Page 40 of The Kitchen Contract

He pulls the fluffy tissue paper out with one hand and peers into the bag. I pull the paper out of his hand so he’s free to reach inside. His grin grows as he unfolds the neon pink shirt and reads the lettering on the front out loud. “‘That’s what I do, I cook and I know things.’ Heck yeah, I do! But what’s the occasion?”

“Just a little thank you to replace the shirt I soaked with tears and mascara last week,” I say. A flush creeps up my neck to my cheeks as I recall the feeling of being wrapped in Alex’s arms, realizing only afterward that I looked like something the cat dragged in. I almost started crying again when I looked in the mirror after I got home that night. I was a hot mess if ever there was one.

I gesture to the shirt. “I hope you like it. Pink was the only color in stock when I ordered it.”

“I love it. Here, hold it a minute.” I take the shirt and watch as he tosses the gift bag to the ground and pulls the shirt he’s currently wearing over his head, right there on the porch. My eyes widen and my mouth goes dry as I try not to gawk. My gaze finds his face, and I can tell by the twinkle in his eyes that he’s doing this just to get a reaction out of me.

And it’s certainly working. The warmth I felt in my cheeks a moment ago is a full-on flame now. I’m sure I’m giving the hot pink color of this shirt a run for its money.

“Put your clothes on.” I practically throw the shirt at him and turn on my heel to get the crate of supplies from my car. The sound of his chuckle follows me down the steps, but when I turn around, he’s fully clothed again.

“Are you going to wear that while we record?”

“Why not? I think the viewers will love it, especially when they hear it was a gift from you.” He’s probably right, actually. It seems like the kind of thing people would get a kick out of.

“What are we making today?” He lifts the crate from my hands and carries it into the house. I shut the door behind us and follow him to the kitchen.

“What do you think about firing up the grill?”

“Nice!” He rubs his hands together eagerly. “It’s a perfect day for it.”

“Alright, then let’s get started.” We work side by side, and he follows my instructions for prepping the ingredients for steak and mushroom kabobs and corn on the cob. I’ll have to repeat some of this for the video, but there’s no reason to film most of the basic stuff, like washing the mushrooms or shucking the corn.

“How are our views looking?” Alex asks as he works. I somewhat selfishly assigned him my least favorite chore—picking all the silk off the corn—but he hasn’t uttered a word of complaint.

“Pretty good. Weekly views are still growing, and we’re really close to having enough to advertise.”

“That’s great! Is there anything we can do to boost the views to where you need them to be?”

I consider this, as I have many times in the past few weeks. “I think all we can really do is keep making quality content and encouraging people to share the videos with friends.”

Alex bobs his head. “Right. I’ll do my best to get people to share this week.”

He carries the clean corn to the island, and we’re ready to begin.

I open the episode the way I always do with “Hello and welcome to From Couch to Potatoes!” and we walk through the steps of marinating the meat, seasoning the veggies, and assembling the kabobs.

Once we’ve got the food ready for the cooking stage, we head outside to set up our cameras near the grill. We’re still using both cameras on each recipe, and having the second angle that I can cut in here and there as I edit really adds an extra dimension to the videos.

Alex rolls the grill into the middle of the patio, shifting the firepit aside to make room. Then he fetches a folding table to set in front of it that will lift the tripod to the right height. I clip my phone in and swipe open the camera to make sure the angle and lighting look okay.

“Ready?”

“Let’s go.”

I show him where I want him to stand and start the video rolling before launching into the intro. Then I turn to Alex. “Alright, Alex, are you ready to fire this thing up and show the people who the real grill master is?”

“I sure am. Wait—you do mean me, right?”

I wiggle my eyebrows for the camera. “I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

The rest of the episode goes pretty smoothly, though we do have to pause the video once when Alex’s neighbor decides to mow his lawn right as we are about to film Alex taking his first bite of grilled corn. But Alex jogs over to talk to him and a few minutes later, we’re back in business, the neighbor having grudgingly agreed to hold off for a few minutes in exchange for a steak kabob.

I’m just about to close out the episode when Alex surprises me with a hand on my shoulder as he aims a charming smile at the camera.

“Now, before we sign off, we have one more thing to tell you.”

What is he talking about? We didn’t discuss this.

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