“Yup. The only place I was allowed to– well, allowed is harsh, I guess expected is the right word here.” Tina smiled as she looked back towards Bette. “The only place it was expected of me to make a mess was the kitchen.”

“Your area of expertise?”

“Certainly. My aunt was a chef and she owned her own little restaurant in town so every now and again we would come up with crazy combinations to introduce to the menu. She’d let me help and along the way taught me a few things.”

“Was Rick a good cook?” Bette had asked the question before she knew it was coming from her. She’d never shown so much interest in a client’s humanity. It was never pertinent to her job, but here she was fully engaged in Tina’s story.

“God no, he was horrible. He was a brilliant thinker and he could figure his way out of anything, but in the kitchen he was almost,” Tina smiled as she thought about what word would best sum up her husband’s culinary skills. “Inept, I guess.”

“Really?” Bette asked as she sat back taking a sip of her tea and enjoying seeing Tina smile, a genuine smile that actually reached her eyes. It was something new, and it suited her quite well.

“Oh yes, he was horrible at everything.” Tina began to laugh before she clued Bette in on her inner thoughts. “I remember on our fourth wedding anniversary,” Tina said as she took Bette’s hand into her and gave it a squeeze as she looked outwards almost scanning her mind for the memory. It really was second nature and the contact had momentarily taken Bette to another place before she came back to notice that Tina was still talking to her. “He charred some salmon steaks in our oven.”

“How is that possible?” Bette asked with a smile that finally caught Tina’s attention long enough to look her in the eye as she spoke again.

“He was in his final year of business school so his time, much like mine, was limited. Well he’d been studying all day and he’d forgotten that he said he was going to cook a romantic dinner for us.” Tina laughed a little as she recalled the memory. Her hand was still clutching Bette’s and she squeezed each time she laughed. “Well he figured that if he doubled the temperature on the food that he could be done in half the time.”

“Oh no.” Bette said with a sympathetic smile.

“Yes!” Tina laughed and finally let go of Bette’s hand to place her hand on her chest as she laughed. “So when I pull up to our apartment the first thing I smell; from my car in the parking garage mind you, is burnt food. I get upstairs and the smell is just piercing. I open the door and a billow of smoke hits me in the face and all I can see a smoky figure running around the kitchen with a smoking dish.” Tina was laughing so hard she had to put her cup down on the table.  Both women had calmed down from the laughing with mutual sighs that still tickled them both. “On that very night it was understood that I would do all the cooking. He was not allowed in my kitchen unless he was bringing in the groceries. You should have seen the poor food, the steaks were blackened to a crisp but unbelievably pink on the inside, all of the vegetables were stuck to my pots I had to throw out all of the pots and pans.” Tina’s attentions were now on the cup she was bringing back to her lap, the memory of that brought a warm feeling to her much like the tea in her hand it helped to soothe her mind and made her feel whole again for just this moment. “So we ended up going for a walk and stopping at Hot Dog joint, it was the only place open that late.”

“So your romantic dinner for two was a couple of foot longs?”

Tina smiled softly still looking down at her cup, “Yea, it was.”

TBC………………….