Timing is Nothing

(Chpt 8) Fire in the Oven

When I came home Ava and Mark were no where to be found. They were probably out looking for wedding planners or something. It was sunday so I was convinced most wedding places were closed but who knew with them, they always seemed to get lucky. I fumbled about the kitchen throwing things here and there as I pleased. Not only was I a god awful cook, I'm a messy cook. There were sauces everywhere, steak spit all over the oven and walnut crumbs covering the floor. Multiple kinds of chocolate was drizzeled up and down my arms. I decided that maybe it wasn't the bightest idea to cook the appitizer, main course and desert at the same time. I stopped with the desert, which was going to be a chocolate fondue kind of thing and focused on the main course, steak with a walnut topping and a tomato glaze. It didn't sound very good, and at this point it looked even worse than it smelled, but I saw it on TV and everyone seemed to love it. Maybe it was a spiced cherry glaze with toasted almonds on a roast, but cherrys and tomatos are both fruit, walnuts and almonds ar both nuts and steaks and roasts were both beef. How big could the difference be?
I set the steak in the oven and turned up the heat so it would cook faster. The main reason I hated cooking was that I'm an instant gratification kind of person. I don't mind waiting for my food if someone else cooks it because I don't do anything. When the food is ready I sit down and enjoy it. When I cook though, I have to prep and clean and taste and wait. It's really not my style.
As everything was about done, I surveyed at the massive mess I had created. I managed to get tomato sauce on the roof above the sink...how did that happen? I cleaned what I could reach and ignored the rest, hoping that they would too.
I left the war zone for my room to breifly freshen up. I pulled on my favortie faded jeans, a black t-shirt and a little white hoody. I combed my hair back into a non-messy pony at the nape of my neck and applied Ava's favortie Stella lip gloss. She never minded when I borrowed it because she steals my stuff all the time. Somewhere along the line we always broke even.
I heard the front door open I ran out to greet them.
"SURPRISE!! I cooked dinner for us."  They both stopped laughing at whatever they were laughing at and stared at me with their jaws hanging at their feet.
"What?"  I shrugged.
"Why?" Ava asked  "don't you like us?"
"Don't you want us to live long enough to actually get married?" Mark pretened to have a heart attack and fell over into Ava.
"Fine. I wont do anything nice for either of you ever again." I folded my arms begrudingly trying to keep a straight face but Ava imitated and we all laughed.
"Do you atleast want to know what it is?"
"Something that stunk up the place pretty good?" Mark opened the window behind the sink as he spoke.
"What is it?" asked Ava.
"Ok so we have garlic tost for an appie and then our main course is this steak thing I saw on TV once with a tomato glaze and walnuts on top and dessert is a chocolate fondue!"  I clapped my hands in excitement.
"Walnuts, tomatoes and steak...that's different"  Ava looked puzzled and apprhensive.
"Ava come on, it'll be great. I tried really hard this time" 
"Whats on the ceiling?"  Mark looked right above his head at my tomato mess.
"I dont see anything"  I lied and turned around
"Is that tomato sauce?" He laughed. "Only you." He grabbed the dish rag and wiped what he could off. He was tall enough to do it with out a chair. He always came in handy. Ava was only 5 5', myself only 5 3' so without 6ft Mark, we'd have collected outselves multiple heights in step stools by now.
As I set the table as nicely as possible, I smelled something burning...my fondue!  I hadn't turned the burner off when I decided to cook one part of the meal at a time, I had just stopped stirring. Thank god I had bought ice cream too. Fruit and Ice cream is better for you than chocolate anyway. I tossed the pot in the sink intending to clean it later when the whole mess was done. Peering into the oven, my steak looked quite tasty but when I open the door a crack the get a better look it was discovered that the smell really was hidious. I thought that it was because it wasn't cooked through yet.
"So where did you see the recipe again?" inquired Mark.
"On TV." Nothing but the truth.
"I knew that but what show?"
"Oh, this great little cooking show on the Food Network" I left out the part about how it was on an info-murccial and decided to butter my garlic toast.
I set the toast in the oven, poured us some chilled wine and held up my glass.
"To the Bride and Groom, I hope your planning goes as smoothly as the proposal did" I smiled and drank.
"No kidding" Ava rolled her eyes exasperated.
"Why?"
"We met with our families today for lunch over at the Boat House. They already have our wedding planned out for us. It's that great." Ava was not often a sarcastic person but every word was dripping with it.
"Honey, they just have suggestions. It's a parent thing but It's our wedding so don't worry about it" He patted her back lovingly.
"So what did they all say?"
"Well first James asked where you were" James is Ava's second cousin from some farm in Saskatchewan. Nice boy but a little wonky.
"Who invited him?"
