Page 36 of Lorna's Savior
Lorna whipped around, more at his tone than his words, and stared at him. After several silent moments, she felt her eyes widen and her mouth drop open in shock. “Oh my god, you’re serious.”
“As a heart attack. The company is named after my mother, and there are five different branches of the store. In case you didn’t catch that, my mother’s name is Sunshine.”
“Oh, wow. I’m so sorry I judged you. It’s just that you don’t seem the type to be interested in all natural, organic, herbal remedies for the body, let alone for personal care, and nutritional, herbal, and dietary supplements.”
“I’m not.” Andy sighed and released his arms. “I’m sorry, but I take offense when someone judges my family, but not what they do for a living. It’s a confused mess in my head when it comes to them.”
“Talk to me. I’m sure we can cook and talk at the same time.” Lorna looked over her shoulder from the refrigerator. “I have steaks, asparagus, and macaroni salad.”
“Do you have a grill?”
“Not an outside one, but I think this is one.” She pointed to her stove and Andy came over to investigate.
With a grin, he nodded. “Yep, that’s what’s considered an inside grill. You’re going to want to make sure your exhaust fan is on when you use it.” He pointed to the buttons on the hood above the stove. “This is something I’ve always wanted.”
“The landlord said they had to replace the stove after the last tenant moved out and they bought this one. Said it was state of the art, though I had no clue how to use it.”
“Why not?”
“Oh, no, Buster.” Lorna laughed. “We’re talking about your family first. There are not enough hours in the day to talk about my mother.”
“You don’t have any other family?”
“Tell you what, we’ll talk about your family as we cook and eat, then after we clean up, if you still want to know, we’ll talk about me, but only if I can ask questions. Deal?” She held her hand out to shake.
“Only if I can ask questions about your family. It seems only fair, then we have a deal.” He stuck his hand out and they shook on it. They discussed what they wanted on their steak, and how they liked it cooked, and realized they were the same. Andy showed Lorna how to wash the potatoes, then put only one slice down the center. After he found out she didn’t have any wax paper, he ran over to his apartment and was back in minutes with some of his own.
“Why the wax paper?”
“Normally, if you get a baked potato in a restaurant, they bake them in the oven. It takes at least an hour. If you ‘bake’ it in the microwave this way, it takes six minutes. We can start the steaks, prep the potatoes, then put them in after the steaks begin to cook.”
“What’s the purpose for the cut?”
“So they don’t explode. You do know that a microwave cooks from the inside out, right?”
“I do now.” She grinned at him. “So, if I want one by myself, I wash the potato, slit it, then wrap it in wax paper? I know the aluminum foil won’t work. I’m not that stupid, but can you use plastic wrap?”
“You can, but I prefer the wax paper. I don’t like the idea of hot plastic next to my food.”
“Ah.” She watched as he slit one, and rolled it in the paper, and had her do the next one. After they were in the microwave, he told her to turn it on for three and a half minutes.”
“I thought you said it takes six minutes.”
“It does, but you cook it for half the time, roll them over, and do the rest of the time.”
“Oh.” While Andy tended the steaks, Lorna set the table, and retrieved the macaroni salad. After he turned the potatoes, and set the timer again, she leaned against the counter.
“Tell me what you want to drink, then tell me about your family.”
“Do you have any beer?”
“I do.” She grinned and handed him one, after pouring herself a glass of wine.
Andy noted it was the same bottle she’d brought over to his house almost a month ago. Just to verify, he asked, “Is that the same bottle from before?”
“Yeah, I’ve been so busy, I haven’t had time to drink any of it. I told you I wasn’t a heavy drinker.”
“Good to know. What do you want to know about my family?”
