Work Text:
Ana grumbles. Sweat drips down her cheeks as she stirs… whatever sticky brown liquid it is in the pot. Beside her, a large recipe book is propped against the knife holder.
The kitchen smells burnt and quite literally looks like a shipwreck, in contrast with how it used to be squeaky clean and smelled like cake and vanilla. Ana curses, turns off the stove, and crosses her arms. Her body is hot like she has just got out from a goddamn sauna. Her eyes water at the sight of her… ugh, cooking, and she looks at the mess around her with disgust.
Why did a pastry chef like Ana busy herself experimenting in the savory kitchen? You ask. Who is that special?
Well, the answer is Viktor, Ana’s 1-year boyfriend. Well, exactly 1-year, because today is Viktor’s birthday and their anniversary of how they officially got together.
Viktor… well, you could say he’s the dream boat, the man of people’s dreams, the… the Man. CEO at the age of 25, he became the youngest millionaire in the city where they lived. He’s also quite handsome. His skin is dark brown like Ana’s favorite chocolate, as soft as chiffon cake. His eyes are black like licorice candy. His smile melts Ana like mozzarella cheese…
Honestly, if Ana wants to tell people about Viktor, she has a 317-slide long PowerPoint presentation. That’s how infatuated Ana is.
However, no one is perfect. Viktor…
Viktor doesn’t like sweet things.
Complete opposite of Ana, who loves and lives from sweet food!
Ana was shocked and appalled when she first heard about it from Viktor’s mother. Forget about cake, he doesn’t even like dark chocolate, and it’s far from sweet! (really bitter, Ana could tell you)
So, she’s now trying hard to make spicy-soy-sauced chicken, her lover’s favorite food beside cold pizza. Well… okay, maybe she didn’t try that hard. But, she tried. That matters.
Ana sighs, grabbing her phone from on top of the fridge. She then ordered Go-Clean.
***
The ‘Leia’ Supermarket is the lifesaver for the people who lives in the üppig complex. It’s close, it’s cheap, and it has everything.
Ana comes to this place to stock her cake ingredients. Also, the… whatever she needs to make spicy-soy-sauced chicken. Her trolley is full of sacks of flour, boxes of eggs, cream, milk, butter, sugar, and many more. It really screams ‘hey, I’m a baker! Make way, please!’. A little pathetic, but she became a celebrity because of it, so… it’s a win/win. She prefers to be grateful, anyway.
Her mind flies to her plans for tonight. She’ll surprise Viktor with a cooked dinner—not the usual takeout stuff. Then, they’ll watch a great movie Ana had picked a day before. And after that… maybe they could-
“Miss, please stop day dreaming. The others want to pay too you know,” says the sour-faced cashier. Ana snaps out of her imagination and blushed.
“You could say it a little bit nicer you know,” she retorts, glancing behind her. Okay, yikes, the cashier’s not wrong. There is a long queue full of angry moms behind her. If looks could kill, Ana would be 20-feet underground, screaming.
The sour-faced cashier clears their throat. Ana only grins (though it looks like a grimace) and pulls out her credit card.
***
As soon as she got home, Ana screams.
No, no, her house is free of rats and other creepy crawlies. She screams to let out her pent up frustration. It’s a habit, maybe. Ana’s mother was a really famous actress, and she always taught Ana how to express her emotions.
What happened? You ask. Well, shit happened, answers Ana.
After that daydreaming incident, Ana paid her things and started to waddle with heavy plastic bags in both hands. She needed to go past many people who were blocking the exit, though. Of course, as life continues to be shit, someone tripped over one of her plastic bags and promptly fell down. And it caused this goddamned Domino Effect and suddenly, Ana was standing in the middle of a groaning pile of bodies. (Security was involved)
…she couldn’t go back to that supermarket any time soon.
She plops herself on the sofa, hiding her face with a soft pillow. She feels sore and her head is pounding, like there’s a giant metal hammer hammering her head. Ha, hammer hammering. English is weird.
The bzzt, bzzt, from the coffee table indicates a new text from someone. With a sigh, Ana extends her hand and grabs her phone. Oh, it’s Viktor.
‘hey babe.’ It reads. ‘thanks for the nice message.’ Viktor added a red heart emoticon there. Ana giggled stupidly. Wow, is this what you call… whipped? ‘anyway I'm not working late today so I’ll be at your flat at 6, ok?’
6.00 huh? Ana looks at the clock on the corner of her phone screen. It’s already half to 5.
She gets up lazily, and drags the plastic full of groceries to the kitchen and starts to put them away.
Ana cries when she realized she forgot to buy the chicken.
***
Ding dong!
The bell rings as she finished garnishing the food. She glances at her reflection and quickly opens the door. She is immediately greeted by a face-full of bouquet.
“Hi,” a familiar velvet smooth voice sounds like music to Ana’s ears. Viktor’s grinning face peeks behind the pink, white, and red colours of the flowers. “May I come in?”
Ana’s face reddens and she steps back, mumbling an incoherent sorry. Dumbass, she thinks to herself. What’s with you today?
‘You’re PMS-ing,’ answers Ana’s mind. ‘and you feel bad because the food-’
‘Shut your fuck, Me.’
