Blind Channel One Shot Stories

Disaster Dinner PART 1 - Olli

Plot: It's Olli's birthday and the bassist decides to organize a dinner to his house, for celebrating it with a special person, but nothing will go as planned.

Olli's Pov

My hands are shaking as I try to cut the avocado into cubes. I have never been a fan of cooking: those rare times that I am at home I always end up ordering my lunch or dinner out. But tonight is different. I'm spending my birthday with Amanda, a former colleague nurse I've been in love with for years. I invited her to my home in the hope of being able to confess my feelings, which I am no longer able to hide.

I thought long and hard about the most appropriate speech to make, and after trying to put my emotions on paper, I gave up. Making speeches and cooking have never been my strengths, I'm much better at playing bass.

I always looked at her from a distance, hoping that one day she would notice the light shining in my eyes every time I laid them on her. I have always played the role of the caring and present friend, there was not a day when I was not at her side, discreetly and quietly. I gave her my shoulder to cry on when her ex made her suffer, I hold her hand the day she decided to leave him, I celebrated with Amanda her return to life, and I was with her also the day her ex sent her that bouquet of roses, and resumed to court her insistently. I still remember her face, holding the bouquet of flowers in her hands: she was halfway between the frightened and the bewildered. Amanda had recently started to live again, and that return had been similar to a lightning bolt from the blue.

That comeback  got me upset, so Joonas told me to do something, to confront Amanda and declare myself. He told me that I also have the right to be happy, and that if Amanda doesn't love me, then I have the right to seek love elsewhere. Although, honestly, I don't think there's any other woman for me besides her. The idea to organize this dinner was Joonas, I would never have thought to cook for her.

I always thought that cooking for someone was romantic, but also deep and intimate, a gesture that requires confidence and feeling, and from which the fools like me should well guard against accomplishing. Of course I don't lack feelings, but experience, confidence, and self-esteem, and that makes it all the more difficult. I never thought I'd cook for anyone, but I'm doing it right now.

While waiting for the pasta to cook, I concentrate on the table already set and decorated with three red candles. I check that the candles are lined up using my thumb then I shift my attention to the plates and glasses, which I have washed so many times in recent days, that they now shine with their own light.

My eyes move quickly from one point to another of the house: I fix things, spray deodorant everywhere, I mirror several times and I often check the phone in order to intercept any messages of Amanda. Everything has to be perfect: I can't afford the slightest mistake on a night like this.

I drain the pasta and before proceeding I read again the recipe, written in the cookbook of Joonas's mother who was kind enough to lend it to me. Perhaps he hoped that I would stop writing him on whatsapp every 5 minutes to ask him which recipes to prepare and how. The page is full of deletions, arrows and corrections. I scratch my head as I try to interpret those hieroglyphics.

At the end I decide and I skip the spaghetti in the pot with the avocado cream, but immediately I realize that there is something wrong: the cream smooth and homogeneous becomes a green mush similar to fluorescent glue.

I remove the pot from the fire but now the damage is done.

I sigh as I dial Joonas number. While I wait for him to answer I take deep breaths, trying to limit the anxiety that is rising inside me.