Warm Waffles

“Oh, dang it, my shift starts in fifteen minutes!” Said Bobby, suddenly standing up.

“No it doesn’t, you dummy” replied Ronnie Anne focused on her cooking. “Your shift starts at four.”

“No! I traded my shift with Mike, he covers me tonight so I can go out with Lori to celebrate our one hundred and twelve days together!” Said the older Santiago, swiftly finishing his coffee.

Ronnie Anne turned around to look at her brother with a raised eyebrow and her jaw dropped.

“A hundred and…? Why would you celebrate that number?” She asked, not believing what she had heard.

“We always celebrate our anniversary on even numbers and multiples of five. They’re nice numbers! Anyway, I gotta go.”

He dashed out of the kitchen as fast as he could. Before anyone could do anything, Bobby came back, this time wearing his waiter uniform, perfectly ironed and fixed by Ronnie Anne.

“I’m sorry, Ni-Ni, I’d love to eat your breakfast” he apologized, getting close to his little sister and tenderly hugging her. “I promise we’ll have breakfast together tomorrow, okay?”

Ronnie Anne frowned and looked away to the floor. She didn’t hug him back.

Bobby opened up his mouth as if to say something else, but either he changed his mind or he didn’t find the right words. He softly patted her back and let her go, his face now showing an expression of discomfort and worry.

“I’m sorry” he repeated in a whisper, before moving away from her. “Well, I… I gotta go. See you later, Ronnie! Bye, Lincoln!”

Bobby left the kitchen and they soon heard the sound of the entry door being hurriedly closed. Ronnie Anne kept looking angrily at the floor like the kitchen tiles had made a personal offense to her. She had her lips pursed in a thin line until her brother’s last words finally echoed in her mind. She opened her eyes in surprise and looked up, meeting Lincoln’s worried gaze.

“Are you okay?” Asked the boy with ashen hair.

For a moment there, Ronnie Anne had forgotten that he was there, sitting at her kitchen’s table. That she had invited him for breakfast. That she was cooking waffles for him too. She put up her false bravado once again, looking sternly at him.

“Of course I’m alright, lame-o. Why wouldn’t I be?”

She quickly turned around and put her attention back on the bowl where she was preparing the waffle’s batter. She was mixing all the ingredients in there with such a strength that she considered writing a letter to the bowl factory, congratulating them for the excellent response of their products to intense mechanic efforts. She was supposed to beat all the ingredients together for two minutes or so, but after only forty-five seconds she had already found the right consistency for the batter.

She poured it all in the waffle iron and, once it was all set up, she patiently waited for two minutes. Two minutes of silence in a non-empty kitchen that felt much longer than they actually were. She kept her eyes fixed on the machine until the time was up and the food was ready.

When she finally took the waffles out of the iron, she added some butter and a little sauce. She stared at the breakfast she had just cooked and couldn’t help but smile. She liked cooking, she did it pretty often and she had learned a lot with practice. She put the waffles on two plates and went to the table with Lincoln.

She was better now.

“Here they are, partner,” she said with a smile, handing him his plate. “You better eat them all.”

Lincoln’s eyes shone at the sight before him, and a little drool escaped his mouth.

“They look fantastic! Thanks, Ronnie Anne!”

He quickly grabbed his fork and knife and ate his first mouthful, savoring that wonderful meal. Ronnie Anne giggled at how desperate he seemed to be. She made sure that Toby Roshell II wasn’t in danger of falling from the table and then she stretched her right arm to turn on the radio, in the usual station.

“Hish aagh abashhing!”

“Don’t talk with your mouth full, weirdo” she laughed.

Lincoln gulped down his food and gave her a wide smile.

“These are amazing! I didn’t know you could cook this good.”

“I guess there were a lot of things you didn’t know about me, huh?”

Lincoln’s smile hesitated.

“Yeah, well, about that… Look, I-”

“You don’t have to say it, Lincoln. It’s okay. You got us a second chance with Ms. Johnson. I forgive you” she assured him.

