Chapter 7: Fun Time

|| Arabella ||

The next morning, I woke up around noon. I had slept after taking some painkillers. My back was still sore, but the ice had considerably reduced the pain.

My luggage was still unpacked, so I called Theo, who barged into my room with a ringing phone in his hand and an annoyed expression.

“Now what do you want, my queen?” he demanded sarcastically.

I giggled. Since yesterday, I have been making him do all my work after guilt-tripping him for my back pain. I even made him carry me back to my bedroom, though it took quite a bit of argument. “I can’t bend down. Get me some clothes out of my luggage.”

“You are really treating me as your slave, huh?”

I nodded happily.

“I hate this.” Theo frowned and kneeled in front of my luggage. “You really want me to go through your luggage?” he asked in disbelief, and I nodded again. “You sure?”

“What, are you afraid to find my bra and panic?” I let out.

“Will you let go of it?” he groaned in annoyance.

“Nope,” I responded simply. He unzipped my luggage when I asked mischievously, “So why are you still a virgin?”

He shot me a glare. “Will you shut up or do you want me to throw your luggage out the balcony?”

I ignored his threat and kept talking, “Did you not find the perfect girl with a curvy body? Or are you waiting for your ‘the one’?” Then a thought made its appearance in my head. “Or are you, perhaps, in your questioning stage? Like, are you confused that you might like guys? I'm pretty cool if one of my roommates is gay—”

“That’s it,” Theo let out and picked up my luggage, heading towards the balcony.

My eyes widened like saucers. I didn't think he was serious. “Okay, okay! I will stop!” I hollered and he halted. He shot me a judging look over his shoulder and I grinned apologetically at him. He sighed and put my luggage down, starting to rummage.

Should I say it or not? It's too tempting.

In the end, I decided to go for it. After all, Theo and my relationship was all about crossing the line of irritation. So I started, “But really, I can’t help but wonder—”

“Oh, c’mon, is it that big a deal?” he growled, looking genuinely offended.

“No, not really. But it’s you. You are quite popular at school, though I don’t get the reason why,” I said honestly, without mentioning how good-looking he was.

“I'm not interested in a relationship,” he finally answered.

“You are asexual?” I furrowed my brows.

Theo looked like he wanted to bang my head on the wall. “No, I meant, I'm not interested in a relationship at the moment, not that I'm never going to get into one, you dumb girl.”

“Uh-huh,” I responded.

“You have been teasing me since yesterday. Now, tell me about you. How many guys did you sleep with, femme fatale?” he questioned.

“Um…” What was I supposed to say?

“What, the cat caught your tongue?” he urged, a smirk forming on his lips.

“—ro…” I mumbled inaudibly.

“Come again?” he insisted annoyingly.

I squeezed my eyes shut and blurted out, “Zero.”

“Huh.” He sounded very pleased with my response since he now knew I wouldn't be able to tease him about it anymore. “So all this time the pot has been calling the kettle black.”

Gosh, I should have lied.

But then again, if I did, he would ask for more information, like with who, when, how I did it—which I wouldn't be able to think on the spot, at least not when my head was jumbled from not taking a bath yet.

As I was busy drowning in shame, something soft hit my face. I opened my eyes to find that Theo threw a few pairs of clothes at me, along with my undergarments.

“Do you need a hand to get to the bathroom, old lady?” Theo asked as he stood up.

I shook my head, feeling like I could manage to get to the bathroom on my own. Besides, his cologne was distracting and made weird thoughts appear in my head, so it was better to keep him at a distance.

He started to leave my bedroom when he paused, “Oh, by the way, the maid will come by around two to clean up.”

“The maid?”

“She comes by twice a week for cleaning, laundry, and grocery shopping,” he informed and left.

———

The maid was very nice to me. She gave me tips on how to reduce the back pain and even gave me a short massage. My back pain was almost gone by the time Sunday rolled in.

However, surprisingly, Theo stayed home last night, even though Wyatt went out with his friends to the bar. I couldn't tell if Theo didn't have any plans, to begin with, or he stayed home in case I needed anything. Coral wanted to come too, but I told her to stay with her mom just in case.

Ever since I came to live here, Theo has been doing all the cooking, except when he orders online. I wonder why Wyatt never does it. Anyway, as a way to thank Theo for helping me, however little he did, I decided to make lunch to spare him the trouble.

When I entered the kitchen, I found a messy-haired Wyatt shuffling through the cabinets, most probably looking for some aspirins for his hangover.

“Hey, good morning, Ara,” he wished.

“Good afternoon,” I corrected him and took out the aspirins from where I saw them two days ago.

“Thanks,” he said. As I started to look through the fridge and take out some vegetables and fruits, he asked, “Are you going to make lunch?”

“Yeah.”

“What are you going to make?”

“I was thinking of spicy shrimp pasta and dessert salad,” I replied.

“Oh, that's good, but Theo can't eat spicy food,” he informed me.

I smirked, the gears in my head turning dubiously.

“Something tells me that I shouldn't have told you that,” he let out nervously.

Even though I would normally do something mischievous and extra spices in Theo's food, it was related to food, and I don't insult the art of cooking because my dream was to be a chef.

I chuckled and waved a hand in dismissal. “Don't worry. I won't do anything like that.”

“Okay.” With that, Wyatt exited the kitchen.

I started to prepare lunch and I was halfway through it when Theo came in, wearing a pair of black tee and gray check trousers.

