Chapter 14

Mark woke up early on Thanksgiving morning expecting to see Maureen in the bed beside him, but he was alone. He shoved his glasses on and cocked his head. The shower was going in the bathroom. A slow smile spread across his face and he went to join his wife.

Maureen was singing in the shower and was surprised when Mark pulled the sliding door open and slipped in with her. "Can I help you Cohen?" she asked with her hand on her hip.

"As a matter of fact you can." Mark replied and put his arms around her.

His wife giggled and rolled her eyes. "You act like such a horny teenager sometimes, did you know that?" her remark was cut short when Mark began to kiss her neck. Finally she sighed and gave in. "And they say I'm the one who's the sex fiend." she muttered.

A couple of hours later the couple descended to the kitchen of their house to get ready for the huge Thanksgiving dinner that was going to be at Collins' and Angel's later that evening.

"What exactly are you cooking Maureen?" Mark asked as he watched his wife take out an assortment of weird ingredients from the refrigerator.

"Macaroni and cheese." she replied.

"Why do you need a half pound of tofu to make mac and cheese?" Mark wanted to know.

"Because Collins, Angel, Gabby, and Roberto are vegetarians. Come on sweetie you're supposed to be the smart one here."

Mark walked over to his wife and put a hand on her shoulder. "You know that there's no meat in Macaroni and cheese, right? You don't have to put tofu in it to make it vegetarian."

"Look Marky. Let me worry about my dish and you handle yours, okay?" Maureen responded. Mark shrugged and walked over to the oven.

Roger and Mimi were also making their portion of the dinner. Or rather, Roger was trying to make the food and Mimi was directing from the couch. He had told her on no uncertain terms that she was not going to be on her feet all morning trying to cook when he was right there to do it for her. The fact that he couldn't cook was overlooked for the moment. Gwen had also come over because her cousin was away and no one else in her family was having dinner.

"What am I supposed to be making again?" Roger asked his wife as he squinted at the recipe she had given him.

"Arroz con pollo, for the thousandth time Roger." Mimi said exasperatedly. "If you would just let me do this, we could be done by now."

"You do not need to be on your feet in front of a hot oven." Roger told her. "I can handle this, foreign foods are just harder to cook that's all."

"Nombre de Dios Roger! It's chicken! Chicken and rice, rice with chicken. We had it at our wedding. It's not some fancy dish. You cook the chicken, you cook the rice. You add some spices and a little cream of chicken soup and you mix it all together. That's it, the end!" Mimi shouted at him.

Roger and Gwen exchanged a look. "Alright Mimi sweetie." Roger said soothingly. "You win. You can make the food and I'll clean up after, okay?" He walked out of the kitchen and handed his apron to Mimi.

"Thank you Roger." Mimi said and stood on her tiptoes to give him a kiss.

Roger shook his head and muttered something about pregnant women and mood swings. Then the phone rang and he went to answer it. "Hello?"

"Hey Roger!" Maureen said. "How's the cooking?"

"Hopefully it's good now." he replied. "Mimi's making arroz con pollo."

"Ooh sounds exotic." Maureen responded. "I just got done with my mac and cheese and Marky is cooking the dressing and potatoes."

"Wait." Roger said suddenly. "We're bringing chicken and rice. You guys are bringing mac and cheese, dressing and potatoes. That means Collins has to be making the turkey."

"Oh shit I completely blanked out on that." Maureen screeched. "I guess we'd better say goodbye to succulent, golden, roasted turkey and hello to bland gray tofurkey tonight.

"That's just wonderful." Roger groused. "Anyway let me get back. I need to make sure that Mimi is okay. We'll see you guys later tonight." He hung up and went back into the kitchen.

Collins and Angel had been up since four in the morning getting everything ready. It had been decided that the dinner would be held at their house because all the other gatherings were always at Mark and Maureen's. The kids had helped clean up the house the night before, and Angel had used her flair for designing and decorating to make the house look like a Thanksgiving wonderland.

Now Collins was standing in the kitchen up to his elbows in tofu. "Ang, could you come here for a minute?" he called out.

Angel cam skipping in. "You need some help Tommy?" she asked sweetly.

"Yeah can you taste this tofu and see if it's seasoned enough. There's nothing worse than a bland tofurkey." he told her.

She tasted it. "Tastes good to me." she replied. "But you know that our little family are the only vegetarians who'll be here tonight."

"I know that." Collins responded. "But they'll have their turkey, who could have grown up to do something important like dial 911 for an elderly woman like those animals on miracle pets, but whose life was cut short by hungry carnivores who buy into stupid holidays."

Angel patted her husband on the shoulder. "So who's bringing this murdered prodigy?" she wanted to know.

"That's a surprise." Collins said and gave her a kiss. "I'm like Santa Claus. Bringing holiday surprises to my friends."

"Tommy darling that's the wrong holiday." Angel replied with a smile and went back to setting the table in the dining room.