”Age isn’t commensurate with knowledge, Red. Just chill out.”

Amy gave him no reply. She just groaned and turned around to leave the room.

”I’m going to make breakfast now, I’ll tell you when it’s safe to come out.”

She was already walking out of the room so Amy didn’t hear Edward mumble, “Tell me when it’s safe to come out…yeah right.”

He was already pulling on his suit pants which had miraculously landed somewhere on the bed amongst during the throes of sexual pleasure.

***

There were three pans on the oven and each held something different.

There was bacon simmering on low heat in one; scrambled eggs that had just been fried in another and the last held a heating can of baked beans.

This wasn’t a normal breakfast table in the house, but for some reason (Edward), Amy was going all out that morning. They were actually having baked beans.

Usually, she reserved that for weekends or whenever Chynna slept over at the house.

From where he sat at the dining table in the middle of the kitchen, Gu Zhou was wide-eyed with wonder as he watched his sister whistle while she moved about to get his plate ready.

The kitchen was covered in the scent of processed food and anybody who stood close enough to see through the open kitchen window would get a whiff of it.

This was what always happened whenever Amy decided to grace the kitchen with her presence.

She was a maverick at hanging food ingredients, steady producing magic out of rawness.

This time, it was the sandwich she had made that had Gu Zhou’s mouth watering.

He hadn’t noticed the pile of buttered toasts somewhere on the counter when he had walked in from the bathroom.

Now, he watched with a watering mouth as his sister placed three of them on his plate. He frowned.

”Just three?”

Amy paused to look up at Gu Zhou. “What?”

”You have a mighty stack of the bread and you give me just three?” Unbelievable. Gu Zhou couldn’t just comprehend the action.

Amy never ate so much so he had been expecting more than half of the bread to be on his plate, but she hadn’t even put up to a quarter.

Amy squinted her eyes at him for a minute before relenting and adding one more to the pile.

Gu Zhou followed the bread and grunted as it landed with a thud on the rest. He exchanged looks between his plate, Amy’s face and the bigger pile.

”Be grateful Gu. Besides, I’m already giving you baked beans, scrambled eggs and bacon along with that,” Amy reminded him walking back to the kitchen counter to return the plate where it had been before.

”I know. I am grateful. Surprised too, but grateful,” he said gently, then his voice took on a higher octave as he added, “It’s just that I can see clearly that there’s more and you’re not going to finish it all by yourself.

And I know how much you don’t like food being wasted.”

Because Amy wasn’t ready to explain to her brother that there was a man currently waiting —hopefully patiently— in her room who would finish even her portion of the bread along with his. “It won’t be wasted,” she told him simply.

Gu Zhou said nothing else to her hearing, just mumbled something incoherent while he helped himself to the bowl of baked beans at the centre of the table.

”Eat fast. I don’t want you to be late for school.”

Zhou’s mouth was already stuffed full with food so he just mumbled “Mm-hmm” and continued with his food.

He was already half- dressed. The bottom half of his body was covered in his school pants while he wore a white vest on top.

All he needed to do was finish the food; he was a very quick dresser. Whenever Amy commented on it, he usually claimed it was because he wasn’t a girl.

”Girls are always slow to get dressed,” he would say and walk away before Amy could reach out and quack him on the head.

”You have all your assignments done?” Amy was now setting her plate and Edward’s at the sink. She stood with her back to Gu Zhou, blocking him from seeing what she was doing.

He took a swallow before responding, “Yes, but there is one question in math I am having difficulty with.”

”Tell me then, I’m good at math.”

There was a loud din as the metal spatula in Amy’s hand dropped onto the wooden counter in a clutter. She couldn’t turn to face the voice of whoever had spoken, for the muscles in her fingers and neck had frozen.

”You again!” Gu was the first to come out of his reverie. He had been just as shocked as his sister to hear the voice, but had quickly recovered when he recognised the face of who had spoken. “You have a weird way of entering places.”

”I do, don’t I?”

”How did you come in?” Gu asked. He was suddenly no longer interested in his food. All his attention was now focused on the man he knew as his sister’s boss. “Did Amy leave the door open when she came home last night?”

”No, no. I didn’t come through the front door actually.”

Edward was now trying to settle down into the chair beside Gu Zhou on the dining table. At his words, Amy squirmed.

She still couldn’t turn around but had picked up the spatula again to continue setting hers and Edward’s plates.

”So which door did you come in through?”

She turned around sharply and her gaze locked with his. She shook her head frantically but Edward pretended like he couldn’t see her.

From the bowl at the centre of the table, he grabbed an apple and took a large bite off the top. The entire room was quiet as they waited for him to answer the question.