Sabine purses her lips. Her chin wrinkles up. She looks away. She's trying not to smile.

"I know that face." I say. "Come on."

"Shut the fuck up, Hughes." She says, but she's smiling but the end of the sentence.

I smile, too. My heart feels like light is filling into it. "I could always make you laugh, no matter what."

"I didn't laugh. I only smiled." Sabine points out.

"Yeah, well, give me a while." I roll my eyes. "My skills are rusty."

Now Sabine rolls her eyes. She stands up, pushing up with her hands. "I'm going to check on Maryann." She announces. Then she stalks out of the room.

I guess I'm supposed to follow? So I do. Maryann is just standing there, leaning on a counter, in a fuzzy white sweater with pink stars on it, on her phone.

"Are you looking for recipes?" Sabine asks, peeking into her phone.

"No, I'm on Twitter." Maryann states. Aristo meows. He's sitting on top of the microwave, tail swinging about like a pendulum.

I nod. Sounds about right.

Obviously, these three are completely helpless in the kitchen. I move Maryann out of the way. I shoo the cat off the microwave. Sabine moves into the corner by herself, arms folded.

I take stock of what's on the counter in front of me. A whole chicken, a half-chopped onion, spices. I can work with this. "Do y'all have ricotta? And OJ?" I ask.

"Ricotta, no. Orgasm juice, yes." Maryann says, doesn't even look up from her phone once.

Sabine chuckles. I look to her, and her face is completely neutral. "Can one of you go buy some ricotta, then? They sell it in the supermarket."

"I'll go." Sabine says.

"Are you sure?" I ask. Won't she probably get lost? She has a horrible sense of direction. Actually, she has no sense of direction. We lived in our home-city till the age of 18, and never once was she able to correctly tell the way to her house.

"Yes. I can buy cheese, Hughes." She says.

"I'll go with her." Maryann says, following her out of the kitchen.

Aristo trails behind Maryann merrily.

I turn my attention to butchering the chicken. Where does Maryann keep her big knives?