A few minutes pass, and they stop making out.
"I think the soup might be done."
"I think so, too."
Osmond gets off Natalie and they go back to the kitchen. With a wooden spoon, he presses a chunk of squash against the side of the pot and easily crushes it. He does the same with the other veggies and turns off the stove.
"It's done."
"Great."
Natalie plugs in a blender and removes the lid.
"Hold this."
Osmond hands Natalie the cooking spoon, then uses a ladle to carefully transfer the soup into the blender. He takes the lid, closes it and starts blending. About 40 seconds later, he turns the blender off, takes the spoon from Natalie, scoops a bit of the soup with it and, after blowing for a bit, tastes it. He does it again, now letting Natalie taste it.
"It's good."
"I'll add some cream to serve. We should eat the leftovers while the soup cools down."
"Can I feed you?"
"Sure."
Osmond sprinkles the grated celeriac over the leftovers, adds lemon juice and a bit of oil and mixes it all up with a fork.
"We can eat here."
"Yeah."
"Wanna share a fork?"
"Sounds good to me."
"Thank you, God, for this food." -They say in unison.
Natalie takes the fork from Osmond's hand and uses her other hand to hold the plate. She takes a bite. The soft and sweet rice and yams contrast against the refreshing and slightly crunchy celeriac, but she focuses on how the food in her mouth gets smeared by the filth on her teeth, the thin saliva at the front of her tongue, the thick saliva at the back of her tongue, and after chewing the food and turning it into something akin to a dog's vomit, it goes down to the stomach which is like a bowl unwashed for 21 years. She gives Osmond a bite.
"I really like your cooking."
"Thanksh."
"You'll make a good wife one day."
"How long do you want our relationship to last?"
"Till we die, and then some."
"What about kids?"
"Oz, I'm 21, I don't wanna think about having kids this early."
"Yeah, I get you."
She gives him another bite and takes a bite as well. After swallowing, she asks,
"What about you?"
"What about me?"
"How many kids do you want?"
She takes another bite.
"One at most, though I'd be fine without any at all."
"How come?"
"They're responsibilities and a bother to deal with, especially when there are too many of them, but if it's just one, then it's probably not that bad since I might be able to train it to not be bothersome."
"Yeah, I get you."
She gives him a big bite. Osmond grabs two bowls, detaches the jar from the blender and pours soup into them, then adds cream into the center of each bowl, and decorates them with dill. Natalie finishes eating the leftovers.
"We..."
"We offer this food to God, Om Tat Sat. Thank you, God, for this food." -They say in unison.
Osmond starts drinking the soup straight from the bowl.
"Is it hot?"
He stops and licks his upper lip.
"Yeah, but it's safe to drink."
He continues drinking his soup and Natalie does the same. After a few seconds they finish drinking.
"Want some more?"
"How much more is there?"
"Hmm… I can't tell."
"Whatever, just give me half."
Osmond pours half of what's left into her bowl and half into his, and adds cream to both.
"No dill this time?"
"You want some?"
"Not really."
"Should we offer this as well or was the first time enough?"
"I don't know. We've been doing it wrong all this time, it's not like two bowls will make much of a difference."
"We've been doing it wrong?"
"Yeah, you're supposed to wait a bit after offering and before eating."
"I didn't know that."
"Wanna try doing it right next time?"
He looks like he's solving a math problem in his head.
"Ah, who cares, we'll be fine as long as we keep offering. Besides, the Gita doesn't say that we have to wait before eating, it just says that we should offer everything to God."
"Yeah, so about this soup..."
"Let's offer it, just in case."
"Sure."
They rhythmically nod twice and on the third time say in unison,
"We offer this food to God, Om Tat Sat. Thank you, God, for this food."
They both chug the soup again. Osmond scrapes up what's left on the sides of the bowl with the cooking spoon, drinks it and hands the spoon to Natalie, who does the same.
"Alright, who's gonna do the dishes?"
"Wanna do them together?"
"I think it would be a bit cramped with two people."
"Then I'll do the dishes and you do the laundry."
"Okay."
Natalie starts preparing the dishes for the dishwasher while Osmond goes to the other side of the room to take the dried laundry off the drying rack.