I stared at the pan as it cooked, watching closely to make sure the onions and peppers inside cooked.

I started cooking without really thinking about the why, but the further I got I decided that I wanted to celebrate our one-week anniversary with a big dinner. I wasn’t going to make a big deal about the one-week thing, but it felt big for me. I figured she’d need about half an hour more before the meal was finished, but my new oven (well, old oven) was a bit weird so I wasn’t sure how well it’d cook what I needed it to so my timing might not be perfect.

I hadn’t made a whole lot of progress actually moving stuff over outside of the essentials, but the important thing was the fun I was having with Evy. I kept thinking about Pippi telling me to have some fun when I was feeling guilty about how slowly I was moving my stuff over.

The most surreal thing for me was how not-drama-filled things had been so far, especially given how abruptly our living situation had come together. The biggest thing was something that had very little to do with Evy, something terrifying and a gamble that I worried could blow up in my face. I told my college job I was leaving. I hadn’t heard if I got the Rising Shards librarian job. I told my bosses at the college that I did have a new job lined up and then overshared about how I wanted to be closer to my little sister and to have a job that allowed me to be more readily there for her.

“Oh crap,” I said as I heard the door start to unlock behind me. I didn’t think Evy would be home for another hour at least. I really wanted to surprise her with the full platter set out when she arrived. “Hi there.”

“Hey,” Evy said with a sigh as she entered carrying a big paper bag. She set it on the table, and glass bottles clanked inside.

“Long day?” I asked as Evy sat down at the kitchen table to take her shoes off.

“Very. Very. I’m catching up on papers and I’m having to check up on some newly fanged Cani who might be headed for Rising Shards soon. So today was busy. Is it bad my arms and shoulders are sore just from carrying papers around, because that makes me feel super wimpy—” Evy froze. She sniffed at the air then turned to see my in-progress cooking. “That smells delicious.”

“It’s not done yet,” I said. “I thought I’d make dinner while you were gone.”

“Probably for the best, I’d interrupt too much, yeah?” Evy said.

I was beet red thinking about how my last attempt at dinner went. “Well, that and I wanted to surprise you.”

“Here I was thinking I’d just be happy if you ordered out,” Evy said. “That’s…” She trailed off, staring into space.

I panicked, worried she didn’t want the dinner she literally just said smelled delicious. “I can order out if you want? Did you just get a craving for something?”

“No, no!” Evy said. “I’m not used to this. Oh my god, I’m really not used to this. My last long term. You know, partner, the best I’d get from her is if she even remembered to order carryout when she wanted to treat me. And I was too focused with class to even really reciprocate that. This is. It’s really nice, Stel.”

I grinned. “If I do it all right, the main attraction will eventually be chicken skewers, but I also have some of those little hot dog things wrapped in bacon dipped in brown sugar in the oven.”

Evy was practically drooling just at the description. “I got us, well, I mainly just got drinks so,” Evy said, pulling a box of bottles out of the bag. “If you wanna drink, that’s cool. We haven’t talked about drinking much, so I don’t want to push you if it’s not your thing, but I really just want to blow off some steam today.”

“Oh no, that’d be great!” I said. I checked what she’d gotten and approved, glad it was a kind I’d had before and not some alien beer that I didn’t know how my tummy would react to. “I don’t have anywhere to be tomorrow, so I’m definitely down. I’m more of a wine girl, but I’m not going to complain about some Out Gear Brewery.”

“Sweet,” Evy said.

“But you should scoot from the kitchen til I finish!” I said.

“Fiiiine,” Evy said. “I gotta shower anyways. I’m nasty, and not like the fun kind of nasty, just the—” She lifted the collar of her jumpsuit for a second and nearly heaved at the smell. “Yeah. I’ll be back when I’m sanitary.”

After the oven nearly betrayed me by having a fidget-y dial that I accidentally turned way too hype up, something that would have ruined the meal in a burning mess if I didn’t catch it right away. I got my platter ready, trying to make it look as fancy as possible. I brought it to the living room and after clearing off some of Evy’s shows and games, set up dinner on the coffee table. I panicked again for a bit, trying to make the meal look as good as possible. I eagerly and anxiously waited, adjusting the food every few seconds and making a few awkward trips back and forth to grab a few bottles of the drinks Evy had bought to avoid further awkward trips back and forth, followed by some internal debate over whether to keep my hair tied up, eventually deciding on hair down because my scalp kinda felt tight. Evy returned from the shower in her casual sleep wear, looking radiant all cleaned up. She sat down by me on the couch.

“The food needs a minute to cool off still, so,” I picked up two of the bottles. “Shall we, doctor?”