Author's Note: Okay guys, this one came to me pretty quick. It's not a super long chapter. Heavily focuses on Letty/Mia interaction here. It always bothered me that they got nothing together in 6 or 7. They have known each other a long time. As the only two girls growing up in a sea of men, you'd think they'd have a bond of friendship. Anyway, I like to think that they do, we just don't get to see it. Thanks again for all the reviews and follows and faves guys, it really makes me happy to know people are enjoying.
Week Seven – Year One
It was the traditional Sunday barbeque. Or at least it would be, later in the afternoon when the others arrived. A couple months back home would have already clued her into the fact that this happened weekly without fail, even if Mia hadn't explained it their first week back.
She could admit that she looked forward to the gatherings. Getting to know Roman and Tej was easy. She'd never met them before and the only things they knew about her was what they'd been told. They knew she was important to Dom, and that had been enough for them to drop everything and go to London to help get her back. Plus they were a riot together, always bantering back and forth and giving each other hell. Their presence definitely brought laughter to the party.
Earlier in the morning the boys had been out back setting up the smoker with the huge side of pork Mia had brought home from the market the day before. It would have to smoke for hours, so they'd gotten an early start. And now they were outside with beers 'monitoring it', which left the girls in the kitchen chopping vegetables and seeing to the rest of the feast.
Peppers, tomatoes, onions, cilantro, spices and a squeeze of lime went into the fresh salsa they made, mixed into a bowl and covered and set into the fridge so the flavors could mingle. Mia had set the black beans out to soak the night before and was checking through them for bad ones.
"Can you get out the empanada press?" Mia asked over her shoulder, then nodded to one of the cabinets down below. "Left of the fridge."
Letty got out what she guessed Mia was talking about, a round metal disc that folded in half. She set it on the counter top. "What the hell are we making, Mi?"
"Pastelillos," the other woman replied, with a grin, then subsided at her friend's blank look. "I'll show you how. From that cupboard above the toaster can you get out the flour, baking powder and salt?"
Letty got those items out, then placed them on the counter as Mia brought over the food processor. They mixed up the ingredients with some shortening before transferring the mix to a bowl. Eggs and a bit of water went in until it became a dough, and Mia showed her how to knead it with her hands. They rolled the dough into balls and left it to rest and Mia gathered a frying pan and some more ingredients from the fridge.
"This is for the savory filling. The sweet ones will have guava paste and cream cheese but we don't have to do anything to that," Mia explained.
Diced onions, garlic and peppers went into the pan along with some olive oil. Mia seemed a natural in the kitchen, chopping up the beef tips she'd gotten from the local butcher as Letty stirred the vegetables.
"You're so good at all this," Letty said. "How did you learn?"
"My Dad, a bit," Mia admitted, smiling over at her. "Since my mom died when I was pretty young. He had to cook for Dom and I. And when I got old enough… I just took over." She shrugged. "But I mean, you're a good cook too."
"Yeah right," Letty muttered.
"No it's true," Mia protested. "You taught me how to make these. They're Dom's favorites." She laughed at the look on her friend's face. "Just because you can't remember the recipe doesn't mean you can't do it."
"But it sucks not to remember," Letty replied, suddenly angry at it all. It wasn't fair. She didn't even know who that person was. That person she was supposed to be. "To not… know this. To not remember growing up with you. To not remember first meeting Dom and falling in love with him." She closed her eyes, shoulders hunched. "Fuck… I'm sorry Mi. I just… It's hard sometimes. To pretend that it's always okay."
"I can't imagine," Mia replied softly, leaning over to turn off the heat so the food wouldn't burn, resting her hand on her friend's shoulder. "It must be so frustrating for you. And feel like… we have such an advantage. All this knowledge that you don't. Maybe you don't even feel like that Letty anymore. And well… that's okay too," she added.
"It is?" Letty asked, looking at her in mild disbelief.
"It's not that we don't wish you could remember," Mia explained. "Because we do. Just like you do, I imagine. But the reality is that you're different now even if you did remember all of what you had before. You've had other life experiences. And so are we. We're all different from the last time we saw each other. People change."
"That's true, Mi… but it's not the same."
