It was kind of nice.
***
They were in the culinary room testing out another one of his gastronomic experiments. This time, it was a sweet and savory take on risotto.
On one hand, Aria wanted to believe that this would work out. After all, maple bacon donuts exist along with caramelized ham; while on the other hand, there were certain combinations that simply weren’t meant to exist.
Ever.
Once he was done with the garnish, he placed the plate in front of her with a spoon to match. His expression was ready as he waited to see her reaction while she took a bite.
“How is it?” he asked as she sampled the dish.
Aria moved some of the risotto rice around on the plate. “Did you add fruit in this?”
“Yeah, apple,” he replied.
“Huh . . .”
“Good ‘huh’, or bad ‘huh’?”
Aria contemplated on her words for a moment. “It’s a little bit overcooked, but the flavors aren’t bad.”
“Any suggestions?” Adrian asked.
She took another bite. “The texture of the risotto isn’t creamy enough, and thanks to the apple, it’s a little grainy.”
He hummed in response as he took a new spoon to sample the risotto.
“You’re right, it sucks,” he agreed.
“You said it.”
Adrian frowned in disappointment.
“So what are you gonna try next?” she asked.
“I’m sort of limited with my resources here.” He gestured around the culinary room. “Plus, I don’t think Miss B. would appreciate me using up any more ingredients.”
Aria nodded in agreement. Even though she only had this tasting gig for a week and a half, she had a feeling that would stop soon. This was just a public school, and it wasn’t like there weren’t any culinary students who needed these ingreedients for class too.
“If you want, we can go to my house. I have the right stuff to make it better,” Adrian offered. “Though we have to go to the store first. Not sure if we have enough rice.”
Aria glanced at the time. “Ah, it’s getting kinda late.”
“True, but we don’t have school tomorrow,” he reminded her.
“Wait, today is Friday?” She blinked in surprise.
“How did you forget?”
“I dunno, y’know?”
“Not really.”
She rolled her eyes as she started to collect the dirty dishes.
“So . . . tomorrow?” Adrian asked as he also started to clean up the mess.
“You really want to get this recipe, don’t you?”
“I’m a little bit of a perfectionist when it comes to that,” he admitted.
“You don’t have to tell me.”
“Gee, thanks, Aria.”
“Thou art welcome.”
He made a face. “Gross. Old language.”
“‘Tis what it ‘tis.”
“What are you? Shakespeare?”
“Ew, no!”
“What? You don’t like Hamlet or something?” he asked.
“I just hate reading when I’m assigned to. It takes away the freedom of choice,” she replied.
“Well, that’s life.”
“C’est la vie.”
“French?”
“Oui.”
“I thought you took Spanish?”
“Yo soy muy talentosa.”
“Clearly,” he said with a grin, “but can you really speak those?”
“Sort of? I kind of have Spanish together, but I only know a few tidbits of French.”
“Oh, gotcha.”
With the two of them cleaning up their mess together, they were able to walk out of school in no time.
“So Saturday?” he asked as he pressed the question again.
“Um . . .” Aria went through her mental checklist to see what she had for the weekend. “I have a project due Monday, and I thought today was Thursday so maybe next week?”
He nodded. “Okay, I’ll let you know when it’s good then?”
“Sounds good to me,” she replied as they walked towards his car.
“Drive safe.”
“Don’t worry. I’m a good driver,” Adrian said nonchalantly.
“Yeah, but there are still stupid drivers you know?”
“Uh huh.”
“Never mind. Have fun getting rear-ended.”
Adrian snickered. “Yeah, yeah,” he paused and opened his car door. “Are you sure you don’t want a ride?”
“I’m good. My house is just there.” She pointed down the street.
“But it’s late.”
“It’s five.”
“Still, the sun is almost setting.”
“It’s literally a ten-minute walk to my house,” she said.
“And a two-minute ride.”
“Adrian, just go home before I start yelling stranger danger.”
“Fine, fine. Be safe.” He gave in, then got into his car.
“Don’t worry,” she assured him as she gave him a wave. “Now be gone.”
She watched his car drive away before she headed home. The walk back to her house wasn’t particularly bad. The sun was close to setting, and the heat was slowly wearing down.
Like she predicted, it only took ten minutes for her to get home from the parking lot. As she got inside her home, she was immediately greeted with an unusual sight of her dad in the kitchen.
It was a rare sight to see her father around, and an even rarer sight to see him cooking. She briefly wondered if there was a schedule change in his work or something.
“Welcome back,” her dad greeted as soon as he saw her.
“Hey Dad. What are you making?”
“Just a little something.” He seemed to be pretty focused on whatever he was making.
She set her backpack on the couch before she investigated.
“It smells good,” she said as she neared the counter. “What’s that?”
“Mapo tofu.” He scooped up some of the saucy tofu and transferred it into a bowl.
“Try it.”
She grabbed a spoonful of tofu and let it cool for a moment before she took a bite. As soon as the food hit her tongue, she immediately recoiled.
“It’s spicy! Really, really spicy!”
“Just spicy?” he asked calmly while her mouth was practically on fire.
“Yeah!”
“I didn’t think it was that spicy.”
“Dad . . .” She set the spoon down, the heat in her mouth didn’t let up. “Seriously?”
“Okay, maybe it’s
