That one bite was enough to make Garin gag, but he really tried not to. He glanced over to where Nadia was standing and she just kept on smiling, her expression was happy and naive. She had no idea what kind of monster she had just created. Why wasn’t she eating with him? Maybe she did have some idea? He swallowed and shuddered at the taste, it was like a mixture of dirt and raw potatoes that had not been cooked thoroughly enough.
“What do you think?” Nadia finally asked, “I thought it was pretty okay...”
Garin was shocked, so she had already eaten? Did being pregnant distort her ability to taste something terrible? He watched her for a moment and noticed that she didn’t even have a spoon. So was she lying to him about tasting it herself? Garin looked back down at the bowl full of muddy looking soup? Or was it stew? He couldn’t tell, it was that bad. The smell was hardly appealing, and he wondered how she managed to just stand there smiling like it was nothing.
“Listen...” Garin cleared his throat. “This is hardly a meal, the potatoes are practically raw...”
“Oh my word.” Nadia said in a sigh, “You hate it, don’t you?”
Garin stared at the bowl full of the muddy concoction. “You can’t cook, can you?’
“I never had to!” Nadia replied, raising her hands up in exasperation. “If I was ever really hungry, I would just pay a visit to the king, or I would go out and find food from a stall somewhere.” She shrugged, “Why would I ever need to cook?” Just then, her stomach growled.
“You haven’t eaten anything, you know it’s bad.” Garin groaned, “What a waste of ingredients!” He pressed his hands against his face, trying to restrain himself, lest he say something to her that he would regret. He’d need to kill her eventually, but even six months could be considered a long time, and if he hurt her feelings… a low grumble escaped his lips. He didn’t want to deal with the eventual repercussions that would come if he allowed himself to say what he wanted to say. So, he took slow breaths to calm himself before speaking.
When he moved his hands away from his face and looked at her, he realized how embarrassed Nadia was. Her cheeks were a bright pink, and she was staring sadly at the pot of… something. He wanted to say something, but he couldn’t figure out what he should say. Then, she turned her eyes back to him, still frowning.
“I didn’t mean to waste the ingredients… I really did try.”
“And you failed horribly.”
“I’m sorry… I just hoped that… maybe I might… I don’t know, I guess I thought it might be possible that…” Her voice trailed off and she began stirring the pot in contemplation.
“What?” Garin tried to stifle a laugh as he realized what she meant. “You mean to tell me that you thought you might have a natural talent for cooking, and you decided to test it by throwing a bunch of stuff in a pot?” He couldn’t contain his laughter anymore. “If I hadn’t agreed to kill you, I might have decided to keep you as comedian instead!”
