Chapter 4: Scalding Spices

6:26pm.

That was the time printed on my watch.

All I hear is the faint but loud ticking sound as the seconds went by on my watch. That's all I could hear while sitting on this counter, since this house has no chairs.

After buying god knows how many plates, glasses, bowls, and silverware, I finally took a lunch break. After eating a greasy burger I waited three hours for the guy that I had convinced to deliver the dishes today, he finally showed up at 4 o'clock.

So 13 candy crush levels later, I'm still waiting for Thaddeus Logan to make his grand entrance to finally approve these dishes. 

But since that had yet to happen I'm doing the only thing that can keep me busy for hours; sketching.

Since one of the empty rooms downstairs is going to be taken as Thaddeus's office, I still have three more rooms that I have no idea what to do with.

Maybe since Thaddeus has his own room, Evelyn should have her own as well. But what does Evelyn enjoy doing when she has free time.

Does she like painting, dancing, singing, photography, reading, or board games. So many possibilities that she can choose from. She may like all of them or none of them.

Mental note: Find out Evelyn's hobbies.

Oh, what if she likes sewing, like designing clothes. Then the room can be-

"Aaaahhh!" I completely drop my sketch onto the floor once I hear a chugging noise along with a scream. It takes me no longer than 5 seconds to realize the scream came from my vocals and the chugging noise came from the sink.

It sounded as if metal was being crushed.

Getting over my fear of getting off this counter, I jump off and walk slowly towards the sink. The chugging noise stopped so I bend my head down to look down at the drain. It looked fine to me until something possessed the drain to make it come back to life.

But of course, in reality, I knew there must be a plumbing problem. Becoming curious I open the cabinets underneath the sink to see if the problem may be simple to fix. I put my head all the way into the cabinet so I can get a closer look at one particular pipe.

What the-

"I don't remember calling a plumber," a stern but almost playful voice came so close from behind me.

I didn't even have time to scream for I jumped up and hit my head so hard beneath the sink. I steadied my head by holding both my hands behind to ease the pain. Putting pressure on the bump and rocking my body back and forth really didn't help ease my pain.

I knew it was Thaddeus once I smelt cologne radiating off of him. 

I turn around only to see how close Thaddeus really was. I'm surprised we didn't head bump from his closeness. 

"I don't remember being one," I winced as soon as I shot up from the ground to create distance between us. I felt a bit light-headed as I tried to balance myself. 

"Care to explain why your head was buried behind the pipes?" He questioned as one of his well plucked eyebrows raised higher than the other. His dark gray blazer lay lazily on his shoulder as he stuffed his hands deep inside of his pockets. 

"Well, I..I think your sink has a problem that an actual plumber would need to fix. I suggest this problem should be fix as soon as possible to prevent any possible...difficulties in the future," I rambled as I walked towards the end of the island which contains the dishes. 

"I was already informed of this problem Ms. Evans," he concludes. His popular short sentences always leave me with nothing to say. Usually I can keep a conversation going for a while, but with Thaddeus it's like I can hardly start one.  

"Okay, well um.. How soon will the plumbing be fixed?" I questioned really not knowing what else there is to say. It's nearly 7 o'clock and I'd rather be in bed, curled up sketching than be in this awkward conversation. 

Instead of answering he looks down realizing he had stepped on something. I cast my gaze downwards as I see him picking up something that appears to be...

My sketch book! 

Oh god! Those sketches are private , the only time I showed him my sketch book was to give him an idea of how his living room would be like. Those sketches contained my feelings.  

Not only that, I sketched his office that he has hardly even planned. 

"Oh, that's nothing...it's just silly drawings," I try to convince as I put my right hand on top of the drawing while my left hand pried to book from his hands. He held on just as tightly as I did which made me yank the book from his hands. As he let's go I let go at the same time making the book drop in front of us with one recently sketched page out in the open. 

His office. 

I bend down quickly but his hand swooshes down to scoop the book up from my grasp. 

"What's this?" he questions utterly clueless. My mouth opening was ready to spread lies on what the sketch was until his eyes caught that stupid date!

It's not hard to guess what the drawing is since it's clearly an office with today's date printed on the top. 

"Is...Is this my office?" He asks utterly gobsmacked. 

"Um...Yeah, it was just an idea," I scratch the back of my head only to wince back in pain once I scratched roughly on my new born bump. 

Before he can speak, probably to say how stupid the drawing is, I turn to show him the dishes. 

"Anyway, here are the dishes! I got half of them all white but the other half I got to match the dining set." Huh, I guess I can only keep a conversation going if it's about designing. 

I held up a plate that had two light gray lines bordering the circular plate. He kept to his blank expression as I got nervous every second he didn't speak. 

"Um..There are different ways to set up these dishes on the dining set like," I grabbed a large plain white plate and stacked a smaller gray line plate on top. To finish it off I stacked a regular sized bowl that had the same two gray line surrounding the border on top as well. 