Lincoln puffed out his chest and kept eating with a goofy smile on his face that Ronnie Anne couldn’t stop staring at. She completely forgot to eat for a moment, simply lost in his expression, so focused on him that she didn’t realize his eyes were staring back at her. Not until he stopped eating and his warm smile turned into a smug “gotcha” kind of grin. She looked up and found Lincoln looking at her very interested, with a raised eyebrow.

“Something’s wrong?” He asked with a funny tone.

Ronnie Anne wondered if the heat she felt on her cheeks would be visible for that fool.

“I-I, just… uh… I can’t believe you eat so fast. Don’t they feed you in your house?” She quickly snapped back, going back at eating her waffles, trying to keep her mouth occupied and to dissimulate the situation.

“Well, it’s just that we’re always eating the same things in my house” he explained, trying a new bite. “It’s always nice to taste something new, and your waffles are delicious.”

“O-Oh… I guess, uh… Well, thanks.”

Feeling the need to change the subject, Ronnie Anne turned up the radio volume a little more, pretending that she was paying any kind of attention to what the announcer was saying.

“So you like radio?” Asked Lincoln.

Dang it, she thought. He wouldn’t shut up.

“Well, it’s not that I really like it, but I usually have it on, you know?”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I mean… it gets boring when there’s no voice in the house other than your own.”

She kept eating her waffles, although she wasn’t enjoying them anymore. She could have been eating wet cardboard and she wouldn’t have noticed it, for her mind was now far away from there. Far away from the kitchen, far away from the egg, far away from Lincoln. They kept eating like that until both their stomachs were full.

Lincoln, ever a gentleman, offered to wash the dishes while Ronnie Anne looked after Toby Roshell. When he finally cleaned the whole kitchen, Lincoln went back next to her.

“Thanks for the breakfast, Ronnie Anne. It was really good.”

“You’re welcome, Lincoln. Thanks for telling the truth to Ms. Johnson, admitting it was your fault that everything went wrong the first time.”

Lincoln nervously laughed, and then they found themselves trapped in an awkward silence.

“Well, then...” he started.

“I guess you’re going back to your place, aren’t you?” Asked Ronnie Anne.

Even though she tried, she couldn’t sound casual, like it was no big deal. Like she didn’t want him to stay with her.

“Yeah, about that… Look, I know that I kept the egg for myself a lot already and I didn’t let you have enough time with her… I mean, him. But… Well, I learned my lesson. And the project is about taking care of it… together. So… if you’re okay with it… could I, maybe, stay with you and keep you company? T-To take care of the egg I mean, of course.”
He was so cute when he got nervous. That’s why Ronnie Anne loved to mess with him. He was adorable.

“Well, I guess that’s our homework, right?” She asked, rolling her eyes and feigning disinterest. “If you really have nothing better to do...”

“What’s more important than spending some quality time with my family, eh?” Lincoln said, grabbing the little egg and cradling it in his arms, doing funny faces and noises like he would do with Lily.

She was thankful that Lincoln didn’t see the face she put after his words. He didn’t want to be embarrassed yet again in front of him.

“Well, you’re the one with experience on babies. What do they do after they eat?” She asked, standing up and walking near him with her hands on her hoodie’s pockets.

Lincoln raised a hand to his chin.

“Well… Usually Lily does her needs after she eats” Lincoln explained, “although I don’t think we need to worry about that.”

“Fortunately.”

“Sometimes, after lunch, my mom takes Lily to a nap.”

“Oh. Well, should we lay it down?”

“I guess so.”

“Alright. Let’s go to my room.”

Ronnie Anne walked out of the kitchen and went into her room. She was really grateful that she had cleaned up all her mess the day before and that she had taken her laundry early that same morning. It would have been too embarrassing to have Lincoln seeing all the mess she usually lived in. Only her school bag, her skateboard, and some baseballs were on the floor. She could live with that.

