A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!
Chapter 10 – Phoebe
"Is there anything I can do to help you prepare for Thanksgiving?" Mike asked me.
"Not an awful lot more," I said, surveying the mound of shopping that had just arrived from our weekly shop. The whole table was covered and stacked up high, which had surprised me greatly at first until I remembered that we did have three other guests this year, so we were bound to end up with needing more food as a result.
"Do you want help with putting everything away?" Mike asked, getting up from where he was leaning against the counter and beginning to sift through the shopping.
I nodded, realising that I could actually really do with another hand to help. I dealt with the food that was in bags to be kept cold and then started helping Mike sift through the rest. We did this in silence until I realised that it was going to feel less monotonous if I attempted to make conversation.
"Honestly, how are you feeling about the coming days?" I said, hoping that Mike would feel that he was able to give his honest opinion from my relaxed tone.
"Apart from the fact that I've started to realise just how busy we'll end being," Mike said, wincing. "I'm feeling pretty happy about it." He added a smile afterwards, that I could tell was being completely genuine.
I heaved a sigh of relief, half-joking, half-seriously. It was already going to be a stretch having the twins, and then my nephew well. Neither Monica nor Chandler had said whether they wanted to spend any of Thanksgiving with them, because I know that Chandler was planning to take Mon out for dinner, but that was in the evening. I meant to drop them a call if neither of them called me to let me know.
"Has Frank been in contact with you since the call?" Mike asked me, clearly asking to know when and if we would need to pick him up from the airport.
I nodded. "The last I heard is that he was buying tickets to fly to JFK for Thursday," I said.
"That doesn't give him an awful lot of time to settle in," Mike said, brow furrowing.
"I know," I said, realising in dismay that it was another thing that was going to be upon the pile of stresses for the weekend. "We'll find a way for it to work," I said, trying to reassure myself as much as I was trying to do so for Mike.
"I trust you," Mike said, looking right into my eyes with a level of sincerity that melted my heart because I knew he really did trust me.
"Thanks," I said, trying not to tear up with affection as I arranged the packets of fresh vegetables in one of the very bottom compartments of the fridge. "I really love you so much."
"I love you too," Mike replied with the same affection in his tone, as he finished sorting through the last of the food still on the table.
I took over from Mike with the rest of the food so he could take a seat on the couch. I put away the rest of the shopping and joined him. He had picked up one of the magazines that were always left on the coffee table as no one could be bothered to tidy them away after reading them but put it down as I sat.
"Do you want some coffee?" I asked, feeling as if it was wrong if we didn't have some kind of hot drink whilst we relaxed.
"I don't see why not," he said, standing up and walking over to the cafetiere before I could stop him to offer to do it myself.
Whilst Mike was over at the coffee machine, I picked up the TV remote and started scrolling through the channels to see if anything that both Mike and I would find interesting was on. My search proved unsuccessful, as all I could find for day time TV was cooking shows, trashy reality TV and random shows about decorating homes.
Luckily, I didn't have to wait long to be entertained again because Mike came back over and we continued to talk.
"Is there anything you want to watch before we have to start adulting again?" he asked, clearly unaware of the fact that I had just been searching for something myself.
"There's nothing good on TV," I said, "so should I go look through our DVD collection and randomly choose as I feel like it?"
Mike nodded, and I placed down my cup of coffee to go to our other living room, where we kept all of our DVDs.
"Oh, hi Mom," I heard, as I entered through the living room's ajar door. Erica and Addie were already in here, watching something that I didn't quite recognise on the TV screen. I considered asking what it was, but decided the better of it because they both seemed quite happy and there would be no real reason to disturb them.
I scanned the bookshelves full of DVDs for the first ones to stand out to me. I ended up deciding on four different ones but had trouble narrowing it down any further than just two. After minutes of trying to make a final decision, I decided to just take both through and get Mike to try and help me decide.
"What did you end up getting?" Mike asked, as he leaned over the coffee table to get a better look at them.
"Definitely Maybe and Love Actually," I said. I had seen Love Actually many times, particularly because of the ending as it felt as if I was in a fairy tale every time I watched it. Definitely Maybe, on the other hand, had been gifted to Mike and I at some point by a family friend never to be seen again. Still, I was very much curious to know what happened so it was a strong contender.
