An Aesthete - A triangle love story

Chapter 23

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A small note in the end please do read it
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Darshana

I should really pull the reins of my thoughts.

I mentally shook my head and decided to get back into my Jerry skin. "You are indeed Mogambo."

"You mean I'm a supervillain?" He turned off the stove and poured the milk into a wide bowl.

"Yes." I took a slice of bread, added some wheat halwa to it and folded it before taking a bite. "I'm famished."

"I didn't say anything. I have to wait for the milk to cool down." He makes himself a coffee. "So if I'm Mogambo, then are you Seema?"

"Yes and Veda is my Arun aka Mr India." I fan my face with my hands mimicking Sridevi's Hawa Hawai song pose.

"Yen neenga dinner saptutu irukum pothu maranjitan ah?" He leans against the side counter and sips his coffee. (Why did he become invisible during your dinner?)

"Illa avaru maranje thaan iruntharu. Ennala avaru face ah kooda paaka mudila." I munched on the bread, sadly. Hridhay tried to hide his smile behind his coffee mug but he failed. "Ipo ethuku intha sirippu." I scowled at him. (No, He stayed hidden in the dark. I couldn't even see his face. Why are you smiling now?)

"Nee avan moonja paakalana enna atha nee avan ..." I took an onion and threw it at him before he completed the sentence but he caught it before it hit him. (So what? Though you couldn't see his face, you have already seen his...)

"Nee intha maathiri ellam pesuna naan kelambiduven." I almost stood up but he stopped me by placing his fingers on his lips. (If you keep talking like this, I'll leave.)

Hridhay quietly chopped the onion and tomato into medium size pieces and sauteed them in a pan with red chilli, garlic and salt. He placed it aside and added cornstarch, sugar and cinnamon powder to the milk before whisking it. He transferred the content of the pan into a food processor jar and blended it into a paste. He moved around the kitchen fluidly and I watched him fascinated.

It's not that I haven't seen the male Chef cooking in shows but I haven't seen them moving around the kitchen like performing a dance. Hridhay added a cheese slice to a bread slice, applied butter around the corner of the bread and added another bread slice over it, making it look like a single slice of bread. He dipped the bread into the custard powder mix until it's fully covered and placed it on the hot pan with melted butter. He made cooking look like an art more than a profession.

Maybe Hridhay has watched his mother with as much fascination as I'm watching him now.

My mind went to the second painting that I was gifted by Veda from The Midnight Artist collection. Though Veda must have drawn the back view of the mother and the child, the detailing he had shown on the visible part of their faces expressed how much the mother was feeling with her son and the little boy was fascinated in helping her.

"Your breakfast, Madam." I was pulled out of my thoughts when Hridhay placed a plate in front of me with four toasts and the onion tomato paste in a small dipping bowl.

"Thank you." I took a toast and dipped the edge in the paste before taking a bite. The crust, the molten cheese and the dip created a tasty fireworks blasting in my mouth. I didn't know when I closed my eyes but I opened them when I heard a chair pulled next to me. Hridhay sat on the chair and he smiled at me, shaking his head.