Lee noticed that at this point stirring wasn’t doing anything more than just moving the already mixed up noodles around the pot, so Lee stopped. And turned just in time to see Tarin’s grin as he lifted a hand for a high five.

Lee didn’t return his high five.

Instead, Lee stepped close to him, a wide grin on her face, as she hugged him. ”I can’t believe that we did this!” she exclaimed, happily surprised. ”I’d have never been able to do this without you.”

Lee left Tarin hanging for the high five, but that was alright because she hugged him instead and the grin on her face made every single bit of the entire process worth it.

Relieved that this had ended up being a good idea, Tarin took a moment to wrap his arms around Lee and smile down at her. ”I bet you could have.” he said, ”All I did was stir. You parsed out all the instructions.” He’d been so helpless remembering that Lee had thought he hadn’t even read the recipe…

Leaning down for a quick kiss, Tarin smiled again, ”Thanks for sticking with me.”

Lee shook her head when Tarin voiced the opinion that he thought she could have. Well, maybe she would have been capable of doing it, but…

”I probably would have given up after the issue with the chicken,” Lee admitted. When that happened, if Lee had been on her own, she probably would have just thrown it all in the garbage and ordered a pizza or something.

Lee then smiled up at Tarin after he kissed her. ”I could say the same thing,” she replied. ”I was still thinking things would go wrong while I was mixing the pasta in.

“But,” Lee continued, her smile only faltering slightly. ”Maybe we should actually try it before we congratulate ourselves too much?”

Lee pointed out that she’d have likely given up after the whole deal with the chicken and Tarin chuckled and shook his head. The last thing on Earth he’d say was that Lee gave up too easily, but he wondered at the validity of the statement considering the fact that she’d spent a whole day and two trips to the grocery store to ensure he had a belated birthday pie.

As for the last step and the potential for things to go wrong, ”I have to admit that I was a bit nervous when I saw that the pasta was kind of stuck together…probably could have timed that a little bit better.”

Lee did have a point about carts before horses though and Tarin reluctantly released her and said, ”I’ll grab plates.” before turning to do so. ”But nothing smells or looks bad, so I’m convinced it’s at least edible.”

It didn’t take long to get things dished up. The chicken looked like it could have used some seasoning or something, but hopefully it would be good once it was mixed in with the pasta.

Soon enough, they were out at the table and Tarin was looking down at the food on his plate, ”Together?” he said, picking up his fork.

Tarin had been worried when the pasta was all stuck together as well? Good thing he didn’t say anything about that, Lee thought. Not that she would have completely given up at that point, but she definitely wouldn’t have been smiling and be hugging Tarin like this right now.

”Well, if the directions had been a little more clear on how and when to do things, we could have had it timed better,” Lee pointed out. Because that part was clearly not their fault in any way. The directions had not been good enough.

But they were done, and it was supposed to be their dinner, and there was no way to know for sure how it had turned out without actually eating it. And while Lee was happily surprised that it seemed they had made a good dinner, there was a part of her that was still apprehensive about it.

Tarin was already grabbing plates, and just a few minutes later they were sitting at the table with the chicken alfredo sitting in front of them.

”Together?”

Lee nodded, a little nervous as she picked up her own fork.

And took a bite.

Lee chewed for a few seconds before her eyes widened in surprise. ”This is actually good,” she said once she had swallowed the food in her mouth.

”They really do assume way too much.” Tarin said when Lee pointed out that the directions could have been better. ”We did everything in order.”

Luckily it seemed like everything had worked out, Lee was smiling, and things were generally excellent. At least they would be if the food actually tasted good, which was the final hurdle. Tarin shot a little prayer up to the heavens that everything would turn out.

It was the moment of truth, and as Lee forked up some of the pasta, Tarin did the same. They took the bite at almost the same time and the look on Lee’s face made Tarin want to grin, which was hard to do while chewing.

She spoke and Tarin finished his bite and nodded, ”It absolutely is.” he said, immediately trying a second bite just to make sure he hadn’t gotten the only one that was good. The second bite was good too, and across the table he beamed.

