Birth, Marriage and Death

Feeling Guilty

Poppy

The morning of Ricky's parent's arrival I was up early. By the time Ricky got up I'd cleaned the kitchen and was sitting at the breakfast bar browsing Pinterest for meal ideas for later in the week. We'd decided to get a take-away tonight as I had to work for a few hours this afternoon, but tomorrow we were going out for dinner, but on Thursday I wanted to cook something special. Ideally I was on the lookout for a recipe that looked impressive but was relatively easy to create. I didn't mind something that needed a little bit of time spending on it, but I didn't really want to have to spend hours standing at the cooker or preparing ingredients. Something that could be prepared earlier in the day and put in the oven to cook unattended would be perfect.

"Morning Poppy." Ricky said as he came into the kitchen and walked over to where I sat. "Whatcha doing?"

He put his arms around me from behind and leaned his chin on my shoulder as he tried to read the screen on my tablet.

"Trying to decide what to cook on Thursday night. I think I've narrowed it down to either this..." I pointed one recipe out and then scrolled back up the screen to another, "... or this. What do you think?"

Ricky flicked between the two a couple of times and then wrinkled his nose. "Why don't you just do a roast? Everyone loves a roast dinner."

"Don't you think they'll like either of those then?" I turned to look at him. He knew his parents better than I did, he'd know what they'd like and dislike.

"They probably would but I know my dad would love a roast. So would I. Nice bit of roast lamb, mint sauce, gravy. The works." He grinned at me.

"You don't think it's too hot for a roast?" The weather had actually turned pretty hot in the last few days, which was only right considering it was now the height of summer. The August bank holiday weekend was only a few days away.

"Nah, it's never too hot for a roast, and it's supposed to cool down a bit towards the end of the week anyway. Go on... please." He tilted his head and gave me that pleading big blue eyed look that I could never resist.

"You're such a charmer Wilson," I sighed; it wasn't fair, he always got me with that look. "Okay, you win. Roast lamb it is; although if I die of heat exhaustion cooking it I'm blaming you."

"Yes!" He grinned and fist pumped the air. "I love you."

"Only cos I'm cooking you a roast dinner," I grumbled good naturedly, turning back to the breakfast bar to switch the tablet off.

"Not true. I'd love you even if you didn't cook anything." He wrapped his arms around me and kissed my neck, his stubble grazing my skin and making me tingle. "Are you okay? You seem... better."

"I'm fine." I wasn't fine by any stretch of the imagination although I did feel a little better than I had done recently. The prospect of Ricky's parents arriving later that day was giving me something else to focus on. I was actually just replacing work with my preparations for their stay, I wasn't slowing down or taking a break as Ricky wanted me to. "Okay, I better finish my shopping list and then I'm off to Sainsbury's."

"Don't forget the mint sauce, or stuff for Yorkshire puds. Anything you need me to do while you're gone?"

"Um... yeah. You can vacuum the lounge and give it a quick dust. I think everything else is done." I'd spent yesterday cleaning the bedroom and bathroom that Ricky's parents would be using, and putting clean bedding on their bed, but I hadn't had time for the lounge. "And do it properly. No squirting a bit of polish in the air and thinking I won't notice."