"OH, SHUT UP," THEN SHE TURNED AROUND and got back to frying the rest of the bacons.
"Your parents look really young."
"I think everyone in our family looks younger than they are. My nonnas look to be in their 50s, my parents appear to be in their 30s. And people always says me and my siblings look younger than we are. Maybe some of my ancestors drank the blood of innocent virgins to stay with an young appearance like this," she joked.
"True. I first thought you were around 23-24."
"You also look to be 5 years younger than you are."
"Thank you?" I mumbled suspicious.
"You are welcome!" Then she turned around, "You have a problem with spices?"
"None. I actually prefer spicy food."
"Good, because I do too," then she took a bottle of hot sauce from the top cabinet. "Only the youngest triplets aren't fond of spicy food in my family, everyone else is quite addicted to it. There are seven addictions we mainly share: spicy food, alcohol, Nutella, pepperoni pizza, ice cream, horses, and traveling."
I thought about the scene I saw when I first came inside her apartment. "Is that why you were eating that big Nutella before?"
"Yeah. I felt like it. Besides, I have about twenty pots of it here. There's a cabinet just for my Nutellas, just as I have a cabinet just for different types of pastas. The later being an Italian costume I took from my nonna and papai."
"I had a friend in college that was Italian, and he also had a cabinet just for pasta in his apartment," and he cooked like a God of food. "And you like horses?" I asked curious because of what she said.
Thays nodded, "We have farms, as I told you, so we grew up around horses. Back in our personal farm, each of us have a horse, and mine is a big black one, called Zoro."
"Like Roronoa Zoro? From One Piece?"
She met my eyes, "You know One Piece?"
I gasped, "Of course, I know One Piece. Bloody hell, that's the greatest anime of all time. Me, my brothers, and my dad watch it since we were kids up until now. We even have a group on snap where we talk about the manga and the episodes."
"What a fangirl," she mocked.
"Oh, I am. I have all the manga volumes, as well as lots of items from them, things from the characters, and lots of action figures. I also have Zoro's earrings," I got up and got closer to her, putting the streak of my hair that was covering my ear aside. "It's also the reason why I made these," I showed her the three earring-holes.
Thays blinked, "That's actually cool."
I winked, "I know. Zoro is the best. And I take that he's also your favorite, since you named your horse after him."
A nod, "Yes. Only me and papai accompany it every time, in our family. And dad named his horse Shanks D. Luffy. They are both his favorites," she finally put the big sandwiches each in a different plate, and began to take some fruits out of the fridge, and put them on the mixer. "Actually, my siblings used to mess with me for enjoying anime, saying I was a nerd and stuff like that."
Childish. "Only and your dad like it in your family?"
"Mm-hm. Well, my eldest nephew, Daniel, who's 6 now, loves anime. That makes us three. Daniel is Ella's firstborn son with her husband, Jay Harrison, who's British."
Ella? "Is Ella a nickname?"
She pressed her lips together, "Oh? Yes. It's short for Graziella."
Got it. "Isabella Graziella? Your eldest sister, right?" Thays nodded, and her cheeks reddened a bit. "The banker."
"Yeah. In order, I call them Ella, Enrico, Enzo, Lia, Giovanni, Leo, Alessandro, Paolo, and Amalia. They call me Manu. Ella is short for Graziella, Enzo is short for Lorenzo, Lia is short for Cecilia, Leo is for Leonardo. And as you know, Manu is for Emmanuelle." Okay, I probably need to memorize that, so I won't get lost when she talks with them.
Thays put the juice of strawberry, mango, lemon, and green apple in two glass, plus ice, and put it down on the island. She handed me my plate and the glass, and gave me a napkin to eat the big sandwich she made.
"It looks delicious," I mumbled licking my lips.
She grinned, "It is. I'm good at cooking, as I told you. And now you won't have to necessarily lie saying I cooked for you. It makes it easier like this. We should stick to lies based on how we actual deal with each other. If we try to create a five-headed dragon out of this, it'll be easier to spot the lie and we'll get in trouble with our families," then she put the sauces in front of me. "I don't know what you like, so there's ketchup, garlic sauce, hot sauce, mayonnaise, mustard, and barbecue sauce."
"Hot sauce with mustard and barbecue," I said while picking them. "I always mixture the three of them. I do this since I was a kid, so it's something they will expect you to know."
"Got it. Any allergies I should be aware of?"
Oh, yes. That's a crucial part. "Sea food, coconut, avocado, almond, salmon, and dust." It can be annoying, especially when we live in New Zealand… two islands.
She grinned, "Is that why you are a cleaning freak?" What? What makes her think that?
I gasped, "I'm not a cleaning freak. I just can't stand dirty places, or disorder. And cleaning calms me down. Besides, I have to always maintain a clean environment not to have any crisis."
Thays took a big bite, and kept a smug on, and only talked after she took a sip of the juice. "Louco por limpeza. You unconsciously describe a clean freak, making you one. Which I already knew. Although I thought you had a phobia big enough that you wouldn't even touch anyone. But by how you didn't seem to have a problem touching my skin earlier, I think I was mistaken."
I felt my cheeks burn, "God, I'm not such a freak, Thays. You probably think that because you are a mess. Just look at how you threw your shirt on the ground and left the Nutella in the front of the apartment. Or how you dirtied your mouth eating that, and…" I pointed to her lips that were full of hot sauce with garlic sauce and ketchup, "how you are eating now."
"You should see the disgusted smug on your face," she mocked. "And I'm in my home, Aaron. I'm in my home and hungry, and that's how I eat when I'm hungry. Besides, I don't throw my clothes on the ground normally, I did that on purpose."
Hah, "To annoy me?"
She grinned with her dirtied lips, "As amusing as annoying you is, no. I did that because you don't put down your clothes in an organized manner when you are transando with someone. And as we wanted your mother to believe we were doing that, she needed to think that even a clean freak such you, would forget your annoyances in the heat of the moment," as straightforward as always.
At this point she already knows I speak her native language, but she still insists in saying dirty words on it. It became a charming, I guess. But it's not like I'll ever say that to her.
"And you thought about all of that, in a second?"
"Of course, I did. I'm a prodigy, what did you expect? I got emancipated at 15 and went to Harvard sooner than most people would, especially being a foreigner. And in my work I have to be quick witted and think fast, to act just as fast. It's a habit," she rolled her shoulders.
As my eyes travelled behind her to the mess she made in the kitchen, I frowned, "Well, that wasn't calculated," I muttered and gazed back to her.
"Are you annoyed?" She asked with a mischievous grin, tilting her head to the side.
Clenching my jaw, I rolled my eyes and took a bite of the sandwich, savoring it. She wasn't being full of herself when she said that she's good at cooking. "What about you? Do you have any allergies?"
"Papaya, sea food, and-" the door bell ranged out of nowhere and she jumped with… a happy smile? I guess it's the first time I see a genuine happy smile on her. "Lion's back!" She yelled like a happy child and ran to her door.
What…? Who's Lion?