”Mission accomplished.” he said, ”Food, that we are eating, that was made from actual ingredients. I’m wildly impressed with us. ” he said, stopping short of saying they should do this more often.

They did do everything in order, at least as it was written, and somehow it had worked out despite the fact that she and Tarin had been left with questions on when to do things and what certain directions meant.

It was almost unbelievable that they were sitting there eating food they had made, that she had helped with making, food that was more than throwing something in the oven for the amount of time the box said. And that the food they were eating was not only edible, but it was GOOD.

”Honestly, this is something I never thought I’d be doing,” Lee said before taking another bite of food. And she shook her head slightly, still marvelling over all of it.

Lee was still shocked that they’d managed to cook a meal for themselves. It definitely hadn’t been the easiest thing they’d done together, but realistically speaking they’d done pretty well together.

Taking a quick break from eating, Tarin shook his head again, ”I keep telling you that you can do anything.” he said simply.

Still, it kind of made Tarin’s night that he’d been able to help with something he hadn’t realized was such a stumbling block for Lee. She’d seemed almost tense the whole time, convinced that every step was a new opportunity to fail, “Next time will go even better.” he said.

From there, Tarin just ate for a few moments in companionable silence. The food was actually really good and pasta was always best eaten while hot.

”So.” Tarin said after a few minutes and acceptable progress towards clearing his plate, ”We meticulously planned things out up until this point, but what’s next? I know you’ll be sorely disappointed if we don’t watch the Met’s game, but I’m open to suggestion.”

Tarin’s excitement and assurance that this was something different but fun that they could try before Kevin got back home is why Lee had agreed to try this. But the difficulty at the grocery store, and then the overwhelm of realizing they realy didn’t know what they were doing as they had stood in the kitchen looking at the ingredients on the counter had brought back the reasons why Lee didn’t, and really had never, cooked.

Yet they had done it. And though Lee had been more tense than she had initially expected to be, it had kind of been fun.

”You know, even if we leave him leftovers, I doubt Kevin will believe that I helped make this,” Lee said. But then Tarin pointed out that the next time things would work out even better.

Only a small worm of apprehension moved through her, much less than she had been feeling in the kitchen earlier. Tarin was right. This had worked out well, despite the early failure with the chicken, and it didn’t have to be a one time thing. They could cook together again like this.

And maybe now that she knew she was actually able to do it, it might be more fun. ”Just let me actually see the recipe beforehand next time?” she asked. Hopefully that would help as well.

It was then quiet for a few minutes as they ate. Ate the food that they had made.

What were they going to do with the rest of the evening, though? ”Watching the game is one option,” Lee agreed. Then she smiled across the table at Tarin. ”This is our last night with the apartment to ourselves. I’m sure we’ll be able to come up with something.”

Lee was probably right about Kevin, but it still made Tarin shake his head. If there was anyone on earth with less confidence in Lee’s cooking than Lee herself, it had to be Kevin. In true teenager fashion he always had something to say about it too.

”He needs to be in the middle of eating it before we tell him. Also, one of us needs to record the look on his face so we can remind him the next time he feels the need to add commentary.” Tarin added helpfully.

Lee didn’t look horrified at the idea of trying to cook again and Tarin took that as an absolute win. She did request that he show her the recipe next time. ”I’ll do you one better. Next time you can pick the recipe and when we make it.” he said with a smile. Maybe it would take some of the pressure off if Lee got to decide what they were going to make and when. Two successful cooking attempts in a row would surely do wonders for her confidence.

Man they’d come a long way, Tarin couldn’t help but think as Lee pointed out that watching the Mets game was an option. She didn’t even try to act like she didn’t enjoy the games anymore and that in and of itself was a good reason to grin.

