Irresistible Danger

The First Cut is the Deepest

                  

You woke up the next morning to the sound of your stomach growling insistently. Since you had skipped out on your own dinner in order to give the tray of food to Negan, that meant you hadn't eaten anything since breakfast yesterday, and your body was now giving not so subtle reminders that it was being neglected.

You got dressed in a plain forest-green shirt that was a little snug and hugged your body in all the right places. It also had a scooped neckline which allowed for a hint of cleavage. Trying to impress somebody? your subconscious teased. Your logical side argued that no, you were only wearing this shirt because most of your other, less form-fitting ones were dirty.

Walking down to the kitchen, you found Ben and a couple other staff members serving breakfast. You grabbed an empty bowl and filled it with oatmeal before hopping onto a bar stool and proceeding to shovel the food into your mouth. Despite your stomach's insistence, it was difficult to enjoy such a dull meal. Staring down at the soggy oats, you made a mental note to use some of your points to buy granola bars at the market.

At that moment, a small plastic container slid across the counter and stopped a few inches from the bowl of oatmeal. Looking up, you saw Ben put a finger to his lips to signal that the container was a secret before he walked back across the tiles to continue serving breakfast. Grabbing the container and pulling off the lid, you gave a soft "yes!" of excitement to see a leftover serving of hawthorn crisp. You didn't know how Ben had managed to hide any leftovers, since the dessert had been going like wildfire last night, but boy were you grateful he had. Pushing the bowl of oatmeal to the side, you dug into the crisp with delight. When Ben came over a few minutes later to clear up the dirty bowl and empty container, you gave him a huge smile and thumbs up, which he returned with a wink and smile of his own.

Leaving the kitchen, you went back to your room to fetch Poe and a pillow before heading outside. Picking a space behind the compound where there weren't any people around, you sat in a patch of sunlight with the pillow beneath you and the wall of the compound at your back. You spent the rest of the morning and most of the early afternoon completely engrossed by the short stories. It was only when the heat of the sun became too much, and you craved a glass of water more than another story, that you shook out the pillow and headed back inside.

After returning the pillow and book, you went back down to the kitchen to discuss today's dinner options with Ben. When you arrived, there were stacks of crates sitting in the middle of the floor. Grinning from ear to ear, Ben came over and exclaimed, "Tomatoes! And onions!"

"What?" you asked quizzically, thinking that perhaps Ben had finally spent too much time in the kitchen and was officially losing his mind.

"The crates! They're full of fresh tomatoes and onions! The gardeners brought them in and said that they were going to go bad if we don't find a way to use them soon."

Confusion quickly turned to excitement as you realized what this meant: fresh produce for dinner! Moving over to peer inside one of the crates, you saw that they were indeed packed full with large tomatoes and sweet onions. Looking at Ben and the rest of the kitchen staff, you proclaimed, "Well, anyone have any recipe ideas?"

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Thanks to some group brainstorming, today's dinner menu was going to include two options. The first was a basic rice and soy sauce option for the less adventurous palates in the compound. The second option was more creative: tuna-stuffed tomatoes. One of the servers had mentioned how there were dozens of tuna fish cans from the latest supply run, which had sparked the idea in Ben's head to combine the onion and tuna together before filling up the large tomatoes and baking them. Everyone had agreed that it was just risky yet brilliant enough to be worth trying. Plus it wasn't every day that there was fresh garden produce to cook with, let alone make the focal point of a meal. So unless the whole thing was an utter flop, there were bound to be positive reviews from compound members.