The Wallflower Mate

8

Mary was working behind a work station. Her arms were deep inside a big metal mixing bowl. Her hair tied neatly back to allow her to work.

"Mary!" the hostess shouted.

Mary's head shot up. She looked towards the entrance of the kitchen. Waiters came in and pushed both the hostess and Abraham to the side. Abraham waved his hand while shoving the other in his pockets.

In his mind he was chanting, please don't kick me out.

Mary washed her hands and wiped her hands quickly on a towel while walking over to them.

"What are you doing here?"

"He's your boyfriend, aren't you excited to see him?"

"What?" Mary nearly shouted her surprise. Her eyes moving to Abraham to find out what his motive was.

"You know, the one from Normandy? Aren't you happy to see him?"

"He isn-"

"Oh, love, how I missed you!" Abraham exclaimed and yanked her into his arms. He squeezed the breath out of her, so she wouldn't be able to squeak out the truth.

"Aw, you two look so perfect together," Naira cooed.

Abraham wrapped one firm arm around Mary's shoulder and gave it a good squeeze. He looked down at her with a fake fondness and adoration that everyone who saw would believe except for Mary.

"Did you miss me?" Abraham asked.

"Aww," Naira cooed again.

"Naira, go man the front," Mary snapped.

Naira pouted but did as she was told. Turning to Abraham, she removed his arm from around her shoulder.

"What do you think you are doing?" she asked.

"I wanted steak," he replied with a nonchalant shrug.

"I just cooked for you!" she growled angrily and walked away.

Abraham followed with a skip to his walk. His hands in his pockets, he looked around the kitchen and walked around to where Mary resumed her cooking. Leaning over her shoulder, he looked down at her bowl. She was kneading dough.

"Ok, I'm not here because of your cooking skills," he started but winced when she threw him a death glare. "Ok, ok, partly because of that but mainly because I wanted to talk to you."

She stopped her kneading to look at him with a questionable look.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"What are you making?" he redirected.

"I asked first." She frowned.

"We have plenty of time," Abraham pulled out his left arm to look at his watch. If there was something he knew about Ryker, it was that even though he was a stubborn son of a bitch, he would always bite the bait.

"I'm making biscuits," she grumbled.

"And after biscuits?" he asked.

She stopped kneading again and leaned back on one hip to look at him. Something crashed loudly in the background. Sounded like someone dropped their dish they were working on. There was a bunch of cursing coming from their left side. They both turned to look in that direction before returning their gaze back to each other.

"Seriously, what are you doing here?" she asked.

"I just want to talk to you," Abraham insisted.

Suddenly, Mary looked a little uneasy. She shifted on her feet and threw her attention back to fixing her dough and putting it away for later. Once done, she turned to look at Abraham. Her eyes swept over his face and made him feel a little exposed.