Three Months Contract (On hold for a while)

Chapter 5

It's eight o'clock at noon and after two hours of cooking food for aunty and me, I took a small rest for five minutes. His mom told me that she has her dinner on or around this time. I've put the food on the table while I wait for her to come. She after a few minutes came and saw that I've made five dishes for us. After thinking a lot about whether I should make food for Siddhanth or not, in the end, I did ended up making some for him too. Maybe after his work, he would eat the food. Not sure he would eat it but one can still have a hope of it, right?

She made an impressed face after looking at what I made for us. She opened the lids of all the utensils while saying, "You made all of this all by yourself?"

I nod my head while smiling and in excitement, I said, "Yes, I made it."

"Good! I didn't know that you can cook too. Siddhanth told me that you aren't a good cook. Let alone can make food for two people. He told me that you don't even know how to boil water." She says.

Seriously, Shanaya didn't know how to boil water.

Wait! Why am I thinking about this now?

Stupid girl.

I shake my head and said, "Well...Actually what happened is that I started taking cooking classes for Siddhanth recently. I was going to surprise him but..."

"But. You thought that you will tell me first before him, right?" She adds and I nod my head in approval.

She smiles at me and said, "Don't worry. Your secret is with me, okay?"

I looked at her and said, "Thank you."

She then takes a seat in one of the chairs and said, "So, I'm now going to judge you by your food, right?"

"You're going to judge me?"

"Yeah, I don't know If you are familiar with it or not but I think that most of the Indian mother-in-law judge their daughter-in-law like this right?" she says.

I didn't know that she was going to judge me for eating my food. I looked at her in shock and said, "Umm. Okay."

She then laughs at me and said, "I'm kidding with you. I know that you'll freak out."

I tried to laugh at her attempt to joke but it came out as a nervous laugh and she said, "Okay. Let's have dinner."

For today's dinner, I made Palak Paneer, Boondi Raita, Rice kheer, Roti, and Vegetable Biryani. As I was serving her the food I made, she said, "It smells amazing. Are you sure that this is your first time making it?"

I nod my head and said, "I mean. It's not my first time making it. This is my third time."

She nods her head and she started eating the food. After that, I filled my plate with the food and sat on the seat just beside her. I saw that she didn't say anything about food and it made me nervous. All of my life, whenever I made food for me or anyone, people have given me the instant reaction of how that food is and almost every time it was a good reaction but after seeing her not telling me how was it. It is making me nervous for the first time.

I genuinely thought that the food was good. I guess.

After she finishes, she said, "The food was great. I've never eaten anything like this for years."

I smiled at her compliment and I said, "Thank you."

She gets up from the chair while going towards the sink when I stopped her in the middle and then said, "Wait. I'll get your plates."

I took her plates along with mine and walked towards the sink while putting the plates on the dishwasher. As I turned my head towards where we just had dinner, I saw Aunty is not there. I then put the rest of the food in the refrigerator and then I walked towards the living room when I saw aunty reading a book. Maybe, now I should tell her the truth.