The Big Pretense

Chapter 6

A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

Mew's POV

"Come," I said to Gulf, "let's make something out of these stuff that Art left behind."

Gulf just stood staring at the spinach leaves and onions and garlic. I guess he didn't know much about cooking.

I went to the fridge and opened the freezer. I took out a pack of pork chops and placed it inside the microwave to thaw. The pack consisted of two large pork chops. When they finished thawing I seasoned them with salt and pepper.

"Gulf," I said, "would you please see if there are any carrots in the fridge?"

Gulf obediently went and opened the fridge and brought out a plastic bag containing several pieces of baby carrots. I instructed him to take out a pot from a cabinet and to start boiling them.

While he was going about his task, I took out a frying pan and started to slow fry the pork chops.

Gulf and I were waiting for our individual tasks to finish when we heard an announcement over the intercom.

"Art Pakpoom, you have a visitor at the lobby. Art Pakpoom, please come to the reception area."

Again I could not help wondering who his visitor was. Was it the person that he had mentioned was going to bring him his lunch food?

My mind suddenly went back to our happy times in the past. We had such good times going from place to place. How I had loved holding him in my arms.

Suddenly I heard excited voices, one of them I recognized as Art's. Then suddenly I heard a door slamming.

I ran out of the kitchen to see what was happening.

The living room was empty but I heard excited but muted voices coming from one of the rooms. I stopped to listen. They were coming from inside Art's room.

I walked slowly as if in a trance in the direction of Art's room.

"P'Mew!"

"Huh?" I turned around. Gulf was calling me from the kitchen doorway.

"The pork chops are starting to burn!"

I ran to the kitchen.

"Don't ever leave your cooking again!" Gulf was scolding me, "you're gonna burn this place down!"

"You could have turned the stove off," I replied testily.

He had no response to that.

"I think the carrots have softened," said Gulf, "what do I do next."

"Nothing," I said, feeling resentful that he was going to be no help in the kitchen. I did not have the patience to teach and supervise someone about cooking at this time.

I grabbed another frying pan and placed a few drops of oil into it and when the oil looked hot enough, I dropped the garlic pieces and the chopped onions into it.

While I waited for the garlic to brown and the onions to caramelize, I remembered too late that we had forgotten to cook some rice.

"Fuck," I said under my breath as I banged open and shut every kitchen cabinet door looking for any bags of rice.

I kept cursing until I finally found several one pound bags of jasmine rice in one of the cabinets.

"If you're going to continue cursing and slamming cabinet doors, I'm leaving you," Gulf announced.

"If you want to go hungry, suit yourself," I said, not happy at all at the thought that he wasn't very understanding of the frustrating situation.

I heard him stomping angrily out of the kitchen.

I went about washing the rice and placing the corresponding volume of water to its quantity and then sticking the electric cord into one of the outlets in one corner of the kitchen counter.

While waiting for the rice to cook, I dropped the browned garlic pieces and caramelized onions into the pot where the carrots were boiling. Then I sprinkled some salt and pepper into the pot before dropping the spinach leaves. It was a very simple vegetable soup but I was in no mood to make anything fancy today.

When everything was ready, I laid out the food on the dining table and went in search of Gulf. I started to feel sorry for being short with him earlier.

I was on my way to Gulf's room when Art's door which was just two doors away from Gulf's, opened and Art stepped out looking disheveled and annoyed. Right behind him I saw a young boy, maybe not a day older than sixteen, trying to pull him back inside the room.

"What's going on here?" I demanded.

Art looked stunned at seeing me. He obviously had not expected to see me walk by just as he had stepped out of his room.

He quickly went back inside his room, pushing the boy back inside and slamming the door shut.

I started pounding on his door.

"Hey! Open this door or I will report this to the director!" I yelled while continuing to pound on the door.

At that moment, Gulf came out of his room.

"What do you think you're doing, P'Mew?" he demanded, "are you going back to your ex- just because I don't know how to cook?"

My arms suddenly went limp. Yes, what indeed did I think I was doing.

I went to take Gulf in my arms.

"I'm sorry, Gulf," I whispered in his ears, "I'm sorry for being upset in the kitchen earlier. I wanted to accomplish things quickly and was frustrated that I couldn't do things quickly enough. Come, let's go and eat. Everything has been set on the table."

Gulf silently followed me to the kitchen.

I made sure to keep my face averted from him. My eyes were unexpectedly filling up and were threatening to drop across my cheeks and I knew why. I was not yet over Art.