Remembering there are good leftovers in the fridge from the day before

 "Um, are you sure about this?" Koda was still surprised that Vanna wanted Maisy and Harrison to come over. He was never exactly sure how Vanna went about making friends. True, Vanna knew Maisy from work, but they never spoke to each other. Why now?

"We need couple friends. And..and they just moved into our building." She told him as she was attempting to make something domestic. He did not want to disturb that. It was pasta. It would be an interesting experiment. He reminded her there was a bag of salad in the fridge and her favorite Ranch was a new bottle he'd popped in the fridge overnight.

"OK." He nodded. Hoping she felt comfortable about having new people over. He'd met Harrison a time or two and it was cool and he liked the idea of knowing him. Still, there were Declan and Brandon, and Chevy and Simon. What were they?

He sighed. He wouldn't dare start something. He went to turn on the TV and was happy Jeopardy was on. He didn't know if he even wanted to watch the news.

"Should we play games?" He asked about their upcoming dinner with Maisy and Harrison.

"What?" Vanna yelled back. He saw the steam coming up from the big pot of water. She was too close.

"Be careful!" He practically jumped up. Honestly, she was a dangerous cook. He didn't like seeing her with knives either. At least she wasn't cooking ground beef. It would be dry and burnt. But she was stir-frying some veg and the white chicken meat he'd already cooked over the weekend was waiting to be mixed in at the end.

Of course, by the time it was over, she looked like she'd been to hell and back. At least her face wasn't scorched.

"I don't know how you do it," Vanna looked as if she had attempted too much. The pasta was soggy and the veggies were a mess, but he ate it anyway. At least it was swimming in cream of mushroom soup.

"It's fine." He didn't want to go there with wayward conversations about..if you're so smart why aren't you a rocket scientist. He knew it wasn't actually Vanna, but possibly channeling her mother for a good ten minutes or so during those discussions. Thankfully, her MOM questions never came up in the bedroom. It was a whole other world and then sleep always set in.

Yes, maybe he hadn't sacrificed enough, but he was happy at the senior center cooking. He liked his friends. At the moment all he could manage to do was a couple of online classes and playing the lottery for two bucks a week. 

"So what do you know about Maisy?"

"Nothing really, I thought she was a lesbian up until now." Vanna shrugged.

"Oh really?"

"Oh, she was always hanging out with Rafe's brother and his boyfriend and I just thought-" she fumed. She pushed the plate away. She couldn't eat.

"Let me get the salad out," Koda got up and put some salad in a bowl.

"But..but now we'll have more to clean up." She swelled a frown.

"Did you just want to put the ranch dressing in the bag?" He asked.

"Of course, not." She gave him an angry look.

"It's just one bowl. We'll share," he said. After all, he was on kitchen cleanup. 

"You're doing the cooking when they come," she held her fork as if she might poke him.

"No, you're doing the cooking," Koda laughed impishly. Sometimes, he did wonder who was raising who.