“Damn,” she giggles. “This sure beats the boxed stuff.”
I am pressed softly against her, my hand on hers as we blend the roux. “Blows it out of the park,” I say.
“If I have to make mac and cheese this way every time now, I’m going to be mad at you,” she teases.
“I guess I’ll just have to come over and help,” I answer before thinking about it. My heart does a backflip in my chest. Warning signs flash. I ignore them.
We pour the cooked pasta and the roux into a pan and blend it together before sprinkling it with more cheese and seasoned breadcrumbs. Then into the oven it goes.
“Where did you learn to cook?” she asks as we make our way over to the couch with wine glasses. I help her clear away the blankets and a few toys. The couch is a bright reddish-pink, like the color of fruit punch, with a turquoise paisley print. Something familiar flashes at the front of my memory, and I swallow hard.
“My grandmother,” I tell her as we sit down. “My mother’s mom.”
“Oh. You had family around?”
“Momentarily,” I answer. “She came around a bit when my mom first died, for about six months. Then she got sick, and that was that. She taught me to make mac and cheese from scratch, claiming up and down there was no other way. Oh, and grilled cheese. Sliced cheddar on sourdough. Sometimes with tomatoes. Her uh, her couch looked like this. This pattern.”
“I got it at a yard sale,” she admits. Then she opens her mouth and closes it again. I nod my chin up, prodding her to say what she was about to say. “How old were you? When your mom died, I mean.”
“Luca’s age,” I answer before taking a sip of my wine.
Ellie lets out the smallest of gasps, pressing her hand to her chest. “I can’t imagine.”
Suddenly, Luca comes running into the room. “It’s ready!” he says, holding what looks almost like a volcano full of blue and green slime.
“Ready?” I ask, and then I realize what I bought him. It’s not just slime. It’s–
“It’s a volcano!” He jumps for joy, nearly spilling it. “All we have to do is push this button, and it will ooze out!”
“Buddy, maybe we should do it on the kitchen tab–”
But it’s too late. Luca presses the button, and the volcano erupts. By the way, it’s not an ooze. It’s a full-blown explosion, covering everything within a five-foot radius with splats of slime, including Ellie and myself.
“Holy cow,” Ellie lets out as she wipes it off her eyes. Meanwhile, Luca is just laughing. She looks over at me, and her smile fades. “Oh god. Damien, I am so sorry. How expensive was that shirt? It looks expensive. It can be saved if we do some pretreatment now; although it’s probably dry clean only, isn’t it? Shit. I mean shoot. I’m sorr–”
But Ellie stops when my attempt to smile is defeated by the laugh that rumbles out of my chest. Once it starts, I can’t stop it. This whole thing is just ridiculous. I cover my face as the laughter rolls from deep in my chest and fills the room.
“Wanna know the best part?” Luca asks. Then, he dips his finger into the volcano and pops it in his mouth. “It’s edible. You bought edible slime!”
Then I lean back, laying my head back on the couch. Luca is still laughing too. After my abs begin to ache, I turn my head to look at Ellie, who is just gaping at all of it. She’s probably still in shock from getting a slime rocket to the face. She’s also never heard me laugh before.
Luca dances off, eating the slime off every surface, and I sit up, turning towards Ellie, who is now laughing too.
“You have–” she says, leaning in and wiping it off my cheek. Then she pops in her mouth.
“You still have some on your face too,” I say. It’s on her lips. Instead of wiping it off, I cover her mouth with mine for a momentary kiss.
When we pull away, Luca is in the kitchen rinsing the volcano out. “Wanna know what else?” he calls out to us.
“What’s that, buddy?” Ellie laughs, her cheeks still pink from the surprise kiss.
“There’s another package of slime mix in the box. Orange! We can do it again!”
I bite my lip, and Ellie shakes her head.
“You are in so much trouble,” she says.
And in that moment, with the oven timer going off and the slime-drenched room and Luca no doubt whipping up batch number two, I realize she is right.
