CHANGES 3

Kaye woke up at five in the afternoon from being hungry. 'A stomach of a glutton is troublesome.' she thought as she put on her slippers and robe before going outside.

The living room was peaceful and there was no one in sight. She was about to turn on the light when she saw a pair of feet. Her heart accelerated and her breath quickened but realization hit her before she could scream.

'Goodness gracious. I'll die early because of this guy.' she looked at him lying on the sofa while hugging one of the pillows. When she caught him shivered due to the air condition, she went back to her room, took a clean blanket and draped it over him.

'Hey, you're like a wife taking care of his husband.' teased the mischievous side of her brain. 'I'm just being kind. Look at him curling his toes due to cold air.' replied back the kind side of her to herself.

She walked to the kitchen and pulled up the blinders a little to let some light in. She opened her fridge and took an apple. She started munching it while checking her ingredients for dinner.

"I guess buttered chicken is fine and I can have a lava cake for dessert as well. Hmm, let me see if I still have enough ice cream." she whispered to herself while rummaging the second freezer. She has a double door type of refrigerator with four layers of freezer on one side since she has different ingredients and she didn't like putting things together haphazardly, where it could cause her food to spoil easily. 

When she found her cookies 'n cream ice cream, she took it out, place it on plastic container, pour hot water on the container to melt the ice cream before putting it on the table.

She took out six pieces of chicken wings, butter, sprite, oyster sauce, garlic and onion. She put the chicken wings on a bowl, poured two cups of ketchup, one cup of oyster sauce, add a tablespoon of salt and a little ground pepper to taste. She mixed them altogether to marinate the chicken.Then, she set it aside and took a rectangular glass bowl for her dessert.

She checked her cupboard and found the lava cake she bought from the supermarket. It's like a cupcake but in rectangular shape with a chocolate filling.

She placed a polyolefin shrink film, a kind of plastic that you can use for food wrapping, on the glass bowl so that the cake won't stick directly to the bowl. She opened the packaging of each lava cake and removed the tissue-like wrapper before placing them on the bowl. It took five lava cake for the first layer to cover the bottom of the bowl. Using a flat wooden spatula, she spread the melted ice cream on top of the first layer. After that, she placed another layer of lava cake and spread the ice cream again to cover the cake. After covering it with the polyolefin shrink film, she put it inside the freezer.

Looking at the table she realized that she used too many bowls today, so she went to the sink to wash the ones she used earlier, but she found them on the drying station instead.

'Oh, he cleaned them?' she asked to herself full of doubt. She checked the bowls and found that they're spotless. 'Alright. Let me just continue instead.' she thought to herself before getting the chopping board from the drying station and the knife from the drawer.

Ivan woke up from his sleep due to sudden movements from the kitchen. He heard her opening and closing some drawers, then later her footsteps were going back to the dining table. He sat up and looked toward the direction of the kitchen.

"I'm sorry. Did I wake you up?" he heard her with a slight panic on her voice.

"Not really," then he realized he was holding a thick blanket, "and thank you for the blanket. No wonder I slept peacefully." he smiled at her while pulling the blanket off from his body.

"No problem at all. Thank you for cleaning the kitchen. I was really planning to clean them after waking up." she said while chopping the onion and garlic.

"I'm happy I could be of little help. I can wash the dishes fine." he told her with a straight face. 'I know. I checked them.' Kaye said to herself. "Beside, you shouldn't wash your hands after cooking. From hot to cold, it's not good for your nerves." he added while folding the blanket.

"That's fine with me." she answered him without any doubt. She's been doing things on her own so it's a change for her that someone could help her. "If you break anything, just be sure to pay for it." she told him seriously but she had a wide grin on her face.

"I'll be sure not to drop anything." he retorted back at her with a smile on his face. Kaye was stunned for a while seeing his smiling face. Ms. Harley told her that it's very rare for him to smile and most of the time, he's grumpy. However, the only time he was sarcastic at her was when they met on the road. 'Weird.' she couldn't help uttering the word for his behavior.

"I'll be cooking for dinner so don't buy takeouts." she reminded him before she continued with her work.

Ivan tapped his phone and his screen reader told him it was already quarter before seven in the evening.

"You woke up early today. Is it your day off?" Ivan asked her with a slight frown on his face as if confused of her waking up early. "You didn't turn on the light" he added when he found out that it's very dark.

"Ah yes. I don't have work tonight and tomorrow so I'm fine. I didn't turn it on so you won't be disturbed. I turned on the ones in my cooking area. " she told him while she poured the three tablespooon of cooking oil. After few minutes, she added the butter and waited for it to melt. When it melted and was boiling, she added the onion and garlic. She sauteed it for two minutes before adding the marinated chicken wings. She mixed them for ten minutes before adding two cups of sprite and let it boiled for fifteen minutes.

She cooked one and a half cup of rice for dinner since she still had some left from the lunch earlier that she cooked.

"I'll arrange the table. Would that be fine?" she was so focused in cooking that she didn't notice he was standing at the kitchen door. She put her right hand on her chest to calm her heart.

"That's fine. Let me clean the table first." she disposed of the things that she no longer needed and placed the dirty tablewares on the sink. "Do you have juice preferences?" she asked him before opening her fridge and checked on any available fruits.

"Anything except strawberries. I'm allergic to it." he told her lest she will make something that will cause his death.

"How fortunate you are. I'm allergic to it as well." she chuckled while getting two apples and two mangoes.

"You are?" he was raising his brows expressing doubt of what she said.

"My wallet is allergic to it because it's expensive." he laughed at her when she said this statement. He found that she was just joking at him.

"Now, you're laughing at me. Why did Ms. Harley said you don't? Am I that funny?" she sounded aggrieved with her hands on her hips but she smiled after a while.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't help it." he coughed to stop his laughter but she could still hear the smile on his voice. She left him on his own while he continued to arrange the utensils on the table.

She tasted her buttered garlic chicken wings and found that it was cooked already. She turned off the induction and placed her dish on a plate. She transferred the cooked rice on a platter and place them on the table.

'Can he really not see? Why are the things so carefully arranged?' she peered at him with doubts coursing her mind.

"You are not moving. Is there any problem?" he asked her when the room turned quiet.

"Oh...I... I was thinking if I'm missing something. It turns out to be the juice. Give me a sec." she then fled and went to get the apple-mango juice that she made. 'This is embarrassing.'