Food, Cats, and Being Lazy

When Paige got home, she was quiet and distant again. She didn’t even realize I had made dinner for her. Instead, she went right up to her room. I followed her and found her sitting on her bed, sniffling again.

“Hey, are you okay?” I asked. She nodded and wiped her nose on a tissue.

“I’m fine. It’s a girl.”

“Oh—wow.” I wanted to be excited. But I realized that I couldn’t. I couldn’t even congratulate her. She was obviously upset about it.

“Here, you can see the picture if you want. I don’t want to show Mom and Dad.” She stood up and handed it out to me. I took it and eagerly looked for a baby.

“Um—where is it?” She stood up and came to my side.

“That’s the baby’s face right there.” She pointed to a faceless blob. “And her tummy and legs sticking up. They said we were lucky that she wasn’t squished up.”

“Wow—that’s amazing.” She sniffed again and smiled.

“Yeah, it’s kind of cool, huh?”

“I kind of have a surprise for you. I made you dinner. That chicken and mushroom sauce you wanted to try. And the brownie kabobs for dessert.”

“You made them?” I nodded and handed the picture back.

“Yeah, it’s really good. And it’s ready whenever you are.”

“Oh, good. I’m actually starving.”

She put the picture down on her dresser and followed me downstairs. My mom got everyone else wrangled, and then we all sat down to serve ourselves. I didn’t think my dad or Phillip knew I’d made dinner. They just dug right in.

“Piper, honey,” my mom said. “This is incredible. You made this without a recipe?” I nodded.

“Yeah, aside from the baking. Because you have to have exact measurements for baking. It’s more of a science. Cooking is more of an art, so you can wing it as long as you have the right idea.”

“No freaking way,” Paige said.

“I tried to tell you it was educational programming.” My mom laughed.

“It’s great, sweetheart,” my dad said.

“I like the sauce,” Phillip said. And since he was really picky, I was going to take that as a compliment.

When we finished dinner, everyone’s plates were empty except for the small pile of mushrooms on Phillip’s because he refused to eat them even though he liked the sauce. So then I brought out the kabobs and handed them off to everyone.

“Oh my God,” Paige said. Her mouth was full. She had chocolate smeared on her lip. “I love you so much.” I smiled to myself. This was the most affection and validation I’d gotten in—well, probably forever.

“Honey, have you ever considered going to school for this?” my mom asked, licking chocolate off her thumb.

“You told me that being a cook isn’t a real job.”

“That was before I realized you had a natural talent for it. I thought you were going to end up a fry cook, not a chef.”

“I’ve asked you to let me cook a thousand times.”

“Well, now I know that I’ll just have to start saying yes.” She gave me a smile. My heart was probably full of rainbows.