Hunter sat quietly and glanced up every once in a while. He wanted to know what Arabella thought. He had cooked plenty of times for Martha. She really was a godsend. “So, how is it?” He asked quietly. Arabella let out a happy hum and gave him a smile as she swallowed a bit of zucchini.
“It’s delicious! I had no idea that you could cook so well.” She said. “How did you learn how to do this?” She asked as she cut another bite of steak. Hunter sighed and stared at his plate. He wasn’t horribly hungry. He goes hungry for how long and now that he has food he can’t eat it. He casually took a small bite of rice and swallowed.
“There was a widow named Martha. Really nice old lady.” Hunter said quietly. “I probably owe her my life.” He said with a sigh. There were plenty of times that he was on the brink of starvation and she would find him and feed him. There were a few times that he had decided to return the favor and cook for her. After a few brief visits to a restaurant owned by someone that Hunter knew from camp and several hours in the library, he went to Martha and cooked for her. He made pasta. Martha had enjoyed it so much, that she let him stay at her house. However, after a conversation with her grandson, she told Hunter that she couldn’t have him stay there anymore. Hunter understood and bowed out, but not without thanking her vehemently. “I..uh. I cooked for her for a little while.” He said with a shrug.
“Wow.” She said simply as she set her silverware down on her clean plate. “That was great. I might just hire you as my chef.” She said with a wink.
“I meant to ask.” He said taking another bite of rice. “Are we going to be getting takeout at the beach house this weekend? I was just thinking that if we stopped at the store tomorrow morning, I could probably pick some stuff up and I could cook for us this weekend.” He said as he picked at his food with his fork. “If you want. It was just a thought.” He added quietly. Arabella smiled at him.
“That would be fantastic.” She said with a grin. “You spoil me, Hunter. I couldn’t get used to having a private chef.” She said as she leaned back in her chair. She sighed and stood up. She grabbed her plate and her glass and started to walk toward the kitchen. Hunter stood up quickly and took it from her.
“I’ll take care of it. You go relax on the couch. Put in a movie. I’ll take care of this and then join you and we can get things sorted out for tomorrow.” He said looking into her eyes. She looked at him suspiciously.
“Alright.” She said, finally letting go of the dishes. “Don’t be long.” She said with a smile as she turned and walked away. Hunter took the dishes and walked into the kitchen. He scraped the scraps into the sink and put the dishes next to it. Arabella had a dishwasher, but it looked like it had never been used. Washed them down the drain before plugging the sink and adding some soap. As the sink was filling, Hunter wrapped the leftovers in aluminum foil and put them in the fridge. He shut off the faucet and started to wash the dishes. He glanced over at Arabella who was looking over some of her designs on the couch with a glass of wine. He rolled his eyes and went back to washing the dishes.
As soon as everything was dried and put away, he patted his hands and arms dry with a towel. He tossed the towel onto the counter and rolled down his sleeves as he walked into the living room and sat down on the couch. “So what’s the plan?” He asked in his recently usual quiet tone.
“Well, we leave tomorrow morning. It’s about a three hour drive, so that should be good.” She said with a chuckle. “As soon as we’re there, we’ll see what it needs and then we’ll move on from there. Sound good?” She said giving him a grin. Hunter nodded.
“Good.” He said as he adjusted toward the TV. “So what are we watching?” He asked.
“Monsters, Inc.” She said as she grabbed the remote to the DVD player and hit play. She pressed another button and the lights darkened. Hunter glanced around and blinked before turning back to the TV.