“What are you doing?” he asked, examining the frying pan and the fruits spread around the counter.

“Making lunch,” I answered simply while chopping some strawberries quickly and efficiently.

“That I can see. But can you even cook though? Your coffee was nice, but I don't want to eat charcoal or salt-tasting food,” he said.

“You are talking to a future chef here,” I said and pulled my imaginary collar proudly.

“You're that good to be a chef, huh,” he commented and went to stir the pasta on the stove before I could grab the ladle to do it. “I thought you would be a nurse or something like that.”

“Why a nurse out of all the professions?” I arched an eyebrow and started slicing some grapes in halves. I had never even considered nursing. From the moment I learned how to fry an egg, I knew I wanted to be a chef.

“I don't know. You just seemed like that type to help around,” he said with a shrug.

I nodded. “What about you? What do you wanna become? A critique?”

He twitched his lips before shaking his head. “No. But it does sound intriguing. Insulting people is fun.”

I chuckled. “Then what do you want to become? Please be a kindergarten teacher. I want to see you dealing with little annoying kids.”

“Over my dead body,” he snickered.

“Then what?”

“I'm not sure yet, but being a statistician sounds like a plum job to me.”

“Sounds tough and complex to me. What is it even about? What do you need to major in?” I asked.

“Mathematics.”

I gasped. “Are you, by chance, a math geek?” He nodded. “Then you're in the mathletes club too?” He nodded again. “How come I never heard this?” I already stumbled with my cooking club, and here he was in two clubs.

“I'm in the football club too, did you know?”

I snorted. “I would have to be living in a cave not to know that. Plus, I love watching football, so I have pretty much watched all your matches at school.”

“Are you sure it's not just me you want to watch?” He smirked.

“As if. You're not Tom Brady.” I rolled my eyes.

“Oh, I love him too,” he blurted out.

“Well, this is awkward.”

Me and Theo loving the same footballer and talking about our future goals seemed like we were bonding.

“Let's never talk about it,” he suggested.

“Agreed.”

I would like our relationship to remain that of enemies, instead of becoming friends. It's more fun this way.

I started dressing the salad while Theo was stirring the pasta for me. I was putting frozen whipped cream on the salad when I saw how focused he was, pouring the pasta into the bowl. I got the urge to rub the whip on his face, and so I did.

And soon it turned out to be a cream-smearing fight. Both of our hands and faces were whipped now.

“You know, if it were one of those cringe romcoms, you would be licking the cream right off my face,” I commented, laughing.

“Why? Do you like it?” Theo raised an eyebrow.

“It's disgusting.” As soon as I said that, Theo leaned his face down and licked some cream off my left cheek with his tongue. Goosebumps rose through my body.

“Disgusted yet?” he asked, his face only inches away from mine.

I almost shuddered at his breath fanning over my skin. I pushed him by his chest lightly and rebuked, “You're disgusting.”

“I should have licked your fingers for a better reaction,” he said in order to creep me out even more.

“Eww,” I cringed. “You do that sort of stuff with your girlfriend, not me.”

He laughed. “I'll experiment on you before I meet her.” I knew he was joking because there was no way he would try that sort of thing with me.

“Spare me from being your guinea pig.”

“What if it involves giving gifts?” he let out.

“I can accept that,” I replied immediately.

“Greedy doll.”

“You—”

“Is lunch ready yet? I'm starving,” Wyatt said, peeking his head through the kitchen entrance.

“Oh, it's almost ready,” I replied. “Why don't you set the table, Wyatt?”

“What's with all the cream?” Wyatt asked, walking inside.

“Just playing around,” I said.

“If I didn't know better, I would say you guys had food kink,” he commented dryly as he started to take out the cutleries and plates.

“Eww,” Theo and I cringed.

I brought the dessert salad to the dining table while Theo brought the bowl of pasta after cleaning ourselves. Once Wyatt and Theo started to eat, I observed their expressions to find out if they liked my cooking.

“Damn, it's so good, so much better than Theo's,” Wyatt complimented.

Before I could thank him for the compliment, Theo spoke up, “Make cooking comparisons when you can cook yourself, idiot.”

“You can't cook, Wyatt?” I asked.

“Wyatt can burn water, trust me,” Theo responded flatly on Wyatt's behalf.

“Hey!” Wyatt objected.

“What? How is that possible?” I asked curiously.

Wyatt started nudging Theo. “Don't tell her. I would lose all my respect.”

“C'mon, c'mon, tell me. I'm too curious,” I urged.

Theo smirked at Wyatt and started telling, “One time he had a sore throat, so he put a plastic bottle from the fridge in the oven to heat it up.”

Wyatt slumped his head down on the table while I burst out laughing.

“What the hell? How can you not know you're not supposed to put plastic in the oven?”

“In my defense, I'm very dumb sometimes,” he murmured in shame.

“What happened after that?” I prompted.

“The oven caught on fire, of course,” Theo said, and I laughed even more.

“I'm definitely telling this to Coral,” I said in between my cackling.

“No, please!” Wyatt cried out.

Theo also joined me in laughing after hearing Wyatt's whining.

We laughed throughout the whole lunch, making fun of Wyatt. I hadn't laughed this freely ever since Mom passed away. All in all, it was a fun time. I almost felt like we were a family, which terribly reminded me of my mom. But she would also want me to be happy, right?

Look, Mom, I'm happy. Like you said, good times have finally come for me after bad times.