Live, Die, Repeat

Chapter 9

I really like to eat, and because I didn't always start out with any money, I learned to cook. It turns out that in addition to learning the music of my new region, learning to cook the food of it became another obsession. As times changed and cooking techniques equipment were advanced, so did my learning. Sometimes it was easy, I would wake up and I was already a cook or in some cases married to one. In other cases, I talked neighbors into teaching me. But if the circumstanced permitted, I would always learn as many new dishes as I could.

I'd like to think I had something to do with cross pollination of cooking techniques around the world as well, since I'd cook in my new life, but sometimes I would bring techniques from other nations to help. It wasn't a conscious decision, it was just a natural happenstance, since that was how I knew to cook. So, to some extent, I guess you're welcome.

There was other training I would do as well, though I was hardly as passionate about it. In addition to the yoga that I learned in the east, I also learned various martial arts. I wasn't a huge fan of killing, or war, but based on what I had seen through my many lives, I realized it was a necessity. I didn't attack it as voraciously as I did the music and the cooking, but when you have so many years to learn, it adds up.

As much as I didn't want it to, that came in handy as well.

I woke up on Friday morning in a panic. I've invited three friends over, presumably to dinner, so that Anna and Zach could hang out. I'm over 4,000 years old and this will be my first ever time hosting friends for dinner. I'd cooked for customers, and family, but never a little intimate dinner party. What do I serve? Ash and Anna obviously came from money, so they would be used to fancy meals, but I wasn't sure about Zach. It was still freezing out, so I should serve something comforting and warm. I thought for a bit and finally came up with a solution. I took out my phone and started searching for an Asian market. There wasn't one in town, but there was down in Manchester, only an hour away.

I jumped in the truck and started driving. I had hopes that this would work. I felt bad for Ash, I wasn't sure what she would get out of this meal other than escorting Anna down. Maybe she was like me, and just looking to make the other pair happy. I was glad she was open about her sexuality as well. I'd stopped worrying about gender long ago, I'd been with too many people of all types of genders and at this point if I were attracted to someone, I just needed to find out if they were attracted to me as well. But for Ash, maybe I could find her someone too. It would be good to see her as happy as Anna was. I guess I'd find out about prospective matches for Ash when school started on Monday. In the meantime, I'd just have to make the night as fun as possible.

The market had everything I needed, which was a good thing. I even picked up a few extra ingredients for other meals since it wasn't exactly easy to come back to Manchester. I had a small bit of doubt that the meal would be a failure, and that I should just make some burgers, or something else that most people liked. I pushed that away and made the decision though, this was good food. If they didn't like it, I'd just improvise.

I was halfway home when I had another thought, and this one I had to act on. I had the Bluetooth call Ash, and a few rings later she picked up.

"Hey there. I was about to call you myself. What can I do for you?" she said when she picked up.

"Oh, well, I was just wondering if you or Anna have any food allergies?" I didn't even think of that when I was planning the meal.

"You're cooking?" she asked in surprise.

"Is that a problem?" I had made breakfast, so she knew I wasn't helpless in the kitchen.

"Not at all. Just surprised." she said with a chuckle. "I thought we'd order pizza or something."