Something In Between: Sequel to On The Edge of Tomorrow

Chapter 14

The moment lingered; the admission stung, but we had grown accustomed to pretending. By the time I was out of the shower and dressed, we were back to our roles. We could love and be in love in these moments; the future be damned. It was a precarious and dangerous path, but we were both too weak for the alternative.

"Okay. So, all this is going to become eggplant parmesan," Billy said as he surveyed the kitchen island filled with groceries.

"I can help," Mary called from just beyond the doorway.

"Mom," Billy groaned. "We're adults. Please let us cook one meal!"

"I'm leaving. I'm leaving. I'll be at Betty's playing Canasta if you or the fire department need to reach me," she called out before we heard the front door shut behind her.

"She has such little faith in us," Billy shook his head at me.

"I think she has the exact right amount of faith in us," I noted as I looked over the ingredients.

"We can do this. There is no meat so we have decreased the likelihood of really causing a health scare," he measured. "We can do this," he said again to himself.

"I'm less convinced," I added.

"I have her recipe," Billy continued as he pulled a couple yellowed notecards from a drawer.

"Oh, okay. I can read and follow instructions like the best of them," I said as I eagerly took the notecards. I read through them and quickly realized the problem. "Billy, there are no measurements or timings or anything in this. Peel tomatoes with seasoning until sauce is ready. That is literally step one. Her entire sauce recipe is peel tomatoes with seasoning until sauce is ready. We're screwed."

"What? No, that can't be..." he took the card from me and read them over. "Exactly what she wrote. Yeah, we're screwed. I didn't even know you could peel a tomato."

"Right! It is hard enough to peel? I mean I can peel a potato all day long, but squishy tomato?" I was even more baffled as I stared over the ingredients. "And what makes something an ingredient versus a seasoning?"

"She's evil. You hear about it, the moment when you see your parent for who they really are. I just never thought my own mom was pure evil." Billy shook his head in horror.

I sucked in a deep breath and mustered a confident "we can do this."

"We can?" Billy said, still bewildered by the scene laying on the island before us.

"Billy Collins, you have had a number one single, sold out Madison Square Garden, and survived a summer in a van with Tim. You can do this."

"No." He shook his head and lifted his gaze to me. "We can do this."

I smiled. "Right, so step one peel the tomatoes. Where is your peeler?" I asked.

"Right here," he eagerly pulled the peeler from a nearby drawer. "Do you want to wash 'em or peel 'em?"

"Um," I desperately wanted to wash them as I still had no idea how you would peel the thin skin away from the soft flesh, but I had to face my fears. "Peel," I confidently nodded.

"Okay, I'll wash." Billy washed the first tomato and handed it to me.

"Peel the tomato," I murmured to myself as I looked at the red fruit in one hand and the peeler in the other. "I can do this."

"We," Billy corrected. "We can do this."

"We can do this," I concurred as I began my first attempt, which resulted in little more than a bruised tomato. "What am I doing wrong?" I sighed as Billy finished washing the rest of the tomatoes.