Chapter 90: Paella

FieryKathy

“Lise, how the hell is that a monkey?” Hilda looks at my sister’s drawing after the guessing time ran out.

“What do you mean? It’s the best monkey I’ve ever drawn in my entire life.” 

“It better be the only monkey you’ve drawn in your entire life then.”

“That is… that’s true…”

“I mean, I can kind of see it.” Sam tilts her head. 

“Thanks, Sam. See, my artistry isn’t that bad after all.”

“I do need to squint really badly though.” 

“Okay, it’s bad.” My sis starts laughing.

“We can’t all be as good as Ami.” Sam gives me a kiss. 

“It’s not that my drawings have been that good. It’s hard to draw things in 80 seconds.” 

“And it doesn’t help that you were drawing the wrong thing.” Nikki laughs too. 

“I thought I selected ‘cliff’, okay? I only realised in the last couple of seconds that I accidentally selected ‘rabbit’ instead and even then Hilda and Sam still got it.” 

“Yeah, your little 5 second improv bunny was very cute.” Hilda rubs her hand through my hair.

“It was the cutest bunny indeed. But not as cute as you.” Sam gives me yet another kiss. 

“And for what it was worth, if I didn’t mistype it as ‘bunfy’ I’d have guessed it too.” My sis is still laughing.

“Spelling is just stupid.” Nikki puts down the tablet and stretches. 

“You’re just angry no one knows how to spell archaeologist except for our resident historian.” Now it was my sister’s turn to kiss her girlfriend.

“The other word was way too easy, I wanted to give you somewhat of a challenge.”

“Hey, Sam, could you help us set the table?” Sam’s mom walks out of the kitchen. 

“Okay!”

“I’ll help too!” I stand up with my girlfriend. 

“Alright, why don’t you go with my mom first then and I’ll give the others something more to drink before I join you.”

“Yes yes!” I follow Lucy into the kitchen. The paella smells incredible, together with all the seafood and spices. “Wow! It smells really good!”

“It’s almost ready.” Carlos tastes from their creation with a spoon. “Just needs a little bit longer.” 

“I’m really looking forward to tasting it!”

“You can already have a little test if you want to.” Carlos takes another spoon from the drawer.

“Oh! Yes!” I take the spoon and carefully scoop some of the paella on it. The moment I put it in my mouth, the flavour just explodes. “Holy Goddess. I’ve never tasted any paella this good.”

Carlos smirks. “It’s a family recipe, I learned it from my grandmama back in Spain.”

“Wow.” 

“On our first date Carlos made this for me and I knew from that moment I would marry this man.” Lucy takes the spoon from her husband and also has a bit. “It tastes exactly the same as back then.

“Not for my good looks and my overflowing charisma?” 

“No, mainly for the paella.” 

Carlos shrugs. “Haha, fair enough.” 

By that time Sam enters the kitchen as well after having taken the drinks back to the living room. “Ami, will you grab the utensils? Then I’ll do the plates.” 

“Fine by me!”

The table got set in record time, when we were finished the paella just got to the table too. 

“Dinner is served.” Carlos proudly exclaims, making the entire group head to the dinner table to see his exquisite creation. “Amicia can confirm it is just delicious.” 

“I can darn well believe that.” My sister wipes away a bit of drool from the corner of her mouth. “The colour and smell is just perfect.” Then she takes out her phone to take a couple of pictures. “I think I might frame these and hang them next to our bed.” 

“I have no objections at all.” Nikki agrees. 

“Do you have a specific seating arrangement or can we sit where we please?” Hilda asks.

“Please, go ahead. We don’t really have set places when we have people around for dinner.” Lucy gestures to Hilda to go ahead. 

“Alright, just wanted to make sure.” 

“Hey, Ami?” Sam pokes me and whispers.

“Mhmm?” 

“Do you want the big teddy to sit next to you again?” 

I start blushing. “No, I think I’ll be fine with just you.” I whisper back to her.

She replies by hugging me and giving me a kiss.

In the end I decide to sit across from my sister, in between Sam and Hilda.

We were lucky that Sam’s parents' dinner table was as big as it was because not everyone has a table this big at home. Having seven people in total for dinner at your own apartment is not something that happens a lot in small families.

Lucy starts scooping up paella on our plates and it doesn’t take long before everyone has quite a bit ready to be eaten. 

“Have a nice meal everyone!” Carlos calls out before taking his first bite.

“Have a nice meal!” The rest follows and also starts to eat. 

The room goes quiet for a while as everyone basks in the overload of flavours.

