The dinner went quietly and smoothly, and even though Evangeline didn"t have any will to do it, she still needed to say it out of politeness. She still had manners after all."Let me wash the dishes."
Eric halted from cleaning the plates on the table as he watched the woman sitting comfortably in front of him. Then he resumed cleaning the clatter and walked towards the sink to wash the dishes.
"No need. You"re my guest. Feel free to make yourself at home." For Eric, he was worried that the small reserved plates he had would all be broken once he let the woman touched it.
However, he still indulged her nonetheless.
"Why don"t you start making tea instead?"
Eric placed a teapot that already had hot water inside it and prepared the cups on the table as well as condiments and a box of sachet bags of tea.
With this, I"m sure she won"t be able to break things...
...I hope.
"Alright."
Eric breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Evangeline, with poise and elegance, started to prepare the tea.
He softly chuckled and went to wash the dishes.
Evangeline secretly frowned when she saw the cheap bags of tea and the inside of the teapot, she slightly hesitated for a moment before asking.
"Eric."
"Yeah?"
"There is no strainer in the tea top, and what is this box of sachets that had tea imprinted on it? I don"t see any dried herbs nor flowers for the tea."
"....."
Eric tightened his lips to held his laughter.
"Alright, wait a sec." Eric quickly finished washing the dishes, dried his hands and walked towards Evangeline"s side and sat beside the chair next to hers.
"Is this some kind of that readymade tea that I heard of? The commoners use to have?"
Evangeline narrowed her eyes at the piece of paper on her hand and watched it curiously like something would pop up from it.
Eric slightly shook his head with a smile played on his lips as he demonstrated how to make some commoners tea. He ripped that piece of paper and pulled out a small sachet bag.
"You don"t need a strainer for this. See the screen that held the herbs inside?"
Evangeline nodded, eyeing that piece of sachet curiously.
"It"s the strainer, and it works like this." Eric put hot water on Evangeline"s cup and directly place the sachet bag inside the teacup.
"And see this thread here? You pull it up and down like this, so the herbs would shake inside, spreading the flavor."
Evangeline watched with great interest as the colorless water began to change its pigment and an enticing aroma of herbs filled the room.
"Fascinating."
Eric chuckled and handed the teacup to the woman.
"You can add milk and sugar depending on your taste. Here"s the milk and here"s the sugar."
Then Eric left Evangeline to explore on her own as he too prepared his tea.
Minutes later, Eric was already enjoying his second cup, and when he peeked at Evangeline beside him, he was amused to see that the beautiful woman was still playing with her sachet bag of tea, pulling it up and down as if being tranced by it.
"You better drink it now while it"s still hot." Eric urged with a smile.
Evangeline stopped her exploration and decided to taste the commoner"s tea.
"It"s bitter."
Eric pushed the condiments towards the girl. "Add milk and sugar in it."
Evangeline glanced at the condiments and looked at Eric expectantly.
"Do you have full cream milk? Or honey?"
"Nope. I only have commoner"s powder milk and brown sugar."
Eric helped himself in putting milk and sugar in Evangeline"s cup before setting it with a spoon.
"Here, give it a try if it is to your liking."
Evangeline"s eyes slightly twitched, but she still gave the tea a sip.
When her face lightened up, Eric smiled, and he too lost himself in the quietness and relaxing aroma of the tea and the soothing mood floating around them.
"Do you like tea, Eric?"
"Not that much," Eric answered nonchalantly.
"Hmm..." Evangeline hummed in a good mood while her brain was formulating different schemes that only she knew of.
Then Eric placed his cup down as his face turned serious.
"Evangeline."
"Hmm..." Evangeline"s brows twitched upon hearing her name. She preferred the name that Eric had called her yesterday and a while ago. A name that only him was allowed to say.
"I... don"t want you to...." Eric hesitated before he decided to changed his words.
"Do you often cook in your place?"
Evangeline slightly frowned, didn"t get the meaning why Eric had suddenly asked her this.
And then her face lit up when she understood.
She softly giggled and answered. "Don"t worry, Eric. The kitchen in my place is just for decoration. I don"t usually go there since I have someone to cook for me all the time."
Eric felt relieved at knowing that the girl wouldn"t be in any danger of burning herself to death.
But he was still unease knowing that the word kitchen was foreign to the woman. Luckily, she was unhurt from the incident a while ago.
But who could say about the next?
"You should avoid the kitchen from now on... and you should only cook if someone is supervising you." Eric didn"t know how to put it without hurting her feelings and without appearing that he was being nosy and bossy. Thus, he decided that he should just tell her straight what was on his mind.
Evangeline chortled. "If it will put your mind at ease, then I will do what you say."
If it were any other guy, she would have raised her eyebrow and ignored him, possibly even humiliate him.
But this was Eric, a guy that her heart wanted for reasons that she only knew of.
But she didn"t fully trust him yet.
So for now, this set up will have to do.
"Mmm..." Eric didn"t know how to reply, so he just kept his mouth shut. He was not one for conversation anyway.