Page 154 of Hateful Games

“I’ll be fine.” I wink. “Now, for why you’re here…”

“Yep. Let’s get to it.” She claps her hands. “Who are we cooking for?”

“Your confidence is actually concerning me, Bee.” Having witnessed her lack of skills, several times now. “Are you using my kitchen as a guinea pig? Because Dash won’t allow you at home?”

“Like he could ever say no to me.” She rolls her eyes. “Don’t worry, I’ve been taking lessons from Dash.”

Discreetly, I open my phone to text Iris, close to begging. But it’s yanked from my hand. “Hey!!”

“We don’t need Iris.”

“What if we burn this place down?”

“We won’t and I can chop really good.”

“Again, I can’t serve them raw food, Bee.”

She flips me off and cockily replies, “How hard can it be? We’ll search online. Ever heard of YouTube?”

“Fine,” I reluctantly agree. Both of us surf the internet until we find a simple yellow rice recipe with veggies. I’m sure it’s healthy enough for Nova’s mom. “This looks easy.”

“Do we have the ingredients?”

“Let me check.” I turn and stride to the fridge. Inside, there are all sorts of vegetables, fruits, drinks, and some leftovers as well. I take out the ones we need.

“Wash them. I’ll get the rice going till then.”

“What else do you need?”

“A cooker.”

“Okay.” I tap my chin and sigh looking at the cabinets, realizing I will need to check every one. I start and luckily find it at the first try. “Here.”

Bianca stares at me expectantly. At my confused frown, she says, “Where’s the rest of it, Ro?”

“I gave you the lid.”

“Have you never seen a cooker work?” she mocks. “I need the pressure regulator.”

“A what?”

“The little cap that whistles.”

“Oh!”

“Next to you, I look like a pro.”

“Don’t get cocky until you’ve cooked the dish,” I challenge and grab the little whistle. After that, I hop on the island and watch Bianca flutter around the kitchen. She works with a concentrated frown and she does chop fast and good. I grab the basket of grapes and continue eating.

“How’s the wedding prep going?” I ask after a while.

Bianca shrugs. “We hired a wedding planner. We only want to invite our close friends, so it’ll be a pretty cozy affair.”

“Shopping?”

“Done.”

“Venue?”

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