Again, all I got was a blank expression. 

"Or," I took off the bowl and replaced it with another plain white small plate. On top of that I stacked a small like bowl that looked like a tea cup with no handle. 

Blank expression. 

"You know what, it could just be a simple set." I ditched the small bowl and plate as I left the big sized white plate along with the two gray lined plate. 

Instead of the blank face, I got him looking at my book again as he circled the island. 

This is an invasion of privacy. 

"Is this girl supposed to be you?" I looked to see what page he was on and just by looking at a portion of it I could tell exactly what the picture was.

It was of a girl holding up a huge camera that covered her entire face. I drew that a month after my grandma died. It was around the time the whole business was being signed over to me. The drawing meant that I should have a new outlook on life since my whole life was changing before my eyes. I had to draw that picture to remind me everyday not to give up, no matter how rough business life got. 

"No, no. Those are just random drawings," I lied. I didn't lie about the girl not being me, I lied about how they're just random drawings.

The girl had no meaning to me, it was always the object she was holding that meant something to me. 

"If they were just random drawings then why doesn't she have a face?" he questions. Does the girl need to have a face for it to be just a random drawing? 

"I'm just not very good and drawing faces! Can we please get back to the dishes?" I was getting annoyed by the fact my watch's hour hand has hit 7 and I'm still here. 

He scoffs while nodding his head finally handing the book back to me.

"Thank you," I say roughly as the aftermath of my bump starts kicking in. 

"I like the two plates with the bowl," he shared. I huffed relieved that he gave an answer so I can finally get out of here. 

"Okay, good. I guess that's it for tonight, but tomorrow we have to start working more on furniture for the living room and the kitchen." I start packing my things holding my sketch book tightly in my arms as I do so.  

"Okay, where would you like to meet to discuss that?" He questions as he throws his blazer back on. As he does so I realize how well built he actually is, the way his muscles flex as he puts his blazer on is a show I can't keep my eyes off of. 

"Whatever is comfortable for you," I answered as I give him my classic closed lip smile before heading towards the door, in which he follows closely behind. 

"I'm asking which is comfortable for you," he states rather than questions. He walks in front of me as he goes to open the door.

"Thanks. Well, I don't know Rome too well. So I think it'd be better if you chose the place of our meeting," I advised cautiously.

Couldn't we just meet back at the house?

I walk through the doorway as he closes it behind him and locks it. 

"Of course," he murmured. I look up to see two cars waiting for both me and Thaddeus. Once we get close enough to the cars, Luca steps out as he kindly opens the door for me. 

"Good evening Miss," he bends his head down as I turn to face Thaddeus. 

"Feel free to text me the address once you've found a place," I bid him farewell before I securely set myself in the car. Once I hear the door shut from the driver's side I roll my window down as soon as I see Thaddeus lips move. 

"I'll be sure to, goodnight Miss Evans," with his expressionless face he heads towards his own car before getting in and driving off at a speed that would make a cheetah look slow. 

I look to see Luca's dark eyes looking at me through the rear-view mirror. I nod my head silently telling him to drive.

~*~**~*~**~*~

"Are you sure you're okay, Miss Evans?" Thaddeus queried as he cast his gaze towards me from across the table. The little drops of sweat forming upon my forehead can clearly state I was a bit nervous. 

Okay, a bit nervous was an understatement. 

But of course, trying to be professional and all, I tangle my fingers together and say, "Positive!" He nods his head once more since this must be the third time he's asked me the same question. 

I'm picking the meeting place next time.

I pick up the menu with shaky hands as I look over it for what seems to be the fifth time. I don't think I can gain the courage to tell him what's really wrong. I feel as if it would be embarrassing to tell a CEO my little predicament here. 

Again, little predicament would be an understatement.

Unfortunately, out of all the many, many restaurants in this beautiful city, Thaddeus had to have chose this one for our meeting. 

You're probably confused as to why I would have a problem with this specific restaurant? 

Well, maybe it's because of the fact that the menu only has spicy dishes!

Confused again?

Well let's just say me and spicy foods don't share the same love for each other. 

The last time I ate a dish covered in spices the little old lady sitting from afar the restaurant asked if I had an allergy problem. 

More like she yelled from across the whole restaurant. 

It got as bad as to where I actually did go to the emergency to detect if I really had an allergy. 

But nope, I'm just really sensitive to spices. 

But I'm still trying to choose. 

Do I tell Thaddeus of my non-allergy to spices or do I let him see the catastrophe that will go down if I take a spoon full? 

Or do I look over the menu for the sixth time to see if there's at least one dish with less spices? 

I think I'll go with the third option.

With no luck, I contemplate whether I should check a seventh time, but dread starts consuming me as the waiter comes over with his black notepad.

