A Cup of Coffee

c h a p t e r 1 8

Adam

Saturday (14 days left) // Date #1

She looked stunning as she submerged herself into cooking. Our picnic for today was quite special and I never had steak for picnic before. She seasoned it with the basic salt and pepper. Afterwards, she added corn starch, stock and milk to the leftover juices of the steak and created this gravy that tasted delictable.

I already packed the rice she cooked and other finger food she popped into the air fryer. She took out a huge bag and she put the chips in and the containers of food. In a small cooler, she placed our drinks along with some ice. After cleaning the kitchen for barely ten minutes, we were out the door and driving to the hill top of Penguinne.

She carried the cooler while I carried the bag, she never lets me do everything for her. As if she was so used to depending on herself a lot to even bother asking for help.

"Here's a good spot," she pointed to a spot near the oak tree. We continued walking in silence as we headed to the said destination. The hill was pretty much empty apart from a family of five, cycling around the path below and a couple eating ice cream by the lake. We unfolded the blanket we brought and placed our things on the edges to prevent the corners from flying off. When we nearly finished setting the food, I took out my camera to take a couple pictures of Elizabeth and the picnic set up. She looked so beautiful with her hair naturally draping at the side of her face and how oblivious she was of her surroundings.

"You're into photography?" She looked up as I snapped another picture of her. The oak tree gave us enough shade from the sun and her brown hair was lighter as the sunlight hits her.

"Yeah, it's my job too,"

"That's really cool, how long has it been?" I proceeded to tell her about graduating early and being able to finish up college without much hassle. I ended up talking about the course I took up too whilst she got our food ready. On my plate were baked potatoes with mayonnaise and parmesean cheese. In a small rounded container was the rice she made for me with a plastic spoon in it. I had a medium rare steak on my plate along with some boiled carrots and cauliflowers. We had hotdogs, nuggets and cheese springrolls laid out on the blanket. It wasn't even a picnic anymore but a feast.

The steak surprisingly didn't go too hard despite the 20 minute wait. We ate our food and continued talking about our hobbies and interests. She loves cooking and I wondered why she took up an English major instead. I told her about my interest in music and how I never pursued it because I wasn't going to be successful like other people. After a while of going back and forth with our stories, I remembered how Elizabeth talked about her older sister. I didn't want to make it too serious of a subject, I just wanted to understand her better and get to know her more.

"Elizabeth," I started, changing my sitting position because sitting crossed legged for almost an hour can make your feet go numb.

"Hmm," she smiled as she chew on her nuggets, dipping them in a spinach dip she whipped up within a few minutes.

"Let's do this thing where we ask each other any twenty questions. But we have to be truthful. We can pass but like it means the person can ask another question after."

"Anything? But why 20? I thought it was 21?"

"Yes, I honestly don't know. Are you down though?"

"Yeah sure, you go ahead first while I come up with juicy questions."

"What happened to your sister?" She paused slightly but pretended she didn't and kept eating her nuggets. She took a deep breath before hesitating to speak again and shutting her mouth.