“This… this is just outright fantastic.” Hilda is the first to break the silence. “I don’t think I can ever eat any other paella dish from anywhere else after this…” 

“Thank you for the compliment. I’m glad you like it. What about the rest?” 

We all just happily nod along with Hilda’s opinion.

“It’s great, I can’t say anything else about it.” Nikki comments. “Are you willing to share this recipe?” 

“Hmm.” Carlos crosses his arms and thinks for a moment and looks over to me and Sam. “Technically I would keep it in the family like that. But you do need to promise me you two will stay together. Can’t have my family secret getting out in the wild.”

“Don’t worry about that, dad. We are each other's one true love, quite literally so.”

“That’s good to hear.” He nods happily. “In that case I’m willing to teach you.”

We continue with dinner and with a heavy heart I finish my meal. 

“If I wasn’t this full I’d have loved to eat even more.” I lean back in my chair.

“That’s a big mood, sis.” My sister cleans the last off her plate too.

“We can do this again, once a month or so, as a new kind of family gathering.” Carlos proposes. 

His proposal immediately gets met with cheers from my sis, Nikki and Hilda. Lucy also appears to be happy with it. 

“We could definitely do that.” Lucy smiles. 

Sam puts her hand on my thigh and smiles at me to which I lean in closer to her. “What’s up, Ami?” 

“I think I might want to tell your parents now…” I whisper. 

“Do you mean… about the cat thing?”

“I nod.” 

“Are you sure? You were really hesitant when I asked you last time.” 

“I know… but… it somehow feels right.” I look back at the rest of the table and Sam follows my gaze. We see our two families laughing together and planning for the next paella feast already. 

“Mhmm. I understand.” Sam nods. “Do you want me to get the support teddy?” 

“I think I’ll be fine…” I put my right hand on my choker. “Uh… I have something to tell you…”

They don’t immediately notice what I just said but luckily instead of having to repeat myself Sam takes the word for me and raises her voice a bit louder. 

“Mom, dad, Amicia has something to tell you… well, we have something to tell you.”

“Is it about marriage already?” 

“Carlos, shush.” His wife gives him a tap on the shoulder. “Can’t you see they are being serious? Unless it’s really about marriage of course.” 

“Not quite.” Sam shakes her head. 

I look over at my sister and Nikki who both had gone quiet and clearly already knew what I was going to say. My sister mouths to me to ask if I’m sure. I respond to her with a nod. 

Hilda just bumps her arm against mine to show that she is there for me as well.

“So… uhm… yeah… I think it’s best if I just show you…” I look at Sam and she nods, helping me with my choker. Within a couple of seconds it’s off. The entire table then turns their attention to Lucy and Carlos to see what their reactions are. Lucy appears to want to say something but then stops herself and brings her fingers to her mouth. Carlos just looks pensively.

After a moment of awkward silence it is Lucy who breaks the silence. “That is… not what I expected.” 

“Right there with you my love.” Carlos agrees and then looks back at me. “Is there a reason why you didn’t tell us earlier?” 

“Honey, it’s probably not something that’s easy for her to tell us, you know? She doesn’t really know us that well and this is not the same as telling someone what kind of food you prefer.” 

“That is true… Hmmm.”

“I take it you all knew about this already?” Lucy turns herself to the rest of my family.

“Yeah, it’s somewhat of a long story.” Lise nods.

“I can imagine that.” Lucy turns back to me and smiles. “I’m happy that you told us sweetie. In the end we don’t really care if our Sam’s girlfriend has a couple of extra parts or not.”

Carlos nods along. 

“But would you mind explaining a bit more about how this all happened?” 

“Don’t worry, we will help.” Hilda bumps against me again, giving me the sign to start telling my story.

Hilda and Sam take turns also explaining a couple of things so I can take a bit of a breather in between explanations. A bit later Carlos and Lucy are completely caught up.

“I think I need a drink to process all that.” Sam’s dad says after the story is done. “But…” He continues. “I always had the feeling there was more to this world than it seems, especially after that miracle that happened with Sammy’s leg.”

“The only thing I can really say is that I’m very happy you have found each other and that you can support one another on this special journey.” Lucy agrees. “But having that drink would probably not hurt. Thanks again for telling us.” 

“I’m happy it went so well.” 

“I told you they would be fine with it.” Sam gives me a kiss. 

“You did.” I kiss her back. “But let's hope I won't have to do many more coming outs because it is pretty tiring.”

“That’s true.” She smiles. 

I could use that teddy to fall asleep on right now, but there’s always a Sammy bear too… 

FieryKathy