"Are you ready to communicate your orders?" The tension starts to ease once he says his sentence with an Italian accent that's almost hard to understand. 

Communicate your orders?

Thaddeus nods his head as he 'communicates' his order. I look at my menu once again and decided to order the least spicy dish. 

"And for you?" The waiter looks down at me, waiting for my response. 

Will all the confidence I can muster I confirm, "I will have the spicy spaghetti casserole." 

"But is it possible to not make the casserole as spicy as....usual?" I questioned as he scribbles the order down. 

"Of course Ma'am, may I take your menus?" We handed our menus over as he sauntered away with my death certificate in hand. 

"You don't like much spice?" I look up to hear his voice overpowering the pounding in my ears.

For some awkward reason, I feel bad. He chose a place that I can't handle, but he doesn't know that and I don't want him feeling like it's his fault if anything were to....happen.

But of course he asked this question since this is a restaurant of spices and I happened to ask for less spices as possible. 

"No, it's fine. It just me and spices don't agree on...some things," I answered in a calming tone. 

With that said I earn myself a weird look from Thaddeus, 

It's better than a blank one.

To make up for this awkward discussion, I did the only thing I can do to make a conversation go. 

I rambled.

About drifferent types of furniture.

Pathetic, I know.

15 minutes later of me just talking and Thaddeus, I think  listening, our food has been served and placed in front of our faces. I look down with my jaw dropped as I look at the plate that will soon determine my death. 

I see the spices very clear as it looks as if the spices were enveloping the spaghetti casserole.

Gee, thanks for going easy on me chef! 

Before the waiter left I asked, "Can I get a glass of milk please?" 

He stretches a smile on his face before saying, "Sure, Ma'am." 

I turn to see Thaddeus digging happily into his meal, well if you call a blank face happy. I look warily at my plate as I pick up my fork with shaky hands. 

Once Thaddeus is done chewing his eyes look up at me as I quickly look like I'm eating the insanely spicy casserole.

Well of course to make it look like I'm eating I have to actually, physically put it in my mouth.

The waiter gave me the casserole in a regular sized bowl that was pre-cut into six pieces. I cut one-sixth of the casserole in half to make it a better fit for my mouth.

Reluctantly opening my mouth I place the casserole in and wait for the spicy magic show to happen. 

I swallow the most wonderful spicy spaghetti casserole in my life, I mean my only one. I wait a couple seconds before the spices kick in.

But they never do. 

Hallelujah, this must be my lucky day! I smile at Thaddeus as he continues his meal, he catches my smile but never returns it. Only smirking once he swallows his last bite.

Yup, you heard it right, his last bite! 

Knowing it's safe I take another bite, then another one, then another one. I enjoy my casserole so much while only feeling a tinge of spice slightly burning my tounge. But before I take another bite I feel something.

Something bubbling. 

Spiciness.

Spiciness exploding in my mouth. 

Tears emerge from my eyes as I breathe out heavily. Thaddeus notices this, I mean it's hard not to. He pushes his plate aside as he reaches over to place his hands in front of me. 

"Evans, what's wrong? Is it the casserole?" he questions frantically. I started coughing absurdly loud as I try to get up from my chair. My eyes get to the point where I can barely see as the tears block my sight. 

I swear if this isn't an allergic reaction, I don't know what is. 

I run from the table, trying not to cough near the other customers as I try to locate the ladies room. While on my way, I see the waiter carrying a tall glass of my milk. Running towards him, I grab my glass of milk and runs towards the bathroom.

Once there, I cough violently to the point where my throat gets super dry and itchy. I scratch my neck hoping to make the feeling go away, but it's no use. 

Grabbing the milk I drink all of it without taking a breathe causing my hiccups to awaken. 

Oh god! I look in the mirror the see the blood rush to my face making me look like it will explode any minute. 

Knowing I have no more liquids to shove down my throat I try to relax and take a deep breathe, which makes my coughing erupt once again. 

I turn to realize no one witnessing this disaster, I sigh in relief. My red face has simmered down a bit, making it look like I've been blushing too much. 

There's a knock at the door as I stare confusingly at it. I ignore the knock knowing the lady can just come in, I didn't lock the door. 

The knock sounds again as I grab a white rag folded neatly near the side of the sink, covering it over my mouth. 

Walking towards the door I open it halfway to reveal a half worried looking Thaddeus standing there. 

With a glass of milk. 

~*~**~*~**~*~

Published: September 8th, 2017

Hello, hello my patient readers!

But I'm glad you guys stick around to read this book. I know it's a short chapter but it's just a filler one just so you can get to know Summer more.

Fact 1: Every time I eat hot chips, my nose always runs! 

Fact 2: If you've seen the cast I put for this book, I know Chris Hemsworth is Thaddeus but I imagine him with his short hair because it's so cute! 

Question: What was the most spiciest food that you've eaten?

All the love, 

~Izzy