𝐒𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐄𝐕𝐄 | 𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐂𝐎 𝐆𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐑𝐃

𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞

"maybe it's my way of apologizing, but you seem to enjoy it."

***

EVELYN WAS HAVING A ROUGH DAY. Work was terrifyingly busy, the weather was awful, and complaints kept flying at her like there was no tomorrow.

She had to call out her manager five times onto the sales floor. It was hectic, and she had a formal complaint filed against her.

This was all after the previous day's events, where Porco nearly got himself kicked off of campus.

She was tired, and she needed to go home and rest.

The drive home for Evelyn was silent. Usually, she would play some music or even listen to an audiobook.

Today she just sat in her silent exhaustion. Evelyn only ever felt one emotion, that is if she wasn't as numb as usual.

It was either anger or nothing.

This wasn't anger, it was silent frustration. She wanted to angry cry in her bed while watching mindless TV.

And she planned to do just that.

Evelyn parked her car in the apartment garage and walked down the hallway. She slowly unlocked the door and it swung open slowly.

"You're here right on time. I made dinner."

Evelyn froze dead in her tracks. A million thoughts began racing through her head.

How did he know? When did he figure it out? What did he do to find out what her favorite dish was? Did he consult anyone back from her hometown? How did he figure out that the one comfort thing that made her feel remotely good was food?

A light blush crept up onto her cheeks as she looked at the table. A candle had been lit in the center and two glasses of wine were poured.

She slowly approached the table with extremely wide eyes. Small beads of tears formed at the corners of her eyes.

"I'm not good at cooking, but I thought this was the best way to apologize to you since you like to cook and all." he said.

Evelyn set down her things and pulled out the chair. She sat down and looked at the food.

"You cooked... you cooked for me?" Evelyn asked at a near whisper.

Porco scratched his neck and nodded.

"Yeah, I mean, I tried to. Does it look bad? Should I just order something? Is it bad?" he asked.

Evelyn didn't respond for a moment as she continued to stare down at the food.

She finally responded with a shake of her head.

"No, it's... great. It looks great. I should have probably mentioned that I don't drink, though." she said, looking up at him.

Porco didn't believe his eyes. Usually, Evelyn's mouth was in a straight line or slight frown. Her eyes usually looked dull and tired.

But when she looked up at him, a very small smile, bright eyes, and rosy cheeks looked back at him. Not once did he see her like this in the past.

"That's fine! Uh, I'll just drink it." Porco said.

Evelyn grabbed the wine glass that was supposed to be hers and poured the wine into Porco's glass. It nearly hit the brim, but it was just enough wine to fill the glass nicely.

Porco sat down and watched as Evelyn stirred up her food.

"How did you know it was my favorite? Fettuccine alfredo pasta?" Evelyn asked as she twirled it up with her fork.

"Oh, it's your favorite? I didn't even know. It just looked like the easiest thing to make on Pinterest." Porco said.

Evelyn sighed and took a bite of it. Porco nervously awaited her reaction.

"It needs work, but it's actually really good." Evelyn said. Her face was still pink, but her voice had calmed to its usual monotone sound.

Porco smiled and began eating.

"Good, I was really worried about that."

Evelyn was settling in on the couch to watch her game show. She figured she might watch it at its true airing time.

Given she was more comfortable in the common areas of course.

"What are you watching?"

Evelyn jumped with a screech and nearly threw herself off of the couch. Porco jumped back as Evelyn caught herself before her fall.

"Don't sneak up on me like that!" she said loudly.

"I'm sorry, I thought you knew I was there!" Porco said.

Evelyn caught her breath and sat back down.

"I'm watching Jeopardy. Well, it's basically Jeopardy, but elementary kids." she said.

"Yikes." Porco said.

"Mhm. It gets pretty interesting. Some of the kids are smarter than us." she said.

"Oh really? Smarter than college students?" he asked.

Evelyn nodded.

"Yeah, they are. You should see for yourself and watch it sometime." she said.

"Why not now?" Porco said as he approached the couch.

"Sure." she said as she moved to one side of the couch.

Porco fell asleep within the first twenty minutes of the show.

Evelyn was shocked that the TV wasn't waking him up. As soon as she noticed he was asleep, she used earphones to finish the episode.

Once the show finished, Evelyn moved all of her things to her bedroom. She had work to do and would be up late.

But she did have to wake up Porco.

She tapped on his shoulder lightly three times. Porco slowly stirred and his eyes fluttered open.

"Huh?" he mumbled as he woke up from an uncomfortable position.

"You should probably go get in bed, Porco." she said at a whisper.

Porco nodded and slowly stood up. Evelyn scooted back to give him space, but Porco stumbled over his own feet.

She quickly moved over and grabbed onto him. Her left arm snaked around his torso and her right hand was placed on his chest.

"Shit, sorry." he said.

Evelyn let go of him and shook her head.

"No problem. Go to sleep, Porco."

bella's note:

y'all are just eatin up this porco shit. sorry for the short chapter, more to come.