The next morning was cold and rainy. It was the type of morning where you wanted to just stay in bed, or maybe get a nice, hot cup of tea and find a quiet place to read a book.

Unfortunately, I had to open Ambition.

Mel was nowhere to be found when I woke up, and that wasn't really surprising. After last night, I kind of assumed that she would just be gone.

Like, forever.

But there was a note for me waiting downstairs. It wasn't long, and it didn't say much. Instead, it was just a way for Mel to let me know that she hadn't left me alone forever, just long enough for her to go shopping.

I appreciated it.

I wouldn't exactly say that I had abandonment issues, but I still didn't like being ditched.

Before I could open Ambition, I had a few things that I needed to get done. Most of them were trivial. I had to test the two remaining recipes, and that would give me time to try out the new layout for the kitchen. I also wanted to give more thought to the way the furniture was arranged outside. Mel and Berry had done a great job so far, but they weren't thinking about the place as an eatery.

I don't really know how to explain what I meant by that. But I'd spent enough time in eateries, both indoors and outdoors, to know that the building had to have flow. People had to move around elegantly. Things would get chaotic quickly if care wasn't taken.

And I knew how destructive chaos could be.

I'd love to say that I spent most of the morning cooking and preparing for the opening of Ambition. Or that I took the day off, and just enjoyed myself and my potentially newfound freedom.

Or really anything other than what I did. Which was mostly fret.

Without Mel around, there was no one to stop me from getting in my own head. There was no outside force to keep me from succumbing to the chaos of my own thoughts.

There were so many things that could go wrong with this opening. Everything had to be just right.

And, in my world, nothing ever went right.

I didn't want to be depressed or anxious. I wanted to be productive. But how could I when there was so much that could go wrong?

Thankfully, Mel returned quickly.

And she brought Berry with her.

I have to admit, it was nice to see the adventurer again. And between the two of them, they had everything we needed to open Ambition. And more.

"Sorry I was gone so long," Mel said. "The market was actually pretty busy this morning."

"Oh, yeah," Berry said. "Holidays are always like this."

"Wait, today's a holiday?"

"Yep!" Berry said, a lot more chipper than she should've been for how early it was. "Some old king died or something." She rolled her eyes, before dropping the crate she was carrying on the counter. "Mystic Falls celebrates every year, but I don't really know why. Maybe he was from here or something."

"Could be, or maybe people just actually care about somebody other than themselves."

"Pft. As if, Harper." She laughed bitterly.

I shrugged and smiled. "Yeah, seems kind of weird to me too." I walked over to Berry and glanced at the crate. "So, what'd you guys get?"

"Most of the stuff that was on the list," Mel said. "Antonio was glad to hear that you didn't redesign the dish, whatever that meant, although he seemed upset that you didn't take him up on his offer." Mel shrugged as if confused. "I didn’t ask details, so that's just what he said."

What that meant, was that Antonio was mad I didn't extort the Adventures Guild with him. That I found my own adventurer who was willing to help.

I looked to Berry to see if she understood, but she was distracted by something I couldn't see. When she realized I was looking at her, she produced a handful of mushrooms, like a child showcasing the mud pie they just made.

"I also got more of these," Berry said. "I went out really early this morning so that I wouldn't run into too many monsters. If you want to go out with me one morning, just let me know."

She sounded really sincere, but I couldn't take her up on her offer. I wasn't afraid of the forest, but without some sort of protection, I wasn't going anywhere near it. Not unless I had my guardian pixie with me.

So instead, I just smiled. "Sure thing, kid," I said, trying to keep my tone even. "Let me just get things here settled first, and then maybe we can go hunting together."

Berry smiled wide, even though she looked a little hurt. "Okay Harper, sounds good." She reached in her inventory and snagged another handful of mushrooms, before thrusting them at me again. "I have like nine or more handfuls of these. Did you want them all?"

I took the mushrooms, even though I really didn't need to. "Sure, but, uh, go ahead and put them downstairs. That'll keep them fresh while I'm practicing. And, you know, until we open tonight."

"Ooh, are we going to be able to try a new dish today?" Mel asked, as she pulled ceramic bowls from the crate.

I nodded, and then frowned at the bowls. They were a little different than the ones I'd gotten before. Instead of just being glazed, they had a thin white paint on the outside. They were actually kind of fancy. I mean, fancier than what had been broken.

