location: their apartment
time: evening hours
for: ravi ( @shredmytapestry )
the idea to plan a surprise dinner for just the two of them, himself and ravi, didn’t strike him until clementine mentioned wanting to go to a friends house for a little after school. he spoke to the mother of said friend who then suggested the sleepover and even offered to take clementine to school in the morning; luckily for clementine, raul had known this parent for a couple of years and did trust them with his treasure. so, after he wished clem a good night and reminded her to call if she needed anything, raul quickly set to work on arrainging things for tonight. he had texted ravi to stop by the store for some bread, if only to buy him more time just in case he fell behind. but that was all he texted ravi. he didn’t bother warning the other that they would be spending the evening with just him, little surprises like this were something raul enjoyed doing for ravi as often as possible.
if he stopped and let himself think about it he would realize it wasn’t entirely because he was trying to show how appreciative he was that ravi had always been so good with him and clementine. maybe at first it was but the longer ravi lived with them, the less it became about that and the more it became about the fact that raul enjoyed the idea of this being their family routine. tonight he was cooking home made stuffed shells with some garlic bred with the garlic spread being one he made up on his own. he had two glasses set up awaiting the red wine in the center of the table and the lights were dimly lit. so as to throw off any romantic vibes, not that raul really wanted to throw any of them off, he casually left the tv on in the living ‘just in case we want to watch something while we eat’ as he would say. really it was to distract any suspicion from the candles lit in the center of the table or the way he casually bought a new bouquet of flowers for the centerpiece tonight.
as the door opens raul smiles with the bottle of wine in his hand, “welcome home, ravi! surprise!” he lightly chuckled, filling the glasses half way, “clementine is spending the night at a friends tonight. so i figured, because you deserve to be spoiled as much as possible, i know it can’t be easy dealing with us, i wanted to make you a nice dinner.” he walks over to check on the stuffed shells, taking them out, “i hope you’re in the mood for some stuffed shells. i’m sorry about the bread, by the way, because we don’t actually need it. i just needed to buy some time to let the shells finish so they would be ready right when you got home.” he turns to look at ravi, offering an apologetic smile, “will you forgive me?”