“An, you okay? Are you sick?” Viktor asked. He put the giant bouquet down on the coffee table and closed the door. “Your face is really red.” Viktor’s hand extends to caress Ana’s cheek. The baker only sighs, grabbing Viktor’s hand on her cheek. Her fingers accidentally pressed on the silver band circling Viktor’s ring finger, and Ana forgot how to breathe. It’s their promise ring from a couple months ago.
Acting solely on impulse, Ana steps forward and hugs Viktor tightly.
“H-hey, what’s with you?” asks Viktor. The man hesitantly pats Ana’s head. “Oi, answer me.”
Ana answers, but it comes out muffled, so Viktor cups both of Ana’s cheeks and forced her to look at his eyes. His perfect, round eyes- oh dammit, Ana.
The girl pouts. “Nothing, okay? I just… I like having you here.”
There’s a silence. Then, Viktor laughed. “What’s there to be embarrassed about, silly?”
“Shut up, I’m PMSing.” Ana pulls away from the hug. She grabs the forgotten bouquet. “Okay, you set up the table. I’m going to put these flowers in a vase with cold water.”
“Hey, why am I doing all the work?” Viktor whines, but Ana already went to the storage room to grab the vase. She fills the vase with water and put the bouquet inside it. Ana then put the vase on the coffee table in the living room.
She walks inside the kitchen/dining room and smiles as she sees Viktor putting the plates on the table carefully. They do their chores quietly, but aware of their presences in the room. Viktor fills their glasses with apple juice while humming a radio-pop song, and Ana who’s putting the chicken on the table kisses his cheek. Viktor pinches her cheek softly as payback. Little things that remind Ana of how she’s so stupidly in love with this man.
After dinner, Ana suggested they watch a movie. It’s this new movie about a detective who lost his dog. However, Viktor and Ana don’t really pay attention to the movie. After a couple of times stealing glances at each other, Viktor decides to break the silence.
“You know,” Viktor nudges Ana’s shoulder with his. “I know.”
“Know what?” Ana’s eyes are glued to the gunfight on the TV screen.
“The chicken.”
Ana’s hands turn cold. She turns to face Viktor with a guilty smile. “Um, what do you mean?”
“I mean, I know you’re a talented woman, An,” Viktor shrugs, a smile hanging from his lips. How Ana wants to wipe that smirk from his face… that fucker. “but I also know you can’t cook for shit.”
“Shut up, get to the point.” Ana hides her face on Viktor’s shoulders. Her boyfriend only snorts. “Fine, I called your mom, okay? It’s not wrong! If anything you’re at fault here for dating a gosh-darn-diddly pastry chef but hates sweet food with passion!”
“I regret it to be honest,” Viktor deadpans. He barks a laugh as he sees the scared look on Ana’s face. “I’m sorry, I love you.”
“No, I’m sorry,” Ana frowns. “Like-”
“Babe, no, you did nothing wrong okay? Food’s good, I’m here with you watching this movie… it’s been a great birthday and anniversary, don’t worry.” Viktor ruffles Ana’s messy hair. “I have a couple of questions though.”
“Mm?”
“You know I hate sweet food, but you also can’t do anything in the savory kitchen. so why don’t you just… make quiche or something?”
As if she’d just opened her eyes, Ana realized that Viktor’s right. Quiche is like… a savory meat pie. Pie! Ana was the best pie maker in 2015!
“I… am stupid.” She says finally.
Viktor, the shithead who likes stepping on Ana’s pride, only laughs at her dejected expression.
“Shut up, you’re evil.” Ana slaps Viktor’s stomach with the corner of her blanket. “You said a couple of questions. What else did you want to ask me?”
Viktor’s face turns serious. Ana could only blink as she watch him staring back at her. And, like slow-motion, he pulls out a little blue box and grabs Ana’s right hand. “Anastasia Keenan, I actually wanted to do this on your birthday, but after tonight I don’t want to wait anymore.”
He puts down the box on the coffee table and pulls out three different coloured flowers from the vase.
“I knew I loved you when I had an off day at work and you took me to an ice cream museum. You also forgot you were lactose intolerant when you already ate cones of ice cream. You went to the bathroom every 5 minutes, but I realized I wouldn’t want you any other way. I’ll love you in every dumb situation you put yourself in.” Ana receives a red rose. “You’re a woman that I love, and will love for the rest of my life. I promise to support you, respect you, and be with you. Forever and always.” A pink gladiolus. “Will you marry me?” White Calla Lily.
There’s a sound of gunshot from the TV, but Ana doesn’t care. Tears fall to her lap as she shakily grips the flowers. “Dumbass,” Ana cursed. “You make too many promises.”
“Is that a yes?”
“That’s a yes, you fuck.”
They exchanged their promise rings with their engagement rings.
***
Below the soft yellow light of Ana’s living room lamp, warmed by the wool blankets, and Viktor’s soft eyes in Ana’s mind, she forgets everything else. She focuses on this sole moment.
Life might not be as sweet as Ana’s cake, or as easy as Victor making a deal with other companies. Life is probably like that chicken. Hard to obtain. Sometimes you even have to lie. Or hide the fact that you can’t cook for shit (and fail)
But.
Ana is grateful.