Day Twenty One: Cooking

Day Twenty One: Monday

Twenty-First Challenge: Cooking

“Calm down, Ari…it’s cooking, not rocket science.” Chuckled Matt as he watched her perform a simple dish, technically breakfast. She scowled at him and cracked an egg onto the sizzling pan, cursing as a fragment of the broken shells fell onto the surface as well. Quickly throwing away the shells into the trash, she got a fork and quickly evaded disaster by taking out the shell (and panicking about it getting stuck in the food).

“You keep quiet,” growled Ari. “You’re the pro at cooking; now hush or your face goes into the damned pan.” A cheeky little grin came onto his face, knowing that she wouldn’t actually attempt to stick his face in the pan out of her anger. Knowing her, however, he decided to take a little bit of caution and stop with the teasing for at least a while. “…do I wait for the eggs to cook?”

“You can scramble them like so,” he replied, walking forward and proceeding to scramble the cooking eggs in the pan with what seemed to be some kind of whisk. Ari blinked and watched him, the eggs soon into small little pieces, definitely scrambled. “Or you can simply make the eggs into an omelet by mixing the egg first, putting the mixture into the pan, and then putting whatever you want on top and then folding it.”

“Folding?”

“And that will be used in another lesson.” He kissed her head, handing over the pack of bacon. “Now transfer the scrambled eggs onto a plate and we’ll try bacon next. It’s fairly easy. Just need to fry and flip to another side, repeat, and have as much bacon as you want.” She nodded and did so, then spread out the bacon on the pan.

It sizzled, and the scent of bacon spread throughout the kitchen. Ari made a small whine, hungry already, but followed Matt’s instructions (watch and flip, watch and flip) until he was satisfied with the results. It was the first time she felt frustrated with him and the food. Unknowingly to her, the man was a strict one when it came to the kitchen, and this was a side she didn’t know about at all.

It ticked her off.

“I don’t think that’s enough for us,” Ari muttered at the sight of the plates of food. “Hold on, I’ll scramble more eggs and cook up a little more bacon. Just prepare the table and I’ll get this done.” He nodded and walked off, and she was able to relax without his blue eyes inspecting her cooking and telling her what to do.

Picking up the mats, he let out a small chuckle. He could see the irritation in her eyes, and though he felt a little guilty that he had to boss her around, this was how he was taught to cook. If she wanted to learn, then so be it – she would just have to cope with his own style of teaching.

Matt carefully arranged the placemats as well as the plates and utensils, then walked back to the fridge. He took out some bread and toasted it, then while waiting checked up on her. She was calmer, he noticed, and decided not to interfere this time. The man heard singing, and upon checking her once more, saw that she was calmly cooking the bacon and eggs while singing to a song on the radio.

His eyes softened and he just watched.

Ari soon flipped the food onto another plate and turned off the stove, washing her hands soon enough and coming across him as she brought the plate to the table.

“It isn’t burnt like my first try,” she told him (her eyes darted away from his face), looking somewhat ashamed. “I think it’ll taste nice.” She walked to the table and set the plate down, then sat and waited for him to do the same. When he did, she hesitantly took a few pieces of bacon as well as eggs, and started to eat.

Her face took on a relieved expression, but her posture stiffened upon seeing him get some food as well. Matt pretended not to notice her nervous eyes yet gave her a wink as he ate, remaining silent even after swallowing.

The twosome then ate, neither acknowledging the food she prepared. Ari felt somewhat irritated yet reassured. She didn’t want Matt picking out the errors in her first time cooking (and actually accomplishing the task). It wasn’t until their plates were empty when he finally spoke.

“You know what, babe?” he grinned. “That was actually pretty good.”

It took her a few seconds to process the compliment.

The next thing he knew, she was cooking once more with a proud look on her face.