"My name is Angelina. I will be watching from the sidelines today. Don't mind me!" The brilliant smile on her face gave her small crush away.

  "Do you think we should take a picture and send it to Stephen? A fat load of good she will do supervising," Lily snickered.

  "I am contemplating that, as well," Katherine commented with a glint in her eyes. "Ah, to see Angelina in trouble would be great but she is wicked and may take revenge in the worst way possible." She wanted to wipe the sweat off her forehead just thinking about what might happen if she went against her friends. Frightening creatures.

  Lily made a noise at the back of her throat and went inside. She had already set up the cameras in the living room and checked the lighting and brightness. They just needed to wait for Laurence to do the same.

  "Just call me Laurence…… or Mitch. I don't mind either way." He shrugged.

  "Just sit down and make yourself at home. I'll bring you some refreshments before you start setting up, okay?" Katherine informed.

  "Oh, I don't have a grand plan for filming. My friend will casually take the video like I usually do. That's my signature style." He chuckled.

  "Yes, you do enjoy grainy videos. It gives you an air of authenticity." Katherine took her leave and went to the kitchen to pull out some soft drinks that she had prepared beforehand. She presented it to every person in the room and then wiped the cold perspiration from her glasses on her jeans.

  Laurence was looking at her with an inscrutable expression on his face. In his mind, he suddenly realized how lovely Katherine was and the subtle actions of wiping her hand and tucking her hair behind her ear made his heart skip a beat.

  Katherine noticed his gaze but didn't think much about it. "What is the plan?" she asked softly. "Do you want to just chat or do we begin making dinner?" She looked at the clock and then changed the last word with a chuckle. "Supper."

  "Let's just catch up while you cook," he said with a nod. That was perfectly fine for Katherine so she led him to the kitchen. It was an open kitchen so there was space for everyone there. Lily was checking on all the settings and had already started filming as Katherine introduced her kitchen to Laurence.

  "The only reason I bought this apartment was because of this kitchen," she began as she caressed the counters. "While we didn't cook a lot before I went bonkers about cooking on a regular basis, but a nice kitchen is so important for a healthy living space." She glanced around the space and sighed in contentment.

  "Don't make it sound like we are hopeless when it comes to cooking, you'll scare him away," Angelina said from the doorway. Lily didn't turn the camera around to show the others in the room simply because they were not on social media as content creators.

  "No need to worry. I can't even cook instant noodles properly. I have been surviving on takeout since I moved out." Laurence shrugged. "Whatever you cook will make me want to cry, I promise." Katherine didn't think that was much of a compliment.

  "I assure you, I do cook well. It's not just pretty looking dishes." She quirked her brow, giving a sassy look and flipping her hair over her shoulder.

  "I have seen your knife skills." He pretended to gulp and widened his eyes in mock horror. "Wouldn't want to get on your bad side." He raised his hand over his head in surrender.

  "Don't worry. I'm not homicidal……" she paused and looked at him deeply. "Most of the time." She gave an angelic smile before turning to the refrigerator. "Student Mitch, watch and learn!" she exclaimed as she pulled out the ingredients one by one.

  "First rule to cooking. Know what you like to eat and what your dietary restrictions allow you to eat." In front of her, she placed several types of proteins and veggies.

  "What are we cooking today?" he asked tentatively, his hand on his waist as he peered over her and towards the ingredients.

  "I have been trying to cook healthy meals and make sure they are balanced. So, I will proportion everything out and cook according to my recipe." She pulled out the bowl of shrimps she had defrosted beforehand and patted them down.

  "Aren't you going to de-vein them?" Laurence asked tentatively, watching her pat the ingredient dry with rapt attention.

  "I prepped the proteins beforehand because they take more time to prepare and put on the skillet. Usually, this would take a lot longer to do, but for the purpose of teaching you, I'll simply show you how to cook and not the preparation." She looked at him for approval.

  "I'll have to take more classes, then!" he commented, looking delighted. Katherine stiffened for a second before smiling at him and nodding. "But don't we get prepared ingredients in the supermarket?" Katherine looked at him with a look of disgust.

  "I follow what Gordon Ramsay says…… anything frozen is not good. Prepare your own ingredients. Put some soul in your food. Even if it tastes terrible, at least you know you cooked it." She shrugged.

  She pulled out a skillet from the cupboard and put it over high heat. "I'll add a little olive oil and let it shimmer."

  "What does that mean?" Laurence asked. Katherine chuckled as she explained.

  "In my mother's words, when you see waves forming within the oil and dancing to the heat, you can put your ingredient in. Don't wait until you see smoke, okay?" Laurence hummed and kept looking at her. "While the oil heats up, we are going to prepare the garlic. Don't chop it, it will get burned when you put it in the oil and stick to the skillet. Instead, just put pressure on it so that the juices can flow and put it in the oil."