Date night. Just because they lived together didn't mean that they didn't have dates. Normally, they would go out to dinner or spend the evening walking around town. But tonight, Zach had to work late and spend most of the night doing homework. Ryan knew that Zach felt bad about having to cancel date night, but Ryan was determined to make the night a good one anyways.
And, of course, the first step to any stay-at-home date was a nice dinner. Ryan made them dinner often, so cooking wouldn't have been a problem. That is, if ramen and instant mac and cheese counted as a 'nice dinner'. Ryan figured they didn't, which is why he had invested in a pack of spaghetti and found a recipe for a garlicky cheese sauce on the internet. It sounded good, and easy enough. With any luck, he could finish it just in time for Zach to come home in half an hour. They could eat the dinner together and then send Zach on his way to finish up his homework.
"Okay." He clapped his hands together and picked up his phone. "Step one: boil the spaghetti. I can do that." It was just like ramen. Step one went through without a hitch.
"Step two: when the pasta is halfway done, start making the cream sauce in another pot." It wouldn't make much of a difference if he just started it now, right? Ryan got another pot and turned on the heat. He added butter, olive oil, and garlic. There was a little bit of white foam forming on top of the pasta's pot, but Ryan ignored it.
"Add milk and chicken broth, boil, lower heat, stir until thickened." No problem. Ryan poured both liquids into the pot and jacked up the heat so it would boil faster. Then the white foam on top of the pasta pot boiled over and hit the burner with a loud sizzle, and it just kept coming. After a moment of panic, Ryan switched off the burner and moved the pasta to another space on the stove. Then the fire alarm went off and he had to scramble over to disconnect it. Then he smelled burning cheese. The sauce had boiled faster, all right. Boiled right into oblivion.
"God damn it…" Ryan muttered, taking the sauce off the heat. He added a bit of water to the sauce, but that just made it worse.
The lock on the apartment's door clicked open. "Shit." Ryan wondered if he should clean up the sauce and pretend it never happened or leave it and fess up. But it was too little, too late. Zach walked into the apartment and his face instantly twisted into an expression of pure confusion.
"Is that…cheese?"
"Well, I guess. Technically. If you squint."
"Why?"
"Well…" Ryan tried to stand in front of the botched dinner and play it cool. "Now, that's an interesting story. See… Uh…"
"Did you cook something?"
"Well, I tried."
"What'd you try to cook?"
"Pasta."
Zach tried to crane his head to see what was behind Ryan, and Ryan moved to block him. He didn't know why he was going to all the trouble of hiding it if Zach already knew. Maybe Ryan would be able to pretend it hadn't happened if Zach never saw it. Sort of like the Schrodinger's cat, but with pasta.
"It can't be that bad." Zach pushed into the kitchen and past Ryan. "Oh." The cat was out of the bag.
Ryan deflated. "I'm sorry. It's just that you were going to be working all night and I wanted you to have a nice dinner, but it went wrong and…" He stopped to take a breath, and Zach pulled him into a gentle hug.
"It's alright, babe." He pressed a kiss to the top of Ryan's head, running his fingers through his lover's hair. "We can make this work. You made pasta, right?"
"Yeah... It started foaming, though. Is that normal?"
"Totally." Zach leaned over and tested a noodle. "For future reference, you're supposed to pour oil on it. Here, grab me a strainer." He grabbed some parmesan from the pantry and poured the pasta into the strainer Ryan brought, then back into the pot when it had drained. "Shake this in," he said, giving the parmesan to Ryan and rooting through the fridge before finally producing a stick of butter. He cut little bits of it into the pasta and stirred it all in.
Zach grabbed two plates and served them up, giving one to Ryan. "See?" he said. "All fixed."
Ryan smiled, a bit sadly, and joined Zach at the table. The pasta was a bit mushy, but the butter and cheese saved it. He had failed to surprise Zach. He'd messed up.
Zach noticed the look on Ryan's face and smiled. "Tomorrow, when I'm done with my work, would you want me to teach you how to cook?"
"Actually… Yeah." Ryan smiled back at him. "That'd be wonderful."