For a few seconds, Ronnie Anne was fully conscious that this was the first time a boy other than Bobby entered her bedroom. But when she turned around and saw Lincoln walking in with Toby on his hands, she relaxed.

It had to be him. It couldn’t have been any other boy.

“Nice room,” said Lincoln, staring at all the purple decorations.

“I really don’t want to punch Toby’s dad in front of him, but I’ll do it if you don’t shut up.”

“Alright, alright. Okay. Wow… Must be great to have a whole room for yourself. Look at all this space...”

“I thought you were happy with your linen closet-room” she commented, going to her bed and grabbing one of her cushions.

“Yeah, I like it, don’t misinterpret me. But… well, it doesn’t matter.”

Lincoln took the egg and put it over the cushion Ronnie Anne had laid over her bed. The two kids got themselves comfortable at each side of the egg, staring at it.

“You know, I’m glad we got to do this together” Lincoln confessed, absently looking at the egg. “If I hadn’t come here to your house for this, I wouldn’t have realized you are so...”

Ronnie Anne punched him in the shoulder, interrupting him.

“Ouch! Why was that for?!” He asked, slightly annoyed.

“Because I know what you were about to say and I won’t allow it” she answered, looking at him with fake anger.

Lincoln needed a few moments to read her eyes, but when he finally realized she wasn’t really mad, his face relaxed. He smiled at her and then leaned closer to the egg.

“She might be pretty rough sometimes, Roshell, but your mom is actually really caring and loving” whispered Lincoln, looking straight into Ronnie Anne’s eyes.

“And your dad’s a dork, Toby,” she said, leaning down as well, her eyes fixed on him, “but he’s also really thoughtful and sweet. Or at least he is when he learns his lesson.”

They laughed together and Lincoln laid back down in the bed, resting his head on his left hand. Ronnie Anne imitated him, and they were both practically lying down together, separated only by the cushion over which their son was resting.

“You know, lame-o… I think you’d be a great dad” she admitted, very aware of the fact that her cheeks had probably blushed after he said that.

Just like Lincoln’s had after hearing her.

“Y-You, uh, I mean...” He cleared his throat. “And I know that you’ll be an excellent mom. And whoever gets to be with you will be very lucky.”

“Yeah, well, I guess I’ll have to find someone who can stand me first” she joked, slightly disappointed, looking at the happy face drawn on the egg.

“I would.”

Ronnie Anne moved her neck so fast that she was afraid of hurting a muscle with the whiplash. Lincoln was also looking down, but he didn’t seem to be paying much attention to the egg. After several seconds of awkward silence, however, he had to look up and meet Ronnie Anne’s eyes. They both realized just how close they were to each other.

“I… I think that the more I know you, the more I know that I… I mean...” his face flustered even more, and he started to make gestures with his hands, trying to find the right words. “You know what I mean.”

“Yeah. I do” she simply said in an almost whisper.

They kept looking at each other, barely conscious that they bodies were moving closer to the cushion.

“Still, I don’t think you could put up with being married to me for a lifetime, lame-o,” she said, trying to sound smug and aggressive, but here tone and face could only show affection.

“Of course I could. We’ve been married for a whole day already, haven’t we?” He casually said, pointing at the egg. “If every day would be like this, I don’t think I’ll-”

Ronnie Anne silenced him in the only way she thought she could, and it was super effective. By the time she drew back, some seconds later, Lincoln had turned into an incoherent mass of babbling. She found that image really cute. So far, he had been the one who took the initiative in those things, acting with so much confidence.

It was really funny to see what an unexpected kiss left him like.

Ronnie Anne seized his surprise to move on her bed, and she put the cushion in the empty space between them, on the new angle their bodies formed. She put her head on his chest, feeling his breathing, and looking lovingly at Toby. As Lincoln nervously put his arm around her shoulders, she could only think that she’d love to be able to control time.

Then she could stop it right there forever, or she could move it forward to a point where they were older and they could finally be together as a real family.