She carefully opened the box and unpacked the contents, placing everything on the countertop. By the time she finished, vegetables, meat, and spices covered an entire side of the kitchen. She stepped back and looked over it. “Shit.”
He wondered about Julie’s definition of “easy to fix.”
With a resolute sigh, she pulled out the recipe card and read it, lining up the items as she went. From where he sat, it looked like some sort of rice or pasta dish. She took out a pot and several bowls from the cabinet and started working.
It looked like things were progressing well until she got to the carrots. Apparently, she had to peel and slice them and from what he could tell, Sasha had done neither before. He hoped she didn’t lose a finger the way she worked the knife.
By the time she made it to the second carrot, the water she’d put on to boil was bubbling over the top of the pot. Once she had that under control, she went back to the carrots and managed to get through the second one. Her shoulders slumped as she saw how many were left.
She threw two in the trash can, took another glance at the pile left and threw away another.
“Who the hell needs so many carrots?” she asked the empty kitchen. “Seriously.”
She drummed her fingers on the countertop and without warning, turned and walked his way. He dropped his eyes and pretended to work.
“Sorry to interrupt, Sir,” she said. “But I have a quick question.”
“Yes, little one?”
“Are there rabbits in your yard?”
He tried to hide his smile. “Rabbits?”
“Yes, Sir. I have some carrots left over and I was wondering if I could put them outside?”
“I’ve never seen any rabbits. Why don’t you just use them in whatever you’re cooking? I love carrots.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “Yes, and Sasha?”
“Mmmm.”
“I smell something burning.”
“Fuck!” she yelled and ran back to the kitchen.
He kept his laughter to himself. Poor Sasha, trying to cook and getting sidetracked by carrots. He debated going to help her, but stayed where he was. Odds were, she wouldn’t welcome his being in the kitchen. She wanted to do this dinner by herself, so he would let her.
“Damn, damn, damn,” she cursed from the kitchen, doing her best to salvage whatever she’d been boiling.
When she had everything under control, she took a step back and wiped her nose with her sleeve. Her sigh was audible from where he sat. But she didn’t stop, she went back to peeling carrots and preparing the other vegetables.
She’d told him the Web site said you could cook a meal from start to finish in thirty minutes. So far, she’d spent all her time with carrots and boiling water.
“Thirty minutes, my ass,” she said, echoing his thoughts.
She finished dinner an hour later. The kitchen looked like a disaster area, with nearly every bowl, pot, and pan he had piled in the sink. Carrot peels littered the countertop. An unknown liquid had been spilled on the floor and the air was still heavy with the tinge of burned food.
But in the middle of it all, Sasha stood beaming and handed him a bowl. “Taste it, Sir. See if it’s good.”
He took it and headed to the table. “Bring yourself a bowl and sit with me.”
“I don’t know, Sir.” She spooned some pasta into a bowl and poured sauce on it. “What if it sucks?”
“It smells divine and my kitchen looks like someone catered a meal for twenty. There’s no way it sucks.”
She didn’t look convinced. “Sorry about the kitchen. I’ll clean it up.”
“Don’t worry about it now. Let’s eat.”
He took a tentative bite and hummed in pleasure at the taste. “Sasha, this is incredible.”
She looked as if he’d just told her she’d won a million dollars. “Really?”
“Taste for yourself.” He held his fork up to her mouth.
She took a bite. “Wow.”
“You did very well,” he said.
“Thank you, but as I was cooking, I made up my mind about something.”
“What was that?”
“I’ll never serve a Master who expects me to cook. Once was enough. I mean, hell, the carrots alone were enough to drive me up the wall.” She shook her head. “And to think I’d have to do that two or three times a day? Hell, no.”
They finished eating and she took their empty bowls to the sink.
“Oh, man, I forgot I had all this left to clean up.”
“I’ll help,” he said. “We’ll both clean up the countertops, and then you wash and I’ll dry.”
“You’d really think someone like you would have someone come in to do this sort of thing.”
“Nah, I like my privacy too much.”
They worked quickly together clearing the countertops and Sasha was soon up to her wrists in sudsy water. “They have dishwashers for this, you know.”
“I don’t like putting dirty dishes in there.”
“It defeats the purpose of a dishwasher if you wash them first.”
“Perhaps, but at least this way I don’t have a bunch of dirty dishes in my kitchen.”
“But they’re in the dishwasher. Oh, fly!” She waved her hand to shoo the insect away, but in doing so splashed him.
“Sasha.” He wiped the water from his face.
“Sorry, Sir, it was buzzing in my ear.”
He pretended to be stern. “And that makes it okay to get me wet?”
She studied him as if weighing his words and expression to determine if he was serious. “Frankly, the only thing that would be more okay is if you were wet all over.” She shook her hand again, getting more water on him this time.
He looked at her in shock. “You’re going to pay for that.”
“Not if you don’t catch me.” And before he could reply, she spun and ran out of the kitchen, through the living room and out the back door, giggling.
Game on.
He let her have a few seconds of a head start and then followed. She waited on the patio behind his new table. “Splashing me and running away?” He shook his head. “Someone’s been a very bad girl.”
“It was a mistake,” she said with a grin.
“It was a mistake the first time. The second was on purpose.”
“It’s not my fault you look hot when you’re wet.”
“Is that right?”
“I don’t want you getting a big head or anything, but yeah. You are.”
He walked out onto the patio, keeping an eye on her. She moved back away from the table, still giggling, onto the grass, her hands up in a keep-your-distance signal.
In his mind, he mapped where she was standing in relation to his sprinkler system. Her left foot was almost at one of the heads. He pretended his phone buzzed and pulled it out of his pocket.
“Talk about rotten timing.” He looked at the display as if reading a text, but in reality he scrolled through his apps until he found the one he was looking for.
There it was, the new app that allowed him to control his sprinklers from his smartphone. “Hold on, I just need to take care of this really quick.”
Her hands fell to the sides of her body and she relaxed, appearing to be waiting patiently for him to play again.
“Here’s what I was looking for.” He looked up at the same second he pressed the button for the sprinklers to cut on.