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“Regardless, there’s not much we can do about it now,” Sloane says as she steps out of the car. “We’re done with work for the day, so for now, we just need to chill. Let’s just… step back from all this shit and take a breath, alright? Maybe some dinner will get our minds off everything.”
Maybe she has a point. I haven’t eaten since noon, and orcs aren’t exactly known for being light with their appetite. “Alright. Good idea.”
Once we’re in the house, Sloane goes straight to the kitchen and pulls the fridge open. She peruses the vast array of food on the shelves with a wide-eyed expression.
“Let’s see…” She mumbles to herself as she digs through the vegetable drawer. “What are you in the mood for tonight?”
Honestly, I’m not much of a cook. Most days, I have someone else cook for me.
But my housekeeper goes home when she’s done cleaning and managing whatever tasks I’ve left for the day. Unless I’ve put in a special request to have dinner prepared, that’s typically takeout. Sloane seems like she wants to cook something together, and I’m assuming she knows how to cook, so…
“I could go for some tacos?” I say with a shrug.
“Tacos it is!” Sloane grins and pulls out a huge packet of ground beef.
As I cook the taco meat on the stove, Sloane gets to work preparing the vegetables and guacamole.
Or, well… She tries her best, anyway. Maybe I shouldn’t have assumed she knows how to cook, because at the moment, the avocado pit seems to mystify her.
“How do I get this thing out?” She looks at me with a puzzled expression.
“You’re asking me?” I scoff, stirring the ground beef. I then realize that the steam coming from it is a bit darker than it should be… Wait, is that smoke?
I rush to shut off the heat and remove the pan from the burner. This is why I don’t cook.
Meanwhile, Sloane gives up on trying to pluck out the avocado seed with her fingers and gives it a squeeze instead. She sends the pit flying across the kitchen, hitting me in the shoulder.
Sloane slumps against the counter in laughter. A brief wave of annoyance rushes over me, but honestly, her laughter is contagious, and before we know it we’re both cackling like maniacs.
We may not be the best cooks in town, but even with the meat a little burnt and the guacamole over-seasoned, we put together a mostly edible meal. Anything tastes good if you put enough hot sauce on it, after all.
“You know,” Sloane begins, adding another scoop of guacamole to her taco. “While we may have a lot on our plate right now – and no, I’m not talking about the tacos, but that’s also true – I think we’re gonna make it out of this alright. Whatever comes our way, we can handle it. Don’t you think?”
“I guess,” I say with a shrug. I at least hope she’s right. “My biggest worry is that things will go downhill from here. I’m just gonna hope today was a fluke.”
“Me too,” Sloane says. “More likely than not, it was.”
It’s hard to hold onto my frustrations for too long when Sloane’s around. I can tell she’s still a little worried, too, but she’s trying to keep her mood up for her sake and mine. Besides, how far is stressing going to get us?
Once we finish eating and clean up the kitchen, we head over to the living room and flop down onto the couch.
“What do you wanna watch?” I hand Sloane the remote.
“Hmm…” She flips through the channels for a minute or two, and upon reaching the animal channel, her eyes shoot right open.
“This!” she says with a grin on her face. There’s a panda documentary on the screen, and at the moment, a newborn cub is struggling to climb up a set of stairs.
“Oh my gosh, look at him!” Sloane gasps, leaning against my shoulder. “...You don’t mind watching this, do you?”
Cutesy animal documentaries are seldom my first choice, honestly. But the smile on Sloane’s face alone is enough to keep me from changing the channel.
“Yeah, we can watch this. Pandas are cute, I guess” I say, putting an arm around her. And you’re even cuter.
With Sloane snuggled up at my side and a relaxing show on the TV, it’s hard not to feel pretty cozy. Before we know it, the two of us have drifted off into sleep.
That is, until the buzzing of my phone jolts me out of my dreams. Groaning, I rub my eyes and stick my hands into my pocket. When I unlock my phone, the clock reads a quarter to six. The panda documentary on the screen is gone, and one of those early morning infomercials has taken its place.
I mute the TV and answer my phone. “Hello?” I say, keeping my voice quiet so I won’t wake Sloane.
