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Hermes gently opened the door to the apartment, trying to be as quiet as possible. She moved into the small open plan kitchen and living room, placing the shopping bags down on the island. Jolyne lifted her head up from the mountain of blankets she had draped over herself.
“Hey babe, you’re back…” Jolyne began to cough, grabbing one of the tissues from her small pile of used tissues to cover her mouth with. Hermes quickly took the items out, placing the empty plastic bag under the kitchen sink. She carried a few of the items through, gently placing them in front of Jolyne on the table as she named each one.
“Max strength cough syrup, super soft tissue with shea butter, max strength cold and flu capsules, super strength tampons, and chocolate honeycomb ice cream with caramel bees in it.”
Jolyne looked up at Hermes, tears in her eyes.
“Babe, thank you so much, you treat me so well and I’m so horrid.” She began to cry, trying towards the back of the couch and burying herself under the blanket mountain. Hermes sat on the edge of the couch, and began to loving stroke her back.
“Jolyne, that’s just your hormones talking, you’re the best thing that happened to me. Come on, you need to run to the bathroom, while you do, I’ll refill your hot water bottle… that sound nice?” Jolyne meekly nodded her head before sitting up, her hand resting across her middle as she excavated herself from the majority of the blankets. She stood up, her favourite spider blanket still draped over her shoulders as she took and tampons and slowly meandered towards the bathroom. Hermes grabbed the water bottle off the couch before walking back towards the kitchen, setting the kettle to boil as she emptied the water bottle out.quickly pulling out a large Dutch Oven, her favourite knife, and the chopping board. She took out the packet of dried ancho chillies, taking out three before putting the rest away. She took the plum tomatoes, quickly coring them before placing them to the side and grabbing the onions. As she grabbed the onions, there was a knock at the door, and she quickly went to answer it. Before she could even see who it was, a flash of green burst into the room. Foo jumped her, pulling her into a tight hug while laughing, Emporio laughing slightly as he walked in behind her, closing the door.
“Hermes! I’m sorry we missed christmas! I meant to be here!” Foo screamed while tightening her hold, squashing Hermes.
“Foo, it’s fine really… please let me go.” she mumbled out,as Jolyne walked back into the room. Foo beamed at her.
“Jolyne!”
“No Foo, no hugs, I’m really ill at the moment.” Jolyne held her hand up, keeping Foo away just in case she did dive in.
“Oh no! Me and Emporio will look after you! We bought a film he wants to watch… What was it called?”
“The Bee Movie. I heard it’s really good!” Emporio called out, grinning widely. Hermes and Jolyne shared a look; they both knew the film was bad, only enjoyable ironically or drunk, but after the loss of his mother, and all the hassle with Pucci in Green Dolphin, the boy needed something cheesy and childish in his life. Hermes spoke up as she went to the violently bubbling kettle.
“Sure, just make sure to give Jolyne some space. The DVD player is plugged in.” Emporio smiled, and rushed to sort it out as Hermes filled the water bottle with boiling water, ignoring the instructions printed on the bottle to not do this, before slipping it back into the penguin cover. It had been a small gift from Jolyne’s father, after he’d gotten out of hospital, as he tried to build the fractured relationship between the two of them. Hermes brought it back to Jolyne, helping her bury herself under all the blankets with it underneath. Hermes his Jolyne’s forehead before heading back into the kitchen, Emporio having put the film on. She took the onions, and top and tailed them, before peeling off the outer layers and quartering them. She picked up the garlic bulbs, pulling off two cloves before peeling them and setting them with the other vegetables. She unwrapped the semisweet chocolate, holding the knife over it carefully as she started to finely chop it, before peeling and slicing an avocado. She went to the cupboard, fetching the olive oil, ground cinnamon, sugar, chicken stock, kosher salt, the pepper grinder, cilantro and homemade tortillas she had made a few days before. She quickly chopped the tortillas into strips. Hermes stuck the Dutch oven on the hob, before heading into the fridge to pull sour cream out. Once she had all her ingredients, she wandered out to check on her girlfriend, and smiled. Jolyne was already asleep, her medicine open next to her on the coffee table. Foo and Emporio were sat on the floor in front of the TV, staring at bees. Hermes walked back into the kitchen, placing the dried chillies into the pan. She flipped the chillies once, making sure to cook each side evenly, before then putting then in a bowl and filling it with a cup of boiling water. She took a timer out, and set it for thirty minutes, before heading back into the living room. She stood there, watching her girlfriend and friends, smiling widely; Wes was the only one missing, as he was getting to know his estranged parents. They didn't talk about Jolyne’s stalker, he was thankfully still locked up.
“Babe?” Jolyne crocked out, one hand out of the covers and pointing at a small bag off to the side. Hermes nodded her head before walking over and grabbing it.
“Foo, Emporio, we got gifts for you.” The pair of them turned around, marvelling at the bag as Hermes placed it on the coffee table, and pulled out two presents, one wrapped in bright green paper, and one in baseball paper. Foo dived in, grabbing the green present and holding it up.