"I think we should go for Definitely Maybe as we've seen Love Actually so many times that I think a change would be good," Mike said, and I agreed.
Reading the blurb as I walked over to the DVD player, I concluded that it definitely sounded like a feel-good, romantic pick me up that Mike and I could lose ourselves in in the midst of all the excitement and stresses of the coming week. The opening credits started rolling as I cosied up to Mike, pulling the fluffy couch blanket to fully cover the both of us.
Neither of us moved again until the end credits started rolling, and I looked down at my watch to see the time. It was already 6 o'clock in the evening, which meant that I was behind in preparing and cooking dinner. "I need to start dinner," I said, feeling flustered because I didn't need something to already be spiralling out of my control ahead of everything that was about to start.
I walked over to the refrigerator, selecting what I would need to start cooking. Mike put away the DVD and I thanked him as he made his way to the living room to return the DVD back to its original home.
Before I started properly cooking, I hooked up the family iPad into its dock, and it started playing my YouTube mix.
I bought an extra large saucepan of fusilli pasta to boil, whilst also stirring a frying pan of bacon and onions with sauce. Whilst the sauce and pasta simmered, I laid out two tomato and mozzarella flat bread pizzas on an oven tray and started the oven timer going once they were in. I had preheated before I even started measuring out the ingredients, which I was now very grateful for as I was starting to feel much less stressed now everything seemed to be coming together.
Mike had taken up camp on the sofa when he came back from putting the DVD back away. I called to him, "Can you let the kids know that dinner is very nearly done and they need to start washing their hands and getting down here?"
He nodded, and left the room on command.
I drained the pasta through a colander, and balanced the colander in the saucepan. I gave the frying pan one last stir, and turned off the hob. The oven timer sounded as just as I was choosing six clean plates and setting them in a stack on the table. I set the frying pan and saucepan down on two free place mats at the centre of the table, and took the flatbreads out of the oven. I switched off the oven, and carefully transferred the flat breads onto a plate which I added to the centre of the table. Putting what was left of the washing so far from cooking beside the sink, I started to sort through the pile of cutlery on the table to assign a full set to each plate.
The kitchen door was shoved open and Chris rushed in, closely followed by Jack. Chris braced himself against the counter before he skidded across the floor, panting heavily in a clear attempt to get his breath back.
"What's going on I ask?" I ask, shocked by this very sudden burst of energy.
"Turns out neither boy could resist a competition," Mike said as he walked in, winking at me. I smiled back, partly in amusement and partly in gratitude for getting the kids to come without a fight.
"I win! I win! I win!" Chris chanted loudly, gleefully taunting Jack, who looked as if the competition was far from over.
"Not so fast, tiger," Jack said, sounding calm and collected, but with determination plastered all over his expression.
"Fill me in on the rules," I instructed Mike, trying to get to the bottom of what the conversation was to be able to fairly mediate and decide who should be crowned the winner.
Mike gladly started to fill me in. "I said that whoever could get downstairs the quickest, having done everything to prepare for dinner, would get to choose which video games that they both had to play for the next two days," he said.
I nodded, as he added the last detail. "Whoever passed through the doorway first would be the true winner."
In this case, I was certain that the winner would be Chris. However, Jack definitely seemed to disagree, and the fact that he was a visitor made me feel guilty if I pronounced Chris the winner instead of him. Still, the authoritative teacher in me said that Chris had won fair and square, and so I decided that he was going to be my final choice.
"The winner is Chris," I said, hoping that Jack wouldn't be too disheartened as guilt was already starting to creep up on me again.
Chris pumped the air with his fist, and started dancing around madly in celebration. Jack looked subdued and walked over to sit at the table quietly. Less than a second later, the door opened again and Erica and Addie walked over to sit at the table. They both seemed happy and cheerful, which made me happy.
"How are you girls?" I asked them, as Mike and I both walked over to join the others at the table.
"Good," Erica said, with Addie nodding in agreement.
"That's good to hear," I said, portioning out myself some pasta. "I hope you guys like this, because I know it's not awfully creative or special, but I didn't have much time to cook so it's the best I could do given the shorter amount of time I had."
"It's amazing," Mike said, as he ate a spoonful of pasta and sauce.
"Thanks, babe," I said, smiling.
A/N: Here seemed like a nice place to leave this chapter, so this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!