Cooking Together

She opened the fridge and found it well-stocked with different meat, vegetables, and fruits. "Wow…"

Just as she cracked an egg, a voice travelled from behind her. "Trinity? What're you doing here?"

Trinity's smile dropped. She turned around with a little pout. "Did you get summoned from the egg or something?"

"You want eggs for breakfast today?" Phil walked forward. "How about this... Shall we make it together?" He picked up an egg by the bowl.

Trinity's eyes lit up with joy. "Really? Can we?"

Phil looked stunned. He quickly turned away and covered his mouth, trying to hide his laughter. However, his shaking shoulders gave him away.

"Were you just teasing me?" Trinity glared at him.

"No. No. I mean it." He cleared his throat. "So... Scrambled eggs and sausages?"

"And cherry tomatoes." She pointed at the tomatoes on the large island countertop behind them.

"You can continue with the eggs, I'll settle the rest."

"Okay." /How long does he think I'll take?/

By the time she was done scrambling the eggs, the tomatoes were properly washed, cut, and plated. The sausages were sitting in the oven.

Trinity's smile froze. /Isn't he really fast? I'm not that slow, am I?/

Phil took a sieve and ran the scrambled eggs through it. "Do you want to do the frying?"

"Sure." Trinity took the frying pan and heated it up immediately.

As she expected, by the time the butter melted, Phil was ready to pour the eggs in. She stirred while he seasoned.

Just as the eggs were done, the oven tinged. Phil plated the sausages while Trinity plated the eggs.

Seeing how there were three servings, she casually asked, "Damien's awake this time?"

"Yes."

Trinity brought out her plate while Phil carried the other two plates. They ran into Damien on their way to the dining room. Sweat dripped off his hair and rolled down his face and neck. His shirt was soaked in sweat as well. The bottom of his sweatpants was covered in sand. Trinity could not resist asking, “Why are you always wearing long sleeved shirts? Isn’t it really hot today? What if you get a heat stroke?”

/It can’t be that he feels inferior about his body. He so… In shape./

Damien stopped just before the doorway into the living room. He turned around and approached her in an exceedingly slow manner. His voice dropped low and deep. “It’s to keep people like you from ogling. You’re picturing how I’d look shirtless, aren’t you? Is this your way of asking me to take it off?”

Finding him too close for comfort, she used one hand to push him away and took one step back herself. “You creep. Forget I asked. Just go clean up.”

She wiped her hand that got wet with his sweat on her pants and made her way to a chair far from him. Damien gave a little smirk then walked off.

By the time Damien returned to the dining room looking fresh and clean, Trinity was done with breakfast. Phil also let her do her own dishes this time. When she walked past the dining room again, she saw Damien still staring at his plate. Her footsteps slowed down to a stop before she entered his field of vision. /What’s he doing?/

The way Damien eyed his food was like he was studying a creature no one had ever seen before. He rolled around the broken pieces of fluffy eggs. Just as she thought that he would spend forever playing with his food, he finally popped one into his mouth. His eyebrows raised slightly, showing his surprise. He then picked up another and another. Finally, he was eating normally again.

Trinity felt oddly touched by that gesture. However, she refused to let him know. Besides, she barely did much for the cooking. She knew that the success of the dish was thanks to Phil. She only had one job and it was not even done well. Feeling like she should give credit where it was due, she stepped forward and curtly clarified that she only did the stirring.

“I can tell that much.” Damien stared at her, unable to comprehend why she had to point it out.

“Oh. Okay then.” She lightly coughed then left for her room.

Trinity spent the rest of the morning studying and preparing for her tutorial class in the afternoon. She got so engrossed in her work that Phil had to call her out for lunch.

“Already?” She looked at the time. “Oh.”

“Phil, I’d like to go to school slightly earlier. Today’s tutorial is with that group from yesterday.” She asked while packing her bag.

“We leave after lunch?”

“Can we?”

“Sure.” He smiled.

Trinity returned his smile then headed to the dining room with him.

Damien still had not appeared when Trinity was halfway through with her lunch. “Damien’s not home?”

“He had a meeting to attend.”

“Oh. Did you drive him there?”

“Unfortunately not. I have you to care for now. You can’t drive. He can.”

Trinity pursed her lips a little. She played with her food a little. “Can I learn to drive?”

“Even if you learn to drive, it wouldn’t be safe to leave you by yourself, especially after word gets out that you’re Damien Wu’s wife.”

