Virgin at 40 (BXB)

Chapter 15

Third Person’s POV:

“Fuck!” Xander cursed, for what seemed like the 20th time as he set the timer for the oven. He had placed the dishes in the oven and set the temperature to 190 degrees according to Castian’s instructions but had forgotten to set the timer so for the past 30 minutes, he had left it sitting in the oven for nothing. Well, at least he didn’t have to worry about flies. It was 5:53pm already, 7 minutes before Kye arrives and he had yet finished preparing the dishes.

2 hours ago, he almost cut his fingers off with the knife while cutting a block cheese into finger-size.

1h 45 minutes ago, he almost scalded himself while scooping the boiled pasta out of the hot water.

1h 17 minutes ago, he almost lose his instructional notebook when he dropped it on the lit stove due to his flour coated fingers when he was preparing to deep fry the cheese sticks.

43 minutes ago, he forgot to defrost the frozen packet of soup.

Basically, it was a living nightmare and he was close to having a mental breakdown. He didn’t know that preparing a full course meal himself was like sending himself to war. Whether or not the food was edible was another thing.

Stirring the soup, making sure that it doesn’t burn at the bottom, the doorbell rang, much to what he had expected, though he was silently hoping that Kye would be late. Kye’s a punctual individual after all. Sighing lightly, he washed his hands thoroughly, double- wait, triple checking the oven and stove before going to unlock the door for Kye.

Seeing the sight before his eyes, Lye stifled back a laugh when a stressed looking Xander welcomed him in a flour covered apron with scattered batter stains all over, even his hair had flour on it. “Hi.” He greeted with a warm smile while seemed to result in Xander mirroring his expression.

“Sorry about the mess. I’ll be done soon.” Xander apologised, slightly embarrassed of how unsightly he looked as he led Kye into the living room before excusing himself swiftly and making a sprint into the kitchen when Kye said that he smelled something burning.

Xander’s face fell into one of disappointment when he found the base of the soup to be burnt. Tears threatened to surface from all the pent up frustration and anger at himself in how everything wasn’t turning up well despite how he wanted to make it perfect for Kye.

Plating the dishes with a heavy heart, he arranged them neatly on the dining table, biting down on his bottom lip as he contemplated whether to call Kye out to eat his cooking or to throw all into the bin and call for takeout. At least he didn’t have to worry about Kye getting food poisioning. Sighing heavily, he picked up the messy looking baked dish and headed towards the trash.

“Wow. Smells nice.” Kye awed to himself as he eyed the plated food with wide eyes, causing Xander to stop in his tracks to turn and look, only to catch Kye’s eyes staring back at him embarrassedly as he stood by the table. “Sorry! It smelled so good- I didn’t mean to peek!” Kye panicked.

“Do you… really mean it?” Xander questioned hesitantly as he gripped tightly on the ceramic dish as Kye tilt his head in confusion. “That it smells nice…”

“Of course.” Kye replied honestly before walking towards Xander and taking the baked dish from his hands and placing it back onto the table. Xander stared at him silently, as he watch his unpleasant looking dish get brought back to the table. “Are we going to eat or stare at each other?” Kye asked with an awkward chuckle, snapping Xander out of his daze.

“S-Sorry. I’ll get us drinks.” Excusing himself, he filled two glasses with sparkling cocktail before placing down the glasses in front of Kye and himself before taking a seat. “Um… dig in.” He offered timidly as Kye stared at him weirdly, wondering why he’s behaving as such but nonetheless, started digging in.