"He's in town meeting some girl he's been dating on the internet for awhile now and Mom invited him. You know how she is. Anyway, they were thrilled, knew it had been coming for ages because smarty pants here asked for Dad permission a year ago!" She was smiling proudly.
"When?" Ava's Dad is the least intimidating guy in the world but he's a people person so theres always an audience. They are what is intimidating.
"Remember James brothers wedding last year at the farm?"
"Yeah... "
"Ok well when that girl thought you were checking out her date, which you totally were Jo, and dumped that drink on your dress, Bert was actually alone. Not for very long, but you were the best distraction! His whole possy went to check that you were ok."
"Actually Jo, they just wanted to see you fight the bitch and get that little dress ripped off" I pretended to laugh at her. I remembered that wedding like it was yesterday. It was about 100 degrees outside and the little Catholic church was packed.  Just a bit down the isle from me was this really good looking guy. We had been eyeing eachother and he hadn't been with the crazy girl, hence why I continued to eye the guy. At the reception I danced with him once and he dissappeared. I didn't mind because Ava and I had half the groomsmen and part of the towns men around us. Anyways, I was wearing this beautiful little pale purple, strapless BCBG dress. It was amazing, until Crazy came and dumped her Bloody Mary all over it because she thought I was sleeping with her man. Turned out that it had been the Maid of Honor who was sleeping with him and I was just some who had innocently danced with him.
"Daddy was actually alone and Mark charmed him and he said yes."
"There were condition though."
"Bert gave you conditions?"  He's to laid back for conditions!
"Yep. He wanted it to be memorable, so that we would have a great story to tell our kids some day and it had to include people that meant the world to us so we always have something to share."
"Isn't that sweet?"  Ava was beaming.
"Your dad always has been a softie"  I smiled. Bert was always the guy we talked to when it came to boys. There were countless broken hearts between Ava and I, and we would spend hours with her Dad in the basement, just listening to his words of wisdom. Once all the girls were over there and we sat there for hours, the five of us, just debating everything about men and women. He was a romantic, which shaped Ava and I into being romantics more than movies or books ever could.
"So what do they have planned for your big day then?" I was dieing to hear this.
"They want yellow and orange to be our colors, nice and summery. They want the long, traditional and painful Catholic ceremony and they want we to wear my grandmas dress."
"The dress we used to play dress-up in?"
"Thats the one" She gave me the thumbs up with mock enthusiasm.
"It's like a parka with some lace here and there. Even when we were little we thought it was rank" 
"I know."  she sighed.
"Ava will get whatever she wants." Mark stated sternly. "I've already talked to the mothers and told them that there imput is welcome but it is still OUR wedding and it will be done OUR way" He was such a great guy! The thing about Mark is, he means what he says. He really would make sure that their day is done their way and even the Moms would be happy with the end results. He just finds a way to make everyone thrillled with the out come.
"So it's a summer wedding then?"  I had just caught on that she had said 'nice and summery'. It was the end of February, leaving them a short few months to pull it all together.
"They want that. I think that this summer is close and next summer is to far. As a compromise I was thinking that maybe Mid October would be nice."
"Mark can be Frankenstien and you can be his bride" I loved my own jokes.
"You need to get out more"  Ava chuckled.
"So what would your colors be then?"
"I'm thinking taupes, sages and golds. Really neutral stuff, colors that will never go out of style."
"That would be lovely!"  It really would be. Ava looked great in neutrals, they match her hazel eyes. To be surrounded by them would be incredible for her complexion.
"I was actually hoping that you would do the honor..."
"We were hoping..."  Mark chimed in.
"That you would be our decorator for the wedding!" Ava started clapping and laughing.
"Oh!" I excalimed half heartedly. I sort of expected her to ask me to be the maid of honor. I mean we have been friends forever, we lived together, I'm around for everything...it would make sence. "Of course I will guys, you don't even have to ask."
"Good. I guess we don't have to ask you to be the maid of honor then either?" Ava folded her arms and turned away.
"OH MY GOD YES!" I leaped over the table and landed flat on top of Ava."Yes! Yes! Yes! I'll do it. I thought you'd never ask!" I kissed her multiple times on the cheek.
"We couldn't think of anyone else better for the job" Mark laughed as I flung myself on him and kissed his cheeks too.
"You shouldn't have had to think about it." I half meant it but not enough to really care. "I'm so happy for you to and I'll make sure that everything goes just amazingly, nothing will go wrong at this wedding. Not on my watch. Whatever you guys need you know I'll do it for you. And..." I was interrupted.
"There's a fire in the oven" Mark said flatly.
"You're not funny" I said, getting ready to babble some more when I looked over to see that my steak stuff was lit brightly on fire in the oven. So the usual it was.