Tangerine Skies

"Be quiet! Just be quiet!" Lola yelled. I immediately shut my mouth. Even though she was sweet, I knew she was also very dangerous if let loose.
"What?" I asked. She glared at me.
"Russell, my friends are in the next room, and if they hear this, I would be screwed." She sat down and shook her head. I sat down next to her, but she immediately swatted me away.
"No, no," she got up and moved across from me. "I am not getting back together with you. But we have to keep it together for one more night. Can you handle that?"
"Yes, of course. But what if something romantic happens?" I asked, noticing how evident her tiredness was.
"Then we take it in stride." She looked at me, and I saw a moment of vulnerability, but it was immediately shut out by stubbornness. She got up and walked towards the bedroom. When I got up to go with her, she stopped me.
"No." That's all she said.
As I sat on the couch, I couldn't help feeling sad. It was a stupid fight too, something that should have ended in thoughtful words and a couple kisses. But rather, I said some thoughtless things, and made it ten times worse. I shook my head at my own stupidity. But at least I will get one more good day. Even if Lola would be distant and weird.
The next morning, I woke up to the sound of shuffling feet.
"Get up, get up!" I heard Lola's voice through my sleepy daze. I stumbled up from my sleeping position and walked towards the dresser.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"I don't know, but I know that Margo wants us up and ready to go. She said dress comfortably!" She shouted from the other room. I quickly got a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and changed. When I looked in the mirror, I saw my hair was disheveled and I desperately needed to wash myself. So I ran myself through a quick, hot shower and when I came out, I saw Lola. She was wearing a yellow sundress with her dark hair brushed to a sheen. I couldn't help but want to kiss her. But I knew we were freshly broken up. Right? Her voice had lost the edge it had last night, but it wasn't sweet and loving like I was used to.
"Let's get a move on," she said. But as I was walking out, I heard her whisper, "You look good."
Margo and her girlfriend Ash met us outside.
"Wow, Lola! You look great!" Margo said as she gave Lola a hug. Ash smiled over Margo's shoulder. Then Margo turned and looked at me.
"Russell, quite the minimalist, huh?" She looked back towards Lola. She smiled and nodded, and only I saw the slight grimace on her face.
"Well, we have to get going now, right?" Ash said, looking at her partner. Margo nodded forcefully.
"You're completely right." Margo turned on her heels and started marching off somewhere. Lola and I followed them tentatively.
"I saw that you know," I whispered into Lola's ear.
"Well, hopefully they didn't," she whispered back.
Soon, we got to a big building. It stuck out like a sore thumb, with its concrete walls against the bright blue skies and green palm trees. Good smells wafted from the open windows.
"Here we are!" Margo announced. She swung open the doors with a flourish as I saw exactly what we were doing.
Little tables were lined up, with stoves and ovens next to them. Other groups of people were working, cooking off of a recipe written on a little card.
"We'll go find our tables," Ash said. "You two wait here." They both left, walking towards a little desk with a short line waiting at it.
"This is going to be fun," Lola said.
"I can't tell if you're sarcastic or not," I replied. She looked up at me through her eyelashes, rolling her eyes. I chuckled a little.
"We got them!" Margo said in a sing-songy voice. She was holding two little cards with numbers on them.
"Wait I thought we were doing these together," Lola said.
"Of course not," Ash said. "It's a couples thing."
"Yeah, of course, Lola," I said, nudging her. Her frustration was too prominent.
"So, uh, you guys are in Table 12, and we're in 14," Ash said.
Once we got to our station, Lola quickly took control.
"So, I need you to cut up that bread over there." She said, starting to crack some eggs. I walked over to the slices of bread, and took a knife from the knife block.
"What are we making?" I asked as I cut up the bread.
"French Toast," she replied quickly. I heard her start whisking quickly. I picked up the pieces of bread and scooped them into a bowl. As I glanced at the recipe card, I felt something wet hit me in the chest.
"Oops, sorry!" She said, taking the bowl of cubed bread out of my hands. I looked down at the yellowish substance sprayed on the side of my T-shirt. It was flecked with brown, and, upon tasting, tasted pretty good.
"This is good," I said, looking at Lola, who looked mortified.
"Why would you do that?" A hint of a smile was forming on her lips, and I needed to coax it out.
"It's food. Why would I waste that?" There it was, a smile. But it was gone as quickly as it appeared. Lola started dumping the liquid over the bread, and then stuck it in the fridge.
"Why did you do that?" She asked as we were grabbing the spices for the topping.
"Do what?" I asked, mixing some spices in a bowl.
"Trying to make me laugh," she said.
"I thought we were broken up, not enemies," I said, looking at her. Her eyes met mine as she looked away.
"I guess, but--" she stopped. I felt guilty, suddenly, but I didn't show it.
After a little longer, our French Toast was done, but I still felt guilty for trying to flirt. We were broken up, right? But I still felt horrible for being so thoughtless.
"Hey." I said as we were leaving. Ash and Margo were a few steps ahead of us, flirting hard.
"Hey," she said, confused.
"I just want to say that I am sorry for last night. I didn't mean half the things I said, and the other half were just dumb and stupid," I explained. "And that I'm sorry for flirting because we did break up, technically," I continued. "And--"
"Stop, please," she said. We had stopped walking. Ash and Margo were oblivious.
"Just will you please--?" I asked.
"Just stop!" She turned.
"What?" I said, grabbing her hand. She didn't resist.
"I'm the one who should be sorry," she said. "I overreacted." I didn't know what to say. She did? Well, that explained a lot.
"And I do want you back," she said. I looked into her eyes and saw how sincere she was. I kissed her cheek.
"I do too."