FOURTEEN
“Did you learn how to cook in Singapore?”
It was the afternoon of Jericho and Hiraya’s surprise party, and Ramon stood in the kitchen of his apartment, stirring red sauce in a skillet. Beside him lingered Erin, his self-proclaimed sous chef, watching him cook.
“I’ve always known how to, but yeah—I did do a lot of cooking in Singapore,” he replied, scooping a tiny bit of sauce with a spoon and blowing onto it. He turned to Erin and offered her a taste. “You can’t always be eating out or ordering food, unless you want to go bankrupt.”
She blew on the spoon two more times for good measure, then tasted the sauce. Ramon observed her face as she licked her lips and rolled her eyes to the side, contemplating the taste.
“Salt,” she said. “It’s a little too sour?”
Ramon sampled a bi
