THE END

12. Cooking-went-wrong

When he asked for a dinner, I thought it would be at a restaurant.

But boy was I wrong.

When I searched the address he sent, turned out it was his house.

Who asks for a dinner at their house????

And it was not that I didn't trust him, but any girl would be conscious about such a situation.

But I decided against it. I promised him a dinner as his birthday gift, and Adira Caddel never backs away from a promise.

Here goes nothing. I summon courage to knock the door.

And the door opens instantly as if he was anticipating it already.

"Good evening!" He beams.

"Good evening." I'm not sure if I match his energy.

He invites me in and I follow his lead.

He lives in a small mansion which I wouldn't call small but it's smaller compared to Elijah's. He has a swimming pool behind which is visible from the large living room. The kitchen is open and joined to the living room, separated only by the dinning table. At one edge, there is a staircase which guides upstairs. From the view, I can imagine it has two rooms upstairs.

The TV captures the whole attention of the room. Their are minimal pictures on the walls, which if you ask me, is the only thing keeping me from calling it HOME.

"I did try to reserve a table at numerous best restaurants but they are all taken. I could have checked in on small restaurants, " He pauses, "but you deserve the best, princess."

"So what have you ordered?" I ask him instead.

"About that. I searched up few advices about how to have a fun dinner and the best one was to prepare it yourself and see the reaction." He looked into my eyes guiltily.

".....and?" I sing along.

"-and I realised I'm not a great cook. The chicken I made is probably rotting in the garbage can." He tried to brush it off.

And I cannot help but laugh at the situation.

"So we're not having dinner, I assume?" I ask between the laughs.

"Maybe we can if you know how to cook?" He insists.

"Okay okay," I recompose myself with a deep breath "What ingredients do we have?"

"I have all the things required for Butter Chicken. " He mentions.

"But I thought your attempt failed?"

"Yeah I did fail. Miserably. With a capital M." He adds and my laughter increases ten times.

"Come on !! It's the efforts that count, don't they ? And I bought all the ingredients twice the amount in case my first attempt was not good or you know, the common precautions. "

"Yeah the 'precautions '." I put it on air quotes to emphasis them.

"Do you know how to cook ?" He eyes me expectantly.

"Ofcourse I know how to cook my favourite meal." My answer sends a bolt of happiness to him.

"You can be the chef, I'll be the assistant." He gets ready.

"Alright. Now first wash the chicken while I prepare the mixture to marinate it." I instruct and we set to action.

"What do you add in that mixture?" He asks me from the corner of my eyes.

"Ginger paste, garlic paste, red chilli powder and some salt. Wait, can you handle spice ?" I look at him completely.

"If you like it spicy, we make it. I'll eat whatever you make." He smiles.