Chapter 373 A Thousand Miles of Tenderness (5) Cecilia Cooks
Checking out the text Alaric had sent, Cecilia paused for a sec and shot back: [My bad.]
[Don't ever dress like that again, got it?] Alaric's message was all business.
Cecilia left him on read.
Alaric: [If you wanna wear it, only in front of me.]
Cecilia's face scrunched up at that.
Just then, her food delivery showed up. She texted: [Food's here, gonna eat.]
[You put on proper clothes?]
[Yeah, I did!]
Man, how could a guy be so bossy!
Cecilia tossed her phone aside and headed to the door. Grabbing the food from the delivery guy, she suddenly asked, "Hey, know any supermarkets around here? Need to grab some groceries."
"If you drive, there's a big one about twenty minutes away. If you wanna stay close, there's a farmers' market just outside the back gate, to the right. You can get your stuff there too," the delivery guy replied quickly.
"Cool, thanks," Cecilia said, grateful.
"No problem. Don't forget to give a five-star rating," he said with a grin.
"Will do," Cecilia replied.
The delivery guy left, and Cecilia shut the door.
As she munched on her lunch, she wondered if she should cook dinner for Alaric tonight.
This place, stripped of the big city glitz, felt kinda homey to Cecilia.
She scarfed down her meal, changed clothes, and headed out.
She was all about living in the moment now.
Reborn and all, she didn't wanna leave any regrets.
She hit up the farmers' market the delivery guy mentioned.
She'd only seen places like this on TV. The hustle and bustle made her uneasy, but she was determined to get used to it.
"Is this veggie in the pic the same as this one?" Cecilia showed a pic on her phone to the veggie vendor.
The pic was of a cooked dish, so she couldn't really tell.
The vendor glanced at it, a bit of disdain in his eyes. "Nope, it's this one."
He pointed to a cabbage nearby.
Feeling a bit awkward, Cecilia said, "I'll take one."
"Three bucks," the vendor said after weighing it.
Cecilia quickly paid up.
Using pics to ask around, she finally got all the veggies and meat she needed.
By the time she got back home, it was already 5 PM.
Time flew, and Alaric would be back soon.
She needed to finish cooking before he got home to surprise him.
She could already picture how stoked Alaric would be.
Following the steps in her cooking app, Cecilia washed the veggies and meat, then started chopping.
Chopping veggies was a breeze.
But cutting the beef? Total nightmare.
She couldn't get the pieces uniform no matter what. She thought, maybe chunks would work too.
As long as it was edible, right?
She barely managed to get everything prepped.
Cecilia started cooking.
Then, she hit a snag.
She had no clue how to light the stove.
After messing with it for a while, she was still stumped.
She thought for a moment and decided to call George.
When George heard she was cooking, he was floored and tried to talk her out of it, saying cooking was dangerous and she shouldn't mess with it. But he couldn't resist Cecilia's stubbornness, so he reluctantly walked her through lighting the stove, repeatedly stressing that if the kitchen caught fire, she should bolt out of the house and call 911.
Cecilia rolled her eyes.
Did George think she was that clueless?
She lit the stove and hung up the phone.
Following the app's steps, she added oil first, then some seasonings.
When the app said it was time, Cecilia tossed in the meat.
As soon as she did, she let out a scream.
The sudden sizzle from the pan freaked her out.
Oil splattered, hitting her hand, making her drop the spatula in pain...
Alaric got off work on time and came home a bit early.
He was holding flowers and a shopping bag. As soon as he opened the door, something flew at him. He quickly dropped the shopping bag and caught the spatula with quick reflexes.
Then he saw Cecilia in the kitchen, huddled in a corner, looking terrified.
Alaric's eyes softened. So, Cecilia was trying to make him dinner.
He was genuinely touched.
He quickly put down the flowers and walked over, turning off the stove. He saw that the food in the pan was burnt to a crisp.
Alaric turned to look at Cecilia.
Seeing her scared expression, he couldn't help but laugh. "Were you trying to make me dinner?"
Cecilia, annoyed by Alaric's laughter, said, "But I can't do it!"
"Did you buy these?" Alaric asked, looking at the prepped ingredients in the kitchen.
Cecilia nodded.
"Where'd you get them?" Alaric asked as he started cleaning the burnt pan.
"The farmers' market outside the community," Cecilia replied.
"Thanks," Alaric said sincerely as he scrubbed the pan.
He kept chatting with Cecilia, probably to ease her embarrassment.
"I thought cooking was easy," Cecilia said, still upset.
She always felt that if she put her mind to it, she could do anything well.
"It is pretty easy," Alaric said.
"Are you calling me stupid?" Cecilia was pissed.
Alaric chuckled, "I'm just saying you shouldn't have to deal with mundane chores. Leave the hard stuff to me."
Cecilia wrinkled her nose.
Alaric's quick wit was really something.
He could spin anything around.
Cecilia stood behind Alaric, watching him skillfully clean the kitchen, expertly handle the knife, and re-cut the veggies and meat.
Seeing Alaric's knife skills, Cecilia wanted to crawl into a hole.
She wondered how such tough meat could be so easily and beautifully cut by Alaric.
Cecilia was a bit mesmerized.
How could Alaric have so many skills?
He, known to outsiders as a playboy, seemed like a treasure, always full of surprises.
The more Cecilia got to know Alaric, the more she fell for him.
"All done," Alaric said after prepping all the ingredients, ready to start cooking.
He called out to Cecilia, "Mrs. Whitaker, come here."
"No," Cecilia refused.
Even though she wanted to cook, she was too scared to go near the stove after getting burned by the oil.
"Come on," Alaric coaxed gently.
"I'm scared of the oil," Cecilia said, not budging.
Alaric sighed, put down the spatula, walked over to Cecilia, and took her hand.
Cecilia's whole body was tense.
But in that moment, Alaric led her over and said in his smooth voice, "Hold me from behind."
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