“I can properly practice some form of martial arts for self-defense.”

“That sounds good to have as a precaution, but I’ll still follow you around. Both for image and safety purposes.”

“Would Mr Wu’s safety not be compromised?”

Phil paused to consider her question seriously. “Mr Wu is more than capable of taking care of himself.”

“He can? Last I remember, he was being cornered by those street thugs.”

“You entered the scene before he could do anything. Those thugs did not have a chance against him. They would have even regretted messing with him.”

Trinity looked at Phil in disbelief.

“There’s still a lot of Mr Wu that you don’t know about.”

Trinity harboured mixed feelings while she resumed eating. Should she learn more about him? Is this what Damien meant when he warned her to not bite off more than she could chew? But isn’t it normal for a wife to know all about her husband? Then again, they were not in a normal relationship.

Her thoughts continued to plague her on the way to school. Phil left her to her thoughts.

“Sorry.” The soft voice in the car drew Phil’s attention to the rearview mirror. Trinity was still looking down.

“There’s nothing to be sorry about. I fully understand and support Mr Wu’s decisions.”

“But he was so ready to get rid of you the first time I met you. I just feel like I’m taking him away from you.”

Phil, however, kept quiet.

“Phil?”

Suddenly, a thought occurred to her. “Phil…? Was that an act…?”

Phil still did not respond.

“He didn’t mean it, did he?” Her eyes grew wider as realisation dawned on her. “He said it just to get what he wanted out of me! You knew it and played along!”

“You’re not entirely wrong but you’re not completely right either. Mr Wu is not a bad person, but he IS strict about a person’s character and value.”

Phil’s answer confused her but also diffused her anger. Getting manipulated still irritated her, though. So, she stayed silent for the rest of the ride. When she reached school, she exited the van without another word.

“Hi Trinity! Looking cute today!” Olivia greeted her from behind.

Trinity pushed open the door to the classroom and held it open for her group. “Thank you, Olivia. You’re really too kind with your compliments.”

Timothy stared at her longer this time. Suddenly, he smiled at her for the first time. “You do look cute today though. For real.”

Trinity looked down. She was merely wearing a light pink oversized bunny hoodie with black skinny jeans. Her hair was carelessly tied up in two messy buns.

“Ooooh. That kind of compliment from Timothy is rare.” Olivia nudged Trinity. “Maybe simple styles suit you.”

Trinity laughed it off. “I see, I see.”

The trio breezed through what they were supposed to prepare for tutorial class then spent the remaining time flirting or browsing through social media.

“Oh! That’s right! Trinity, we haven’t exchanged our Insta handles!” Olivia exclaimed all of a sudden. She drew some stares but everyone quickly returned to what they were doing since there was nothing really going on.

“I don’t use Instagram…” Trinity admitted.

“What?! Who in this age doesn’t?”

“... Tadah...” Trinity faced her palms outwards.

“Twitter? Snap?”

“Just FaceBook. I used to play some games on it.”

“What DO you do in your free time?” Olivia looked like she had just encountered a creature from another world. Drew and Timothy were now focused on Trinity as well.

/Work. Study. Help out at home. What free time?/

“Read?” Trinity replied.

“Give me your phone. Today’s the day you have an Insta account. Come on.” Olivia wriggled her fingers with her palm faced up.

Trinity placed her phone on Olivia’s hand. Olivia stared at it for a short while before opening the Play store. “Waiting for the model releasing at the end of this month?” She casually asked while installing the application into Trinity’s phone.

“Not exactly. Looking around. Can’t decide on one yet.”

“Upgrade to an iPhone then, especially since you have a MacBook.”

“Oh. The syncing, right?”

“You know about that?” Timothy asked.

“Yeah, now I do.”

“Do you want to come up with a handle for yourself? I can help.” Olivia cut in.

“I can do it myself, thank you.” Trinity smiled politely. /Trinity... / She considered putting her family name. However, she thought of her situation and ended up inputting “xx” instead.

“Okaaaay. And here you go.” Trinity scrolled through her home feed. There were a lot of pictures with Olivia and Drew in it. Timothy were in some. Timothy mostly posted about gaming and driving. Other accounts were texts and quotes.

“Like it?” Olivia asked with a wide smile.

“Yes, thank you.” At the same time, their tutor entered class.

“Alright, consultation time~” Olivia sang.