"No, you're right," the younger Toretto nodded, leaning against the counter. "We grew since the past that we can remember. You only have a few years in that head of yours. I can't imagine what it must be like. But you've always been a survivor. It's why you're still…you even if you can't remember. You still drive the same way, laugh at the same jokes. Prefer the same beer, the same kind of cars, and the same kind of clothes." She elbowed her teasingly. "The same kind of men."
"Ha ha…" Letty couldn't help but smile though. "So you're saying that… even without the memories, I'm still me."
"Basically. Which is why these pastelillos are going to taste amazing." Mia grinned at her.
"Right," she rolled her eyes, but turned the burner back on, bringing the vegetable mix up to heat as Mia seasoned the beef with a generous amount of adobo before adding it to the pan. Diced potatoes, olives and more spices followed.
They added a bit of water and covered the pan to let the mix simmer, tidying up the mess from earlier.
"Are you serious that I taught you this?" Letty finally asked, glancing at her friend. "It seems like you've always done all the cooking around here."
"Well I mean the boys have never been fun to cook for," Mia replied with a laugh. "When they were younger… it was always shoving food in their mouths without tasting a damn thing and leaving the dishes for me to clean." She smirked. "So you weren't really interested in putting in the effort and I was used to taking care of everyone. But…" She shrugged. "Usually on the weekends you'd come in here and help me out with everything. Sometimes I could wheedle one of your grandmother's recipes out of you, if you were feeling generous."
"Sorry I can't remember any more of them," Letty said as they tossed together a fruit salad with pineapples, mango and berries.
"Actually you have her old recipe book out in the garage… in that box with some of your things. You should check it out sometime."
"You mean you haven't?" Letty asked, shooting her friend a teasing grin as she popped a strawberry into her mouth.
"Maybe a peek," the other woman admitted.
When the salad went into the fridge, the meat and potato mixture was ready to come off the stove. They set it aside to cool a bit as Mia floured the counter and rolled out the first of the balls of dough.
"You don't want it too thick," she explained, then reached out to swipe a flour-covered finger across Letty's cheek.
"Hey!" Laughing, she scooped up a handful of the white powder and a brief flour battle ensued, the kitchen filling with laughter and Mia's repeated threats to make her scrub the walls.
When they had made more than a bit of a mess, flour in their hair and coating their clothes, they called a truce to finish the food. Cutting and filling the pastelillos was fast with the little empanada press.
"You knew how to do it by hand… but I was so terrible at it," Mia laughed. "So I invested in this."
She warmed up the fryer as Letty got to work on the next batch of dough for the dessert pastries, which they lined up on a parchment covered tray and stored in the fridge till later. They'd be better still warm on the inside.
Mia was halfway through frying the little pastries when they heard the first car rumble into the drive. It was probably Tej, since Roman always tended to be a bit late. Letty started the black beans and rice on the stovetop and got out the corn for the grill just as the back door swung open. Brian, Jack against his hip, paused as he surveyed the scene in the kitchen.
"Let me guess…" he began. "A deadly flour bomb went off?"
"Something like that," Letty replied, laughing. "Also known as your wife."
"Hey," Mia protested. "You can't blame that all on me."
"You definitely started it." She laughed harder when Mia stuck her tongue out at her. "Very mature."
Shaking his head at them, Brian moved through the chaos of the kitchen to get some beers from the fridge. "Tej is here," he said, popping the tops while trying to keep the bottles out of Jack's reach.
"We'll be out shortly," Mia said. "Once I set the timer on the rice and…. We get cleaned up." She chuckled, dusting uselessly at some flour coating her skirt.
Taking the last of the pastries from the fryer, Mia set them out on paper towels to rest and turned off the heat. She turned to Letty and they eyed one another for a long moment before they burst out laughing again. Brian was muttering about crazy women as he disappeared back through the door.
As the two women headed upstairs to wash up and change, Letty tugged her friend's arm before they could part ways at the top of the stairs. "Hey Mia…?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks," she said. "For teaching me how to make those."
Mia smiled, leaning over to wrap her arms around her in a hug. "No problem. You know I'm more than happy to share lots more memories with you. You're my best friend."
Letty watched her retreat to the bedroom she shared with Brian and wondered why it felt so natural to hear the other woman call her that. Even though she couldn't remember all the things that bound them together in that friendship. She still believed that it was real anyway.