on my shoulder in an act of condolence.
"Let me see if it is burnt till the bottom." Alec said and brought a spoon and tried removing the burnt part.
"Look!" He said grabbing my attention. I was fast in my actions as I pounded to see what he was showing, "It's better in the middle. It's not burnt. We can still eat it!"
"It won't help both of us get full." I rolled my eyes.
"Let's just order in food." He stated tired before going and sitting on one of the stools.
In the end we still ended up ordering food. I knew this was gonna happen. What did we expect from two people who knew nothing about cooking, just throwing their hands here and there. Of course it got burnt.
Never am I cooking with Alec again.
___