Always The Second Choice

10. Dinner Gone Wrong

__________________

.

.

.

"What are you doing here?" Nicola looked up from where she had deliberately placed herself on the couch in the living room. It was seven in the evening and it was usually the time for her to curl up in her bed to watch some Chinese drama but today, she had a point to prove - that her husband was an idiot. 

"Should I have moved out or something?" She scooped up some fruit salad into her mouth as she went back to the script she was revising. 

Dominic rolled his eyes. "You know that's not what I meant." 

"Isn't it?" Nicola yawned as she typed into her laptop. 

Dominic walked over to her side and sat down next to her. "Are you working on a new book?" 

"No. I am going through the script of Good Cop, Bad Cop." She said, closing the computer when her husband tried to take a peek. "Very confidential script."

"How confidential can it be?" Dominic laid back on the couch. "I know the entire book down pat." 

And yet he had no idea it was his wife who had written the book. 

"There will be changes." 

Lies. Nicola had signed the agreement on the sole condition that the book would be filmed word for word.

But she was a reader herself and she knew that every reader's worst nightmare was their favorite book being modified for the film adaptation. So she decided to play with her husband for a moment.

"What changes?" Dominic shifted in his seat, turning to her, his eyes wide with anticipation. 

Nicola raised a brow. This might have been the most intent that Dominic had ever been to have a conversation with her. 

"Confidential." Nicola flipped her hair as she brought her laptop down to the coffee table. 

"Oh come on!" 

"I am going to make some pasta. Would you like some?" She asked, changing the subject as she got up. 

"Didn't the housekeeper make anything?" Dominic asked. 

Their housekeeper, Mary, was like a ghost. The two inhabitants rarely saw the middle-aged lady but she did her job faultlessly. Nicola had met her that morning because she had woken up earlier than usual. 

"Her daughter just had a baby so I gave her the week off." Nicola waved her hand as she made her way to the kitchen. 

"Let me help!" Dominic hopped off the couch and followed her.

.

.

.

"Oh my god, I will kill you if you put that into my dish!" Nicola screeched as she tried to swat Dominic away with her spatula. 

"Onions are good." Dominic tried to argue. 

"Onions are good. Those onions are not. Who cuts them into those huge clumps, you baboon? It's going to come off uncooked!" 

Nicola was at her wit's end thirty minutes into the cooking. She never liked having anyone else in the kitchen with her while she cooked in the first place. At home, her mother and her father never cared to set foot in the kitchen because why would they? They were rich enough to have a couple of five-star chefs in their kitchen. 

But Nicola had someone gotten into cooking and Stacia, even though could not boil water to save her life, always followed her little sister into the kitchen to supposedly keep her company while eating her ears off with the latest gossip.