Audrey had a somewhat complicated relationship with cooking.
She had never much liked the idea of putting meals together. No matter how long she worked at it, it never turned out well, and the experience was always more frustrating than enjoyable. But even if she couldn't figure it out, it never seemed to matter much. She and Seymour were perfectly happy with frozen dinners, which made her life a lot easier.
But even if she never really had to cook anything, there were some things she had always wanted to try. Not regular meals, but the sort of things she'd seen in the supermarket that came in pretty little boxes with pictures on the front showing what the mix inside was meant for. She'd never had much money for anything but necessities before, so her dreams of cooking like Betty Crocker had remained up on those shelves. But now they had a life where money wasn't so tight, and she had a kitchen where everything actually worked and didn't give off a funny smell she could never figure out how to fix. Determined not to let the kitchen in the home she'd dreamed of go to waste, she'd figured it was time to learn how to cook.
Some attempts went a lot better than others. She thought she was getting pretty good at making desserts. She had definitely improved since one of her earliest attempts at making a cake. That was the time she had learned that it was very important to make sure the sugar and the salt were labeled. It was also the time she had learned Seymour would choke down anything and say it tasted wonderful if she was the one who had made it. She'd felt awful once she finally tried it herself and realized why his smile looked so strained. After that, she'd mostly been sticking to the boxes with instructions that never got much more complicated than breaking a few eggs and measuring a cup or two of water.
So far, pancakes were proving to be the most difficult thing she'd tried so far. Still, one morning she woke up and was determined to try again. They had the day off and Seymour was sleeping in, so she thought it would be a nice way to surprise him. Apparently, the pancake mix didn't agree. She was pretty sure she had so much trouble with it because the cooking process was a lot more complicated than something like a cake. It was easier to mix the right ingredients together and leave them in the oven until the timer went off. But pancakes meant standing over the stove and struggling with a mess of batter that refused to cooperate with her spatula. One batch of severely charred attempts had already been thrown out, and she'd seriously considered quitting and just pouring their usual bowls of cereal. But even if she was very frustrated, she couldn't quite bring herself to give up yet. So she'd taken a few minutes to reassure herself that surely the next try would go better, done her best to cover up the burnt smell with pine-sol, and went back to it.
That time, she did manage to keep from burning anything. But even so, it still didn't look anything like the picture on the box. It had turned into more of a solid layer covering the entire pan than a bunch of separate pancakes. Maybe she'd put too much batter down.
Well, that was a problem she could fix, at least. After a minute or two of rummaging through the cabinets, she'd gone through all of the lids for the pans and selected one that appeared to be around the right size. Not long after, she was hard at work turning the pancake-sheet into individual circles, not unlike how one might use a cookie cutter.
She was only about halfway through when her husband (she still loved that word) had woken up and made his way into the kitchen. Even through his usual morning grogginess, he could tell she was excited about something, and after they'd both said their good-mornings, she couldn't help but give an enthusiastic grin.
"I hope you're hungry, because I think I finally figured out pancakes."
He glanced down at the plate of the ones she'd already pulled off the stove and curiously examined one of the perfect circles. Her smile grew wider when she saw that he looked rather impressed.
"How'd you get them so round?"
She eagerly motioned for him to come closer. "Come here, I'll show you."
He watched her use the lid to cut another pancake out of the pan and add it the plate. Once again, he examined it curiously. "Huh. I never knew that's how pancakes were made."
Much to Audrey's relief, it soon proved that she'd also managed to make them taste good that time. Or at least, she thought so. Still, she couldn't quite relax while she was anxiously watching Seymour for his reaction.
Letting nerves get the best of her, she blurted out "How is it? Does it taste okay?"
His mouth was full, but he looked up to smile and give her a thumbs-up. A genuine smile, not the 'I feel like I'm gonna be sick but I don't want to hurt your feelings' sort of smile she'd seen more than a few times.
She let out a relieved breath, and relaxed a little in her chair. "Oh, thank goodness. I was so worried I was gonna ruin everything again."
He finished chewing and swallowed, and then gave her a bit of a confused look. "What do you mean? You've never ruined everything."
"Don't you rememba' the other times I've made pancakes?" Audrey asked, her mid going back to all the times she'd managed to burn every last one, or the times she'd been so afraid of burning them that she pulled them off the stove when they were nowhere near ready, not to mention everything that had gone wrong with all the other things she'd tried cooking. "It was always a disasta'. We just had to have cereal again."
"Yeah, but still got to have breakfast together." He pointed out cheerfully.
Audrey felt a warm glow inside when she realized that he wasn't just trying to reassure her, it was genuinely how he felt about it. Sometimes, it was still hard not to worry about wanting to do everything perfectly. She had plenty of experience with people who got furious if she didn't. It was nice to be reminded that with Seymour, what mattered was that they were at the table together, not what was on it.
He didn't seem to know exactly what she was thinking, but he could tell that her mood had brightened. And as always, seeing her happy made him very happy as well. This was perfect, Audrey decided. Not because of the plates full of impeccably circular pancakes that wouldn't look out of place on the front of any Betty Crocker mix, but because they were together. That would always be what was really important.