Page 137 of Come Back to Me

“Hey,” she greets me.

“Hello there.”

“You can come in. I promise I won't bite.”

She guides me inside, and I see an orange bowl full of mostly chocolate candy sitting by the front door.

“Besides taco bowls for dinner, what are our other plans for tonight?”

“Um…I thought we could watch a non-scary Halloween movie. Have you seen the one with Eddie Murphy where he’s a realtor trying to sell a creepy mansion?”

“I don’t remember. If I have, it’s probably been several years.”

“Okay then, it’s settled. We’re watching it.”

“Alright.”

“It’s one of my favorite Halloween movies of all time!”

“I could tell by the enthusiasm in your voice.”

“Sorry, was it too much?”

“No, not even close,” I assure her.

“Okay, good. Oh, I cut up the potatoes in thick slices and put them in the chopper. I didn’t season them because I don’t know if you like seasoning your potatoes differently than I do.”

“What seasonings do you use for your potatoes?”

She points to each individual jar of seasoning as she says what each one of them is. “Salt. White pepper. Garlic powder. Onion powder. Paprika. Fresh herbs if I have them, or dried herbs if I don’t have the fresh stuff.”

“Let’s season these diced potatoes, then.”

I’m putting the final touches on the ground turkey that has been cooking away in a medium-sized pan. The potatoes have been in the oven for almost thirty minutes.

Violet diced some tomatoes, while the ground turkey and potatoes have been cooking. She took the shredded cheddar cheese, guacamole, and sour cream out of the refrigerator a couple minutes ago.

After the ground turkey is browned and fully cookedthrough, I turn off the stove and move the pan away from the heat. The oven dings, which means the potatoes are done.

There are two bowls next to me: an orange one and a yellow one.

“Do you have a preference on which bowl you want?” I ask her.

“I’ll take the yellow one.” She grabs both bowls and moves them closer to the oven, so she can put a serving of potatoes in each one.

She grabs the bag of shredded cheese because the hotter the food is, the better it’ll melt onto the potatoes. She moves swiftly over to the other side of the kitchen where the ground turkey is.

Before she gets ready to scoop the meat into the bowl, she sets up a station of diced tomatoes, guacamole, and sour cream to garnish the taco bowls.

When she makes it to the last step of sprinkling the tomatoes on top of everything, her eyes go wide. “Can you get me the dried parsley out of the pantry?”

I see a spinner of various seasonings on the shelf that’s at eye-level and spin it around until I find the parsley. I hand it over to her, and she sprinkles it evenly over the top of the contents in our bowls.

“Your taco bowl, sir.” She picks up the orange bowl, kindly shoving it closer into my face.

“Thank you.” I grab two forks from her silverware drawer and two napkins from her napkin holder on the kitchen table. Placing the bowl down in front of me, I inhale the delicious steam dancing around.

When Violet walks over to the table, she notices I haven’t eaten anything yet. “You don’t have to wait for me.”