Page 7 of Waves
“Go ahead and sit,” I said while waving at the table. A few minutes ago, I put the salad out. Once I turned off the stove, I carried the rest over. I couldn’t help but chuckle when I noticed how Kai’s expression resembled Ishmael’s while they both watched the heat rising off the pasta after I set it on the table. “You can start eating.”
“I can wait,” Kai said, continuing to stare at the food.
“You want anything to drink?”
“Water is fine, thank you.”
I brought out bottled water for us and Ishmael’s food next. He ran away from the table the second he heard the bag crinkle and gobbled the raw chunks in his bowl. Once I set our drinks on the table, I took a seat across from Kai. Since he went for the pasta first, I started piling some greens on my plate. I watched when he twirled his fork around a mouthful of noodles and thoughtfully chewed.
“What is this?” Kai asked, sounding not disgusted but confused more than anything.
“It’s, uh, vegan Alfredo,” I mumbled while piling some on my plate.
“And what is that, exactly?”
“You’ve never had Alfredo pasta?”
“Not that I can recall.” He spun his fork in the noodles and continued to eat.
“Okay, so Alfredo is like a creamy pasta sauce. Vegan just means it’s made without animal products, so there isn’t any dairy. The sauce is mostly potatoes, onion, and cashews.”
Kai hummed while he chewed. “Is making it this way easier than the other way?”
“No, but it’s not harder, either.” In my effort to appear defensive, I only succeeded in sounding like an idiot.
“Then, why bother?”
I fidgeted with my fork and looked down at my plate. “Because some people like to eat vegan. Everyone has a different reason.”
“And you eat vegan?”
“No, I’m a vegetarian, but I think regular Alfredo sauce is nasty.”
“Hmm, well, I’ve never had it the other way, but this is good.”
I lifted my eyes to watch him, but not my head. I wasn’t sure what else I waited to hear, but he didn’t say more. “Thanks,” I said before I resumed eating.
“Do you like to cook?”
I shook my head, grinning before I answered. “Not particularly. I’m not very good at it.”
“I might disagree,” Kai said, popping his fork in his mouth. He smiled even while he chewed.
I sunk my eyes back down at my plate, but a smile threatened to stay on my lips. This was precisely the kind of thing I was not used to hearing. I was terrible at the more domestic aspects of life and well aware of it.
My ex was always the creative one, the more cultured one, and my better half because of this. He could create a dinner party menu rivaling the best restaurants in town and pair everything with the perfect wine. I didn’t so much mind how he enjoyed entertaining or how he insisted on dragging me to the theater to see the latest production. Those simply weren’t my interests. Yet, I knew he loved those things, and I willingly sat through more plays than I cared to admit because he did the same for me. He couldn’t give two shits about watching nature documentaries or discussing an article on oceanography, but he still indulged me, anyway.
“So,” I said, attempting to change the subject. “Where is your family right now?”
“None left.” Kai followed with a nonchalant shrug.
“Friends?”
“One, though I’m not so sure he would consider me one of his. More of an acquaintance, I suppose. We only see each other in passing.”
“Girlfriend?” I cautiously asked next.
Kai smirked at the question, but his ears got pinker. “No,” he said while shaking his head.