METANOIA

TAYLOR MADE

There was a reason why Taylor's bakery was separated from the rest of her house. She cooked food out of the bakery section of the house, and she had a license and a brand for it, Taylormade. The guys wanted to see the place where she cooked.

So the guys had stepped over to Taylor's bakery. They walked through a door that isolated the bakery section of the house. The first thing they noticed was this was no ordinary kitchen. There was obviously a lot of kitchenware and, surprisingly, the place was remarkably clean. But the thing that was astonishing was the industrial sized equipment Taylor somehow managed to scrounge. It wasn't just the oversized oven, which one could easily fit a body in. There was an industrial dishwasher, another convection oven, some oversized Tupperware and three fridges. There were frequent health inspections, and Taylor had maintained the standards required somehow. Taylor and Sarah had started baking some carrot cakes, brownies and were touching up the cheesecakes she had made last night.

After about ten minutes of joking around in the kitchen, Taylor kicked them out. They left the girls in the kitchen and returned to the living room. As they entered, Misha kicked Silas in the ass to get his attention, "Hey asshole, so last night, I sorta felt like you still had something for Lisa. Did I interpret correctly or was there some chemistry there?"

Silas said, "Well if you were blind, I could see how you might have missed the chemistry."

Pete asked, "Wait, what happened?"

Misha said, "Or, if you are Pete, you could miss it too, apparently."

Pete was legendary for missing details. Silas and Pete used to hang out at the local hookah bar called the Masha Meshe Lounge. Both of them were regulars there; it was their den, a place they always ended up. Silas, being a feeder of the attention, always used to bring Fluffy with him. It was a conversation starter. Fluffy was small enough at the time to hide inside his shirt, someone looking at him wouldn't even be able to tell it was there, and occasionally, he let it wander around on the table.

Silas started bringing Fluffy to the lounge before he became friends with Pete, and kept bringing it throughout their friendship. About eight months into their friendship, Pete and Silas were in the lounge again when Fluffy made its way out of his shirt and onto the table. Silas was used to that happening and wasn't paying attention to it. Pete lowered his book and asked, "What is that?" Only when he saw Pete looking at him in terror did Silas realize Pete was oblivious to the fact he had been sitting there with a live snake in his shirt for the past eight months.

That had been an entertaining anecdote that made its way into their conversations for years. Throughout the entire party last night, Pete had been oblivious that Silas' attraction to Lisa was rekindling.

Silas continued to tell them his plans, "Well, actually, I texted Lisa, and asked her to come to the Dude later today."

Pete asked, "Alone?"

Silas said, "Hopefully, but if it's a no go, I'll text you."

Pete said, "Boys to the rescue!"

Misha noted Silas' excitement, "I totally get the reasons you like her, man, you know? She is smart, beautiful and sassy, and," he added, waving his finger like a diva for the effect, "I think she is the sort of woman that one can settle down with. Most importantly, she puts you in your place..."

He went on,

"I knew you had a thing for her, so she had always been out of the question in my mind, but I can definitely see myself hanging out with someone like her. Well, I mean a girl like her, minus the smoking like a chimney and the whole crazy Christian thing." The three boys laughed. "That doesn't bother you?"