I stopped for groceries on the way
over. We were making tacos, and I was responsible for the cheese and Italian sausages.
I had some in my freezer, except they were labeled Extra Hot (specially from
the butcher shop back home) and I remembered from our date at Masala Mantra
that he does not like very spicy food.
Kevin told me the door would be unlocked and that I
should come on in. I rang the doorbell anyway, and walked in afterward. I went
downstairs and kissed Kevin hello. It was sunny and lovely outside, which did
not jive with our established preference of walking in the rain, so we stayed
in.
I got a message from Adam. He and I had plans to go
mini-golfing in the evening, but he was feeling very sick. He apologized and I
told him to get well soon.
With date number two cancelled, Kevin and I settled in
for the long haul. He was leaving that night for Costa Rica, and when he asked
me to stay and continue our visit, I offered to give him a ride to the airport
later.
We watched The
Princess Bride and he gave it the proper degree of appreciation. Or at
least, he pretended to with enough fervor so as to be mistaken for honesty. All
good.
We went upstairs to make dinner. His roommate’s parents
were there, and they had ingredients for their dinner spread out everywhere.
Kevin commandeered a burner on the stove and set about cooking turkey breast
and mild Italian sausages in a frying pan. I grated up some cheese, because I’m
super helpful like that. I chatted with Kevin’s roommate’s mom a bit, but
mostly just tried to stay out of the way. Kevin’s roommate’s dad smiled at me
and told me we’d already met last time. Uh no. But thanks for making me wonder
who else has been here before me, always a comforting thought. Good thing I’m
not highly competitive or prone to perseverating.
To distract myself, I asked Kevin some more random ‘get
to know you’ questions. I learned a few interesting tidbits, like if he could
do a foodie vacation anywhere, it would be France. I learned that his roommate
would prefer to not go back to Spain, as she disliked the food there (weirdo).
This segued seamlessly into a question I had been dreading ever since Monday Funday.
“So, Horatio said that you were
picky.” Yes he did, that traitor.
“I think his exact words were ‘batshit
crazy’ but yeah, I see where you’re going with this.” I laughed.
“I haven’t noticed that you don’t
like anything.”
“That’s because I’m on my best
behaviour when you’re around.” In fact, I’ve been downright angelic.
“So are there any foods you don’t
like?”
I gave him a frank look. “There
are quite literally hundreds of foods I don’t like.”
“Wow. Are you going to tell me
what they are?”
“I might let you guess.”
A smile. “Oh. Ok, I like this.”
When we loaded up our tacos, his back was turned to me so
I skipped the tomatoes and wrapped up my food so he couldn’t see. I wasn’t so
lucky when we had seconds. He was watching me, so I put a few pieces of tomato in
my taco and swallowed them. Better them than my pride, it seems. Sigh.
I made tea. Since my last visit, Kevin bought some loose
leaf Earl Grey. He somehow guessed my favourite.
Kevin hadn’t started packing yet for his Costa Rican
vacation. I played Solitaire while he packed. This sounds boring, but I
actually love to play Solitaire and I know a whole bunch of different kinds.
And for some reason I kept winning at it, which was great.
Once he was packed and ready to go, we had dessert. It
was raspberry gelato (another favourite of mine) with raspberries on top. So
lovely.
I apologized for the weird assemblage of shit in my car.
To his credit, he didn’t immediately “remember” that he promised a particular
taxi driver that he would never get rides to the airport from strangers. He
just made a joke about what he guessed I needed an empty oxygen tank for. I
also apologized for the fact that my stereo was blaring out Bat Out of Hell at
an ear-splitting volume. He laughed at me.
I kissed him goodbye on the sidewalk near the unloading
zone at the international departures terminal of the airport. Luckily the usual
parking minions weren’t making their rounds, yelling at people, so I was able
to enjoy it.
And then he flew away.
No comments:
Post a Comment