“Sausage, egg, cheese, jalapeños, peppers, and bacon.Lotsof bacon. You seem like a bacon kind of guy.”
“You seem like my dream woman.”
She smiled, continued, “Chips and salsa are in the bag, next to the roll of Tums for later.”
“Definitely. Dream woman.”
She laughed.
“I can’t believe you remembered when I told you I liked breakfast burritos.” I looked at the spread in front of us—scrambled eggs, peppers, and red potatoes smothered in cheese.
“Hang on… Where did you get all this?”
She continued stirring the hash, avoiding eye contact and a response.
“Sunny. Where did you get this food?”
She huffed out a breath, looked at me. “Well, I was going to wait until you took a bite and didn’t keel over and die, before I told you I cooked it. I made it.”
My jaw literally dropped.
“Oh well, thanks.” She rolled her eyes
I slammed it shut. “Sorry. I mean,youcooked this? Everything? I thought you didn’t cook.”
“You’re the one who said I should learn, right?”
“Well… yeah… but…”
“You didn’t expect me to listen?”
“Not really.”
“Well I did, and don’t get too excited until you try it.”
“Where did you get the food?”
“Farmer’s market. On the way back from the vet this afternoon.”
“Okay, but how did you make it? The kitchen isn’t even working.”
“Well, turns out your brother has a fire pit with this grill-grate-looking thing over it…”
I bit my tongue.
“… So I gathered some hickory wood?—”
“How did you know what trees are hickory?”
“Now, that insults me. I know my trees. I have a hickorytree in my backyard. Anyway, I cooked the bacon, eggs, onions, peppers and potatoes in this heavy black skillet thing I found buried in the cabinets. It wasn’t so hard. I’m sure I overcooked the bacon, but I didn’t want to spend the evening puking. The salsa on the other hand?” She shook her head. “Holy cow.Noteasy.”
“This ishomemadesalsa?”
“Yep.” She raised her palms. “Made by these two hands, chopped up by a hunting knife I found hanging in the back.”
My eyes rounded in horror.
She laughed. “I washed it, don’t worry. Anyway, it’s got fresh, chopped tomatoes—obviously—and onions, cilantro, garlic that took me thirty minutes to dice, lime… and what else? Oh…” Her eyes widened with fear or concern, I wasn’t sure which. “And jalapeños… I, uh… hope you like hot stuff. I… didn’t exactly take the seeds out. I guess you’re supposed to take the seeds out?”
