AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I go to the doorway of the kitchen. Orlie is chopping vegetables at the kitchen island, an apron hanging around his neck. It’s clean and white, save for streaks of bright pink across the belly. He looks up at me from his work for only a moment, but in that moment, he is the hottest thing in the world. Those dark, captivating eyes, the curious smile. “Hi, Kira.”
“Hi.”
Orlie doesn’t say anything else, instead scooping up some herbs on the edge of his knife and dumping them into a cast iron skillet.
“What are you…what are you making?”
“Just some chicken piccata with broccoli rabe and a beet and goat cheese salad,” he says plainly, wiping his hands off on the apron.
“Ah, that explains the pink, then.”
Orlie looks down at his front. “Beets are messy,” he says matter-of-factly.
“Yeah, looks like it.” I’m starting to salivate. “It smells good in here.”
“Thank you.”
“I didn’t know you could cook.”
He shakes his head. “I cook enough to feed myself. I don’t know if Iknow howto cook.”
“You’re talking to the girl who made boxed mac and cheese yesterday.” No wonder he found it so abhorrent. This guy casually makes chicken piccata.
Orlie chuckles. “Yes, well, I’ll just say the boxed stuff isn’t for me. I don’t judge anyone else’s taste, though. Different strokes for different folks, as it were.”
I tilt my head up against the doorframe. For a split second, I’m filled with a nostalgia that doesn’t exist. Nostalgia for something in the future. Does that happen to people?
Well, in this future, I imagine Orlie whipping up dinner for a table where all the places are set. The fancy version for him and his wife and maybe some fancy, elevated mac and cheese that doesn’t come from a box for the little ones.
I’m not sure if that’s a future he sees for himself. Or whether he’d even be capable of softening enough for that. But it’s a beautiful image.
“You want to join me?”
I shake off my haze. “Hm?”
“For dinner.”
“Oh. Sure.” I take a step into the kitchen carefully. “Although I don’t want to get in your way while I heat up a cup-a-noodle.”
Orlie’s lips twist up, “What in god’s name is cup-a-noodle?”
I giggle. “You don’t want to know.”
He shakes his head. “No, Kira, I meant…would you like to have the dinner that I am cooking with me?”
My eyes widen. “Oh.”
“Or even –” He swallows and hurriedly attends to something boiling over on the stove. “You don’t even have to join me. You could just have some.”
“I’d hate to impose when you’re working so hard and I’m just mooching.”
Orlie flips back around, his usually perfectly coiffed dark hair coming loose. Breathless with a smile. “It’s not mooching if I offered. Plus, there’s too much here for just one person.”
I smile and creep over to the island and pull open the drawers for the placemats. “Alright. I’ll set the table.”
He runs his hand through his hair. “Sounds perfect.”
My heart thuds in my chest.
