Love at the time of Quarantine

Chapter 5

Day 8 Part two

"Scotch bonnet peppers . . .

Roma tomatoes . . .

Red bell papers . . .

Dried thyme. . ."

"Scotch bonnet peppers . . .

Roma tomatoes . . .

Red bell papers . . .

Dried thyme. . ."

Eric was chanting standing near the spice cabinet. The world did not seem to matter to him at that moment.

"Ugggh! What is the fifth ingredient mom used to put!!!" He was frustrated, failing to remember one important spice.

The day was passing lazily for Adam while it was quite the contrary for Eric who had dedicated himself to make food for his boyfriend. Adam was on a video call with Ola when they heard Eric call his name. Eric was still standing there in his apron trying his best.

"Ad, I can't remember the special ingredient mom used to put for flavour." Eric's face seemed defeated.

"What's up Eric?" Ola's voice came through the speaker.

"Mr. Effiong over here, is trying to make jollof rice. He of course has forgotten the spices since he is used to having bland Italian food now!" Adam said turning the camera towards Eric.

There it was again. Eric couldn't understand why was he referring to him as Effiong all of a sudden. But there were other things to deal with, immediately.

"Ola, don't mind my insensitive fiancé over here. How have you been?" He asked smiling.

"Not so great Eric. I was just telling Adam. My landlord was an arsehole and he won't let me and my girlfriend together in the flat. That thickhead thinks queer people are spreading the virus, can you believe it!" Ola said with signs of anger in her voice. "He simply told us to vacate, middle of an infectious disease outbreak."

"What a horrible person, Jesus." Eric expressed his heartfelt concern, "Where are you two now?"

"We luckily got another place in time. This guy seems sane." She informed. "So Mirri and I have been packing, moving, unpacking. Tired!"

Eric thanked god in his mind that they didn't have to face any queerphobia yet. It was already bad enough for everyone with the pandemic going on, to have to evict from their apartment too would be a nightmare. Ola who had met Mirri through her work colleagues had the tenacity to go through all these, Eric admired that. Ola would never go down without a good fight and Mirri was her support system.

He excused himself as he had to continue cooking. "Italian food is pretty great. You should visit Italy, sometimes Adam." Ola told him. "I got to get back to unpacking too, goodbye Adam, Eric. Stay safe."

Adam kept his phone on the dinner table and stood by the kitchen door observing Eric in action.

"I did plan to call you in Italy this summer if I was going to stay longer." Eric told him, "Or even if I moved here, we could have taken a vacation there. I have only seen the fall and winter. Apparently, summer is the best time of the year." Eric said chopping onions.

Adam nodded in agreement. "I haven't been to the beach in a long time too."

"Well Milan is not near the beach but we could have done it." Eric said his voice overcoming with frustration again. "But no, this stupid pandemic had to happen. I had plans, I had bought summer shirts and planned to flaunt them when go wandering around the city in bicycles. I bugged my colleagues for all the hidden gems in the city that we could have explored together. Then, all this had to happen as a big shit on everyone's lives!"