A/N: Sorry for taking so long to update. It's been a while and this story will go on as long as possible.

Ch. 8
Fifteen minutes quickly passed by, and finally they stopped outside a dimly lit entrance to a place behind the post office.

"Is this place still open?" Burke looked at his watch and wondered.

"They will be open for us, don't worry," Cristina smirked.

Just as they were stepping into the restaurant, someone shouted in excitement, "Oh. My. God! Yang Tae Hee, I can't believe you're here!"

"It's Cristina! How many times do I have to tell you that, Mrs. Mindy Patterson!"

As much as Cristina disliked being hugged, she was quite complacent when the other Asian woman wrapped her arms around Cristina behind her pink apron. Burke knew right away this Mindy must be someone special to his girlfriend.

"Gosh, My Phuong, you're still the same!" Cristina gave her friend a squeeze on the arm.

"And I still hear bossy in your tone!" Mindy chuckled as her gaze shifted towards Burke.

"Preston Burke," Burke made his way into the conversation without feeling like a threesome. "Nice to meet you."

"Hi Preston. I'm My Phuong, but you can call me Mindy. I didn't have an English name back then. This girl made that up for me. So, are you Cristina's—"

"He's my guy," Cristina's face lit up as she mumbled that to Mindy, as if there's a secret only the two women could share.

Once again, Burke was stunned by what he saw and heard. Cristina was right, there's so much about her that he's yet to find out.

"Cristina and I took Art History together," Mindy hurried to the kitchen counter, turned on the work light and began peeling cucumbers.

"Mindy's the best cook in Paris before she met her husband Grove," Cristina smirked, "Who himself is a top chef."

"I married him thinking I've found myself a man to cook for me for the rest of my life," Mindy rolled her eyes. "And now he only cooks for his hotel clients as I slave away in our tiny restaurant!"

"Burke cooks for me," Cristina uttered that nonchalantly, although Burke saw a tiny bit of pride on her face.

"That's because he doesn't want you to set the house on fire!" Mindy blinked.

Cristina shot her friend a death stare, while Burke shrugged at Mindy and said, "Cristina makes excellent coffee."

Cristina blushed as Burke placed his hand on hers.

"Really? You never made me coffee!" Mindy pretended to frown. "So aside from the Bi cuon I taught her, you're telling me she's also an expert in brewing coffee?"

"I didn't realize Cristina cooks," Burke brushed his eyebrow with the tip of index finger.

Cristina blinked innocently at both of them. "Hurry up. There are two starving people here."

"Points for making an attempt to change the subject," Mindy winked at them. "You know, you should come over and give me a hand!"

Burke swiftly stood up and was ready to help.

"No, not you. You just sit and see Cristina prove herself."

Cristina's shoulders jumped as she heard that, with the why me expression stamped on her face, "And you're not worried I would burn down your place?"

"No silly. Now go grate those carrots for me please," Mindy took no time to move Cristina to the chopper board and get her into the cooking mode.

It was a small restaurant where customers had the pleasure to witness the action in the front kitchen where cold dishes were made. Burke sat across the kitchen counter, fixating his gaze on the fingers dangling over the orange pieces.

It reminded him of watching Cristina do the sutures or stitches in the OR across him, only it was way more breathtaking to see her dissect a carrot than to do the running-whip stitch.

Of course she could cook! Holding a grater wouldn't be much different from holding a scalpel, would it? Burke was still smiling at the thought when the grater suddenly seemed to be possessed by evil spirits and got out of control.

Sensing the attention Burke was showering on her, Cristina bit her lips and stubbornly continued working on the carrots without looking up.

She was so engrossed in her task that it took her a while to feel the calm and steady breathing beside her ear and the strong hand that was supporting her lower back.

Part of Cristina tensed up, resenting the possibility that Burke would soon step in and take over. But the longer he stayed in that position without actually interfering with her work in progress, the more her body relaxed. Soon, they began to breathe in synchrony.

There were a million questions Mindy wanted to fire at the couple, but it would be a sin to disrupt the image of perfect harmony glistening at the corner of her eye.
Carrying a huge pot of soup and a smile of bliss, Mindy disappeared into the back kitchen to make sure there would actually be food on the table for her friends. She could always use the carrots the next day.

Aside from the French music playing in the air and the big old fan whirling slowly in the corner, the place was as quiet as it would be. Burke wanted to whisper a word or two into those beautiful ears, but he didn't want Cristina to grate her fingers away.

Several times when the carrots or the grater was about to slip, Burke's heart would leap with a fear that Cristina was going to hurt herself. Somehow, every time he succeeded in keeping his mouth shut.

Over this past year, Burke realized it wasn't enough to trust that Cristina could excel as a surgeon, because that's something she already had a lot of confidence in.

But sometimes the best way to show trust was to allow the other person know that it's ok to be imperfect, that he'll still be there with her to embrace the fall. That's something Cristina taught him when she rose to the challenge after he was shot.

When Cristina was finally done with the carrots, she turned to give Burke a surprise kiss, her fingers traveling down the back of his head tenderly.

Instead of wondering if his hair was going to smell like carrots, Burke kept wishing they were not in someone else's kitchen.

"Don't even think I'll cook at home," Cristina rolled her eyes and returned to her normal self as she saw Mindy coming out from the back kitchen.

"You're always welcome to use my kitchen," Mindy smirked.

"It looks like food is ready," Burke butted in before Cristina got a chance to make another smart comment.

"Not until Cristina fills me in with everything that's happened since we last met!" Mindy gave her friend a push by the elbow.

Refusing to rise to the bait, Cristina went to the fridge as if it's her own apartment and asked, "Beer, anyone?"