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He said, “I don’t feel like eating anything, but if you’re hungry, let’s just order pizza.”
Xolani wasn’t hungry. Still, she ordered the pizza, and made sure that it had his favorite toppings… sausage, pepperoni, and bacon. If he eventually felt hungry, she wanted him to at least have something he liked.
The pizza was delivered twenty minutes later. Xolani went to get it and bring it back upstairs. But by the time she came back to the bedroom, Barry was fast asleep. She set the box on the ottoman, got out of the sweats she’d borrowed from his closet, then joined him in bed. Soon, she followed him into slumber.
It wasn’t an easy night.
Barry kept shifting and mumbling in his sleep while waking sporadically. At one point, she woke up to him crying in her arms. But she didn’t mind. She did what she could to soothe him back to sleep.
24
THE FOLLOWING MORNING, THE SMELL of something burning yanked Barry from slumber. Wrinkling his nose and frowning, he sat up in bed, only to realize that he was alone. Where was Xolani? And what the hell was burning?
He scrambled off the bed and put on a t-shirt and sweatpants over his shorts. He padded out of the bedroom and down the stairs. The burning smell got more intense as he reached the bottom of the stairs. He was just crossing the living room when he heard a yelp shortly followed by a loud bang.
What the hell? He raced to the kitchen only to find Xolani squatting on the floor next to an upended saucepot. She was trying to scoop a yellow liquid with white pieces of an unidentifiable solid from the floor and back into the pot using a dishcloth. Meanwhile above her on the stove, a pan with… something… was smoking over a blazing burner. The burner on the opposite side the smoking pan was also alight but there was nothing on it.
Was she trying to burn his kitchen down?
“Jesus!” Barry skirted past Xolani and around the island to turn off the burners. “What the hell, Xo?”
“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” Xolani apologized profusely while still scooping liquid from the floor.
The burnt… something… in the pan and the spilled soup (?) on the floor were just the beginning of the mess in the kitchen. There were all sorts of things on the kitchen island; whole and sliced vegetables on a wooden board and in plates, and vegetable peels. There were used plates, silverware, pots, spices, a dirty grater, and spiral pasta spilling from their open package. There was spilled water, a half-used bottle of stock, her phone with a paused video, and so much more. The sink was full too with crockery, cutlery, and all sorts of utensils.
“Sorry,” Xolani apologized again.
“What is going on?” Barry hunkered down beside her to help scoop up the liquid.
“I was trying to cook chicken noodle soup for you then_” Her expression was a mix between frustration and sheepishness as she gestured around the kitchen with her soggy washcloth. “_This happened.”
“Let me get that.” Barry took the dishcloth from her so he could wipe the floor. It was then that he noticed that the white solids within the liquid were familiar. He glanced up at Xolani. “Is this supposed to be chicken?”
“Yes.” While squatting next to him, she rushed to explain, “The recipe said to shred the chicken breast, but I didn’t know it meant shred after boiling, not before. So when I was shredding with my hands it was hard and I decided to cut them in little pieces with a knife.”
She took a breath then continued, “But I’m not good at chopping, so some chunks came out big and some came out small. When I saw them while they were boiling, I decided to blend them so they would be the same size. But when I was picking the pot so I could pour the chunks into the blender, it was too heavy and fell.”
Barry didn’t know whether to scold her or say thank you for dropping the pot. If it weren’t for her dropping the pot, they’d be dealing with chicken juice right now. That didn’t seem appealing at all.
He asked, “What about the pan on the stove?”
“Oh my God. My onions.” She shot up to her feet. As soon as she saw the state of the pan, she cried out, “They’re ruined.”
All Barry could think was, ‘those were supposed to be onions?’. They looked like bits of coal. How big had she cut them?
“I’m sorry.” She apologized again while cupping her mouth with her hands. “I was just trying to make you something for your hangover. I didn’t mean to ruin it all.”
“It’s okay.” He dumped the soggy dishcloth into the saucepot and stood. As he carried the pot to the sink, he said, “It’s the thought that counts. Thank you.”
Despite the mess, he was incredibly grateful that she’d tried. It had been a while since someone had taken care of him, and her actions let him know that he was as important to her as she was to him.
“No, no, no.” Xolani rushed to his side when he turned on the tap to clean the dishes. “This is my mess. I should be the one to clean it up.”
He leaned closer to press a soft kiss to her lips then offered, “Let’s clean together.”
There were more protests from her, but eventually she surrendered to his coaxing. While he wiped down the counter, she loaded the dishwasher.
“How are you feeling?” she asked as she emptied the cutting board into the garbage disposal.