But then she was reminding him that this was their last night with the place to themselves. Tarin grinned and nodded, cleaning up the last few bites of pasta on his plate before sitting back in his chair, ”Oh yeah, there’s board games…talk radio…I’m sure there’s some soul crushing documentary we could accidentally stumble on.” he teased. One benefit of providing all the worst options of choices was that it ensured that none of them were picked.

”You want any more? I’m gonna go start cleaning up.” he said, standing up and grabbing his plate to take it to the kitchen. They’d left the extra ingredients out and after he put his plate in the sink, Tarin went to work getting everything put away before starting the rest of the cleanup.

Lee laughed as Tarin suggested how they tell Kevin that they had made the chicken alfredo. Video of his reaction and all. ”That’s a great idea,” Lee replied. ”I wish I had one of when he tasted the pie and realized that it was good.”

She was going to get to pick the recipe for the next time they cooked. How was she supposed to know what recipe would be simple enough for them to make? Were there recipes that had better directions than what they had made tonight? Was she going to have to go through hundreds of recipes to find one that not only made sense, but was simple?

Seeing the smile on Tarin’s face, Lee knew he had suggested it as a way to make it easier, better. For her.And maybe the actual cooking would be better, less tense and stressful if she picked the recipe.

”Ok,” she said with a nod, then laughed slightly again as Tarin listed off other things that they could do. ”You know, I think there’s two new soul crushing documentaries that we can choose from. Or watch both for double soul crushing.”

Tarin was finished eating now, and was gathering up his dishes. Lee shook her head. ”No, I think I’m good,” she replied. As Tarin made his way to the kitchen, Lee ate the rest of her pasta and followed him a minute later.

”We do still have a fair bit left, don’t we?” Lee asked, pulling out containers for the leftovers as Tarin put the extra ingredients away.

”Excellent plan…” Tarin said as Lee pointed out the fact that she knew of two appropriately soul crushing documentaries that they could watch back to back.

That sounded like the kind of thing they’d do by accident.

Lee was done eating too, and made her way out into the kitchen after a few moments and got to work getting containers out to put away the leftovers and Tarin finished putting away the extra food and got to work on the dishes.

Another downside to cooking the food was the fact that there were more dishes to wash, but Tarin went to work on the plates while Lee packed up the food.

”It did make a lot and I’m not complaining about lunch tomorrow…hand me the pots when you’re done?”

Even though there was a fair bit of food left over, it really didn’t really take all that long for Lee to get it packed into a few containers. Passing the now empty pots over to Tarin before she turned to put the containers into the fridge.

Once everything was put away, Lee stepped over to Tarin, who was still washing dishes. There certainly were a lot more to wash with cooking yourself. Since she couldn’t exactly help with the washing, Lee grabbed a towel and started drying and putting away dishes.

It really didn’t take too long for everything to be washed, and as she handed Tarin the towel so he could dry his hands, she smiled up at him. ”So,” she said. ”Mets game, documentary, or something else?”

There were more dishes, but it still wasn’t all that awful to clean them up, Tarin decided. Especially since making them dirty had been so successful.

It really was still a bit of a novelty that there was food in the containers that Lee had filled that they had made together and were going to be able to eat the next day. It made Tarin smile as he rinsed the dishes and handed them over to Lee to dry them with the towel.

Everything had gone so well.

When the dishes were done, Tarin took the towel that Lee offered and dried his hands then tossed the towel onto the counter and turned to smile right back at Lee.

”My vote is the Mets game or the ever mysterious, something else…as long as something else isn’t two documentaries.” he said, in too good of a mood to resist a bit more fun. ”But I will leave it up to you.”

Either the Mets game or her ‘something else’. Lee smiled as she stepped even closer to Tarin, lifting her arms to wrap them around Tarin’s neck. ”I think this something else is rather tempting,” Lee said softly as she looked up at Tarrin. ”We can watch baseball any day, afterall. Whether Kevin is here or not.”

She then stretched up to give Tarin a kiss. ”But if you really want to watch the game we can.”

That said, Lee gave a slight shrug as she let her arms drop again and started to turn so she could head to the living room for baseball.