Two Different Worlds Collide

Cheyenne

The group of hockey players stayed until supper, when Alice all but shepherded them out – but not until she’d made me, Liza, Jared and Brett promise to go out with them tonight. They couldn’t be out late, because the guys had a game tomorrow, but she insisted we had to. She was awesome, and I knew Liza thought so too. I just wished that people like this would stop walking into my life while in Charlotte, when I knew I’d have to leave them behind at the end of this trip.

“So, supper?” Jared asked, leaning on the back of the couch, his chin on top of my head. I loved the little things like this he did, even though we’d never agreed to make this a ‘thing’ while we were here, nor had we any kind of set up like Liza and Brett’s, but it was still too adorable for words.

“I almost feel like cooking,” I admitted, and Liza laughed.

“So we leave home and now you feel like cooking? Jerk,”

“Bitch,” I shot back, before we started laughing. It was our Supernatural thing, along with the whole “Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole,” which we took to heart on road trips.

“That escalated quickly,” Brett piped up, making us laugh at him.

“Serious though, I really do feel like cooking,” I insisted. Jared opened his fridge before frowning.

“There’s really not much in here to work with,” he told me, and after getting up and peeking around him found it to be true. We shared a look before speaking in unison.

“Grocery store?” we turned to our friends who had stared at us as if we’d each grown an extra limb.

“You two have spent way too much time together already,” Liza teased, and Jared shrugged.

“One Staalsy is enough, we don’t need two,” Brett joined in, and this time I did flip him off. It would have been funnier had Jared not decided to do the same thing and probably ended up making Brett’s point for him. Jared went to his room to throw on a different pair of jeans, because his hadn’t dried completely from sitting on that bench at the park.

“So… any requests that I can actually make?” I asked, while both Liza and Brett merely shrugged.

“Perogies?” Jared’s voice was excited when he poked his head out from his bedroom. I laughed and nodded, watching the huge grin spread across his face, his gap making Liza giggle.

“So, perogies and…”

“Can you make cabbage rolls?” Brett asked. I’d never made them, but I figured I could try.

“We’ll find out,” I replied, and he did a fist pump giving me a goofy hug as Jared came out of his room. He eyed us as he walked toward the door to put his shoes and jacket on.

“Apparently someone here likes cabbage rolls,” I explained, and he laughed as he put his shoes and coat on.

“Yes he does,” he acknowledged, and finally Brett let me go so I could put my coat and shoes on too.

“Are you guys just chilling here then?” Jared asked when we realized that they hadn’t put their coats on or anything.

“I’m useless in grocery stores,” Brett reminded him.

“I know – that’s why you’re always mooching off of me or Nasher or Michal,” he shot back, making Liza laugh as Brett stuttered for a comeback that he didn’t have. Liza pulled out the two cookbooks that Jared had and started going through them.

“We will find a cabbage roll recipe for you,” she decided, and Brett nodded, hopping onto a stool at the island beside her.

“My mom’s is taped to the back of that one – that’s the one we want,” Jared informed them, turning it over and gently pulling it off so we could take it with us to get the appropriate groceries. With that we left, Jared opening the door of his truck for me and helping me up. It was one of those Cadillac Escalade trucks, and I couldn’t help but drool over it a tiny bit. They’re gorgeous.

We drove just down the street and around the corner a couple blocks before coming up to a big grocery store. It was fun going through the aisles and finding the things we wanted – the ingredients for the cabbage roll first, before grabbing two bags of perogies and some sausage, then ingredients to make a mushroom sauce for the perogies.

“Dessert?” Jared sheepishly suggested, making me grin as he steered me in the right direction.
“With a game tomorrow? Tsk, tsk,” I teased, getting a kiss on the temple in response. We browsed through more things until we found Nanaimo bar, which neither of us could apparently resist. After paying for the groceries and making our way back to Jared’s apartment I started in on trying to make these cabbage rolls. Jared sat in the kitchen and kept me company while Liza had somehow conned Brett into playing Dance Central with her – I swear she has an obsession with it.

“I don’t get how to make them stay!” I groaned, having tried for the fourth time. Jared wrapped an arm around me in a quick hug before pulling out his cell phone.

“Time to call in the backup,” he told me, and soon he was chatting with his mom on the phone – just some of the usual, what was new, how was dad, etcetera. Then he asked how to make the cabbage rolls stick together, and I could hear the shock in her voice.

“You’re trying to make cabbage rolls?”

“Yes mom – is that so hard to believe?” he asked, and we both heard his mother relay this news to his father. It took a few minutes and some coaxing, before she explained the process to him. He did it as she told him, letting me watch his huge hands go to work. The second one he did I did my own at the same time, and soon we were working like old pros.

“Thanks mom! Yes, I’ll let you know how they turn out,” he rolled his eyes, grinning at me before saying goodbye to his mom.

“So, not much of a cook I’m guessing?” I playfully asked, getting a shrug.

“I am incredibly good at barbecuing,” he defended himself, and we stood side by side finishing them up before putting them in the oven. I quickly put the sausages in the oven and started water for the perogies, and then walked into Jared’s open arms. He was leaning back against the counter, letting me wrap my arms around him and rest my head against his chest. I soon felt the weight of his head resting on top of mine, making me smile as we listened to the war of Dance Central going on in the living room. I could’ve stayed here forever quite happily.

“I really wish you weren’t leaving so soon,” Jared quietly confessed, making me hold him tighter.

“Me too,” I whispered, refusing to raise my head and meet his gaze for fear of crying. I didn’t need any tears right now – when I was on the flight home I would probably bawl, but it could all wait until then.

We made supper in quiet tandem after that, neither of us wanting to break the seemingly silent agreement to not talk about the lack of time we had, and soon Brett was poking around the kitchen, the smell too much for him to resist. I kept having to shoo him out of the kitchen, and when I realized Liza was just laughing at the whole thing shot her a glare before she pulled Brett out of my road. Jared and Brett set the table while Liza gave me a quick hand getting everything out of the oven and all, and just as we were sitting down to eat there was another knock at the door.

Jared opened it to see a sheepish Zac Dalpe there. He laughed before letting him in.

“You’re lucky – I wasn’t even the one cooking,” he told his teammate, who was obviously snooping about what was for supper. When Zac saw Liza and I he looked a little embarrassed before waving and saying hello.

“Do you like perogies, cabbage rolls and sausage?” I asked, and he eagerly nodded as he took a seat.

“Thanks for letting me crash,”

“Oh I guess we’ll let it slide,” Brett deadpanned, earning a quick glare from Zac before we started eating. The entire meal was loud and filled with laughing, as well as a mini food-fight between the three guys. Once everybody was full Jared announced that since we’d cooked Liza and Brett had to clean, and another mini war erupted. Finally Zac offered to help, which made it easier on Brett to accept doing the dishes. So once they got started on that Jared pulled me down to the couch, letting me stretch out even though I was laying across him. He just laughed before getting a mischievous look.

“No tickling,” I warned him, and soon he had a pout on. He crossed his arms across his chest, but I just continued to make myself comfortable and closed my eyes.

“Well, that didn’t pan out how I wanted it to,” he sighed a moment later, running a hand through my hair. I cracked a grin then and opened an eye to look at him, the pout gone and he’d ran a hand through his hair, making it stand up on end a bit.