By the time Cade and I made it to the table, we could see that Oli had already finished almost half of his plate. Judging by the way that no one else seemed to be bothered at the pace he was finishing his food, I reasoned that this was probably normal to them. Sitting down in between Cade and Ella, I got my first forkful of pasta and immediately groaned at how good it was. Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one making noises at how good it was, so the only person who really noticed was Cade. 

As he looked over at me, his hand paused midair with the forkful of spaghetti not even halfway to his mouth. I could see his eyes darken as he asked, “I take it that this is better than whatever my brother served you.”

The way he phrased that was clearly a statement and I realized that he truly was the better cook out of the two. Although Chris could cook well, Cade’s spaghetti was truly the best thing I had ever eaten. “How? I mean I knew you could cook, but…” As I trail off, I look back down at my plate before twirling more spaghetti onto my fork. 

Realizing that I was once again distracted by his food, he responds, “I taught Chris how to cook. Obviously I had to keep a few tricks to myself. I can’t share all of my secrets.”

At his statement, Ella immediately interjects, “Yeah, I don’t think I’ve seen him allow anyone into the kitchen when he’s cooking his spaghetti. There are a few other recipes as well, but he maintains secrecy.” After she takes another bite of spaghetti, she continues, “Although, if any of my food tasted this good, I suppose I’d want to monopolize the recipe as well. About the only thing he lets us help with is the sides.”

Eating more pasta, I looked over at Cade with an expression as if to ask, “Really?”

To my surprise, he seemed to recognize what I wanted to ask and said, “Yes, actually you are the only one who has seen my spaghetti being cooked from start to finish.”

Feeling lucky and also kicking myself for not paying more attention, I respond, “I don’t think I took good enough notes so I don’t think there’s much hope I’m going to be able to make this again. Would it be too much to ask if I asked you to let me help you make it again?” Saying this jokingly, I hadn’t expected anything more than a laugh. 

However, to my surprise he said, “You’re more than welcome to join me in the kitchen anytime. I would love to show you all of my recipes. And maybe we can create some together if you’d like.”

I couldn’t help but blush at his words as it insinuated that he wanted me around for a long time. I was also a bit shocked about how forward he had become since I arrived. I knew that he had been inexperienced so I expected some cute awkward flirting but I found his straightforwardness to be much more attractive. I liked the fact that he knew what he wanted and wasn’t afraid to tell me about it. Smiling over at him, I reply, “That sounds fantastic, I’m looking forward to it.”

As I looked away from him I turned to see Oli returning to the table with a second heaping plate and Milo and Ella were staring at Cade and I. “What did I miss guys?” Oli says before shoveling another massive bite in his mouth. 

“Just these two flirting,” Milo replied. “You didn’t miss anything much. They just set up a future cooking date.”

Chewing and swallowing in record time, Oli answers, “Aww how cute.” After responding he once again takes a massive bite. 

The rest of us finish our food at a normal pace and after lunch everyone disperses. Oli leaves saying that he needed to be somewhere but he’d be back later tonight and the other two head into the kitchen to clean up the mess in there. Looking over at Cade, I ask, “What do you think about playing some video games?”

“Sounds good.” Cade answers leading the way back up to his office. 

As the two of us enter the room, he shuts the door behind us as I make my way over to the game collection. Looking at his games, I could see that he had a little bit of everything. There were games of most of the basic categories. Looking through I had found a new survival game that I wanted to play but hadn’t had the time. Holding it up, I turned to him before saying, “Can we play this? It’s been something that I wanted to play for a while and I haven’t had the chance. Plus, I’ve heard it's better to play with someone else.”

Giving me a look that I was struggling to read, he answers, “Of course, but if we’re working together, it's going to be harder to measure who is better.”

“Let’s just enjoy the game this time, we can compete later.” I say grabbing a controller and getting comfortable on the couch. 

I lose track of time as we play the game. The more we played, the more I fell in love with the game. Although I knew that I would like it, after seeing the trailer and doing a bit of research, I couldn’t have imagined how much fun it would be to play multiplayer. More often than not, I spend my time playing games in single player because I don’t know many people who game regularly. My cousin, Noel  does play some video games, but she always steers clear of those with violence or gore so I often end up playing my games alone. Plus, with the amount of travel I do for work, I don’t have as much time as I’d like to game with her. Games are something nostalgic for me that help to escape loneliness. Thinking back to my past I remembered some of my darkest times. 

Sitting in my apartment alone, I look around at my meager belongings. A mattress on the floor, a suitcase of clothes and my computer. Unfortunately my family did not approve of me wanting to be an independent woman and the price I had to pay for that was losing all family support. Despite being disowned by my parents and siblings, I was fortunate enough that the rest of my family realized how wrong the situation was and took my side, which is why I now have a place of my own. 

Despite the fact that they pooled together enough money to rent me a place to live for a few months, I didn’t want to be dependent on them either as I could see how easily my family had already abandoned me. Deciding to focus on what I could do, I worked my butt off to make it to where I am now. 

I now have a secure job that pays me well and I rent out a nice apartment. Even though I had many accomplishments over the years, I began to realize the things that I had sacrificed in order to get there. Spending so much time focused on working long hours and studying hard in school, I spent little quality time with friends or family. Although I worked hard to maintain the facade of an outgoing personality, In reality I struggled to establish quality relationships. Due to this, I spent a few years dating around and trying to make a connection that will last. 

After landing my current job, I began to realize that I had more free time. Despite that, many of the guys I had dated still didn’t have time for me so I turned to games to fill the loneliness. Despite all of the time I spent playing video games, nothing could replace a real connection with a human being. Fortunately for me, I remained close to my cousin Noel and the two of us have only gotten closer over the years, but our work schedules mean we don’t see each other as much as either of us would like. 

Realizing that I had gotten lost in thought, I looked at my character on the screen only to realize that I had experienced yet another death. Hitting the button to respawn, I could see that Cade had died as well. Trying to once again immerse myself in the game, I joke, “I would laugh about your death, but considering mine, I think it’s still a little too fresh.”

As the two of us double over laughing, we both return to the game full of ideas on how to improve and survive even longer than the first time. The two of us continue to play and bounce suggestions back and forth until we hear a loud knock on the door.