“Is this mine?!” Foo held up the green present, grinning widely.
“Yeah it is, how could you tell?” Hermes asked.
“I’m not an idiot, you wrapped it in the same shade as my hair,” Foo smirked, as she unwrapped it, smiling down at the box in her hand. She quickly opened it, and gasped, as she looked down at the hip flask engraved with the small stand version of herself.
“You got me a hip flask with me on it… you guys…” She grinned widely, before hopping up and hugging them both. “I’m going to fill it up now!”
Hermes, Jolyne and Emporio watched as Foo walked out to the kitchen to fill it, before the three of them then turned back to the remaining gift. Emporio picked it up, and slowly began to unwrap it. Jolyne and Hermes both smiled as his face lit up at the new phone in his hands.
“After everything that went on, me and Hermes wanted you to have a quick way of getting ahold of us, if you were ever lonely, in trouble, or just wanted a chat, you can now get ahold of us. I added our numbers into the phone already, as well as my father’s mobile, office and home number, incase the trouble is really bad.” Jolyne said, keeping her voice low and soft, just to try and stop herself from starting a coughing fit.
“It’s all mine?” Emporio asked, clearly starting to get teary eyed at the idea.
“Yeah, all yours.” Hermes replied, smiling just as widely as he was. Emporio hopped up, and quickly gave them both a tight hug, all while repeating thank you over and over again. It took a few minutes but everyone settled down again, as Foo had returned from the kitchen, new hip flask in her hand. Hermes sat with her girlfriend, bringing her in close to snuggle up, and watch the film in peace.
The buzzer went off a while later, and Hermes hopped up off the couch, heading back to the kitchen. She put the Dutch Oven back on the heat. She took the chillies out the water, and quickly deseeded and destalking them, before placing them in the blender. She took the tomatoes and onions, and placed them into the oven. She quickly cooked them off, making sure they were blackened all over. She added them to the blender, as well as the garlic, cinnamon, sugar and cumin. She blended the the vegetables together into a smooth paste. Hermes added oil to the pan, before pouring the puree back into the pan, starting to reduce paste down as she made the stock up using the remaining water from soaking the chillies. She added the stock on the puree and stirred it together, before leaving it to boil. Hermes turned around to check on Jolyne, who had drifted off to sleep once again. Hermes chuckled before taking the oven off the heat, placing it on the side and placing the chocolate into the soup and stirring it in until it melted, along with some seasoning using salt and pepper. She scooped four servings out, before placing a careful scoop of sour cream on each bowl, along with a few slices of avocado, and tortilla. Hermes quickly carried the bowls through to the coffee table. Jolyne woke up from the smell, smiling as Emporio and Foo looked at the food.
“Is this chile ancho sopa de chocolate ?” Jolyne asked, her voice close to a croak.
“It is, I thought you’ like some.” Hermes replied, smiling down at Jolyne before sitting down next to her, kissing her forehead. “It was also something dad would cook for me and Gloria every Día de los Santos Inocentes. ”
“What’s that?” Emporio asked, while starting to sip on the soup.
“ Día de los Santos Inocentes , The Day of the Innocent Saints. It’s the day when Herod murdered all the baby boys in Bethlehem, we used to play pranks on each other and have fun, but before bed we would go to the nearby cemetery, and place sweets on the graves of all the children.”
“Do you put that decoration up for Día de los Santos Inocentes ?” Foo asked, as she pointed towards the large Nativity scene in the corner of their apartment. Hermes laughed slightly before smiling.
“No, that’s the Nacimiento , the nativity scene.”
“If it’s the nativity scene, where are there dolphins, butterflies, a golden eagle, a rainbow, a baseball player, and… wait, is that me?” Foo asked, as she pointed to a small sculpted figure of her plankton self.
“We don’t keep it to just the biblical figures in Mexico, so I wanted to add all of us in… I ordered the sculpture online, Jolyne just wanted to add a green egg in there.”
Foo laughed loudly, smiling widely, and bringing the others all in as well.
“Is that why baby Jesus is green too?”
The laughing only picked up more, everyone laughing hard enough for their ribs to begin hurting. Emporio was the first to finish laughing, as he went back to his film, and the others quietened up too, sitting there in silence, eating their soup and watching a bee sue beekeepers. They remained silent for the whole film, Jolyne actually managing to stay awake this time, until Emporio turned around happily.
“I love that movie.”
“Which bits were the best?” Hermes asked him.
“The flying scenes in New York. I’d love to visit it sometime.”
“Jolyne’s great grandparents live in New York, maybe we can take you.” Hermes said, before Jolyne butted in.
“Best scene was when Mark Warburton got cucked by a bee.”
They spent a moment looking at each other, before bursting out laughing, both of them unable to control themselves. Foo and Emporio looked confused. It reminded Hermes of her father, and sister Gloria, and that’s when the moment struck her. This was her new family now, her own weird one, and she couldn’t be happier.