They also wouldn't match anything else we had. I didn't know if that was a problem, if I actually cared. I didn't exactly have the money to make everything matchy matchy.

Well, they would have to do for now, anyway.

From the crate, Mel also fetched a few other odds and sods. Mostly more vegetables.

She turned and offered them to Berry as soon as the adventurer returned to the kitchen. Berry took them without comment, although she didn't seem to be too thrilled about it. It made me wonder what type of relationship the two of them had formed over the past day. Hopefully it wasn't a toxic one.

Always hard to tell with a pixie.

As soon as Berry was out of the room, again, Mel turned to me with a frown. "No one has seen Mari Belle or Duncan. Not since yesterday afternoon. What do you think happened?"

I really didn't know how to answer that. Part of me wanted a void to have open and swallowed them both whole. It was impossible, sure, but that didn't stop me from wanting it to be true.

In all actuality, it was likely that they just fucked off. Went off to lick their wounds after their fight. I would probably see them again in a few days, and hopefully they didn't take their aggressions for one another out on me.

When I didn't answer, Mel glanced at the stairs where Berry was still putting things away. "Hey. Are we good, Harper?"

"Of course, Mel," I said. I looked at her, puzzled. "Did I do something to make you think I was mad at you?"

Mel shook her head with a smile although her brow was still tightly knit. "Guess I'm just being paranoid."

Paranoid about what? Was I giving something weird mixed-signal I wasn't aware of? Or was this some multilayered conversation pixie thing, like the night before?

Before I could ask, Berry came back upstairs. She looked between the two of us, almost as if she could tell that something was wrong. Not that I knew what that something was.

Maybe it was a woman thing.

I let the two of them go about their own business, which mostly entailed them sitting in the dining room while I cooked. They were both incredibly excited for the prospect of tasting another dish, even if I was worried.

I've never made curry before. I'd only even tasted it once. I just thought it would make a really neat dish for Ambition, something unique and different.

That meant that I was way out of my comfort zone. Like, I was already cooking well above my current level. Most people, at level 5 cooking, would be making simple dishes. Like scrambled eggs. Maybe even some sort of goopy casserole. But I was about to jump off the deep end, into something that I ate once.

In theory, it wouldn't be difficult. At least, according to the cooking system.

I grabbed my cooking pot, amused by the dent in the bottom of it still. It would be a constant reminder that I'd almost been waylaid by Duncan, and had been saved by Mari Belle. Even if she hadn't wanted to save me.

Next, I gathered my ingredients. An important part of curry was the paste, and Karina had really come through. The curry paste she'd supplied me with smelled perfect. It was a little spicy, a little funky, and had just a light touch of sweetness to the smell. Honestly, she'd nailed it.

I cut up one [White Onion], a considerable handful of [White Potatoes] (with the skin still on), and some fresh [Garlic] and a knob of [Ginger]. The ginger and garlic were mashed with the knife until they had almost created a paste. I want to make sure their flavors were in the dish, but they didn't want the texture of either.

I also prepared a cut of [Chicken], removing the skin and deboning it. I rubbed it down with some salt and pepper, before letting it sit to the side while I finished the rest of the curry. It would soak up all the seasoning, hopefully.

After that was resting, I filled my pot with a considerable amount of water. It was enough to cover my ingredients, and then a little more.

From Mel's crate, I fetched the shrimp paste that she picked up in town. I don't know where she got it from, but it was exactly what I needed. I added two spoonfuls, because that was what the system told me to do, but that honestly sounded a little much. I hoped this wouldn’t be too fishy. Now wasn't the time to question the system, however. Eventually, I would be good enough at cooking that I could tweak the dishes in any way I wanted. I had to be way over level 5 though.

Everything went into the pot almost at once. I added the spices, the veggies, the chicken, and my garlic and ginger paste. Once everything was in the pot, that was it. I didn't have to brown the meat, or worry about cooking times or anything else. It just all went into the fire together.

I want to make rice with this dish, as that's how it was frequently served in Kinon. But I didn't have any rice. It wouldn't be hard to get a hold of in the future, but I just plain forgot to add to the list.

Made me feel like an ass.

While the curry cooked, I went about preparing to make the spaghetti and meatballs. This required a lot more work. I had to make the pasta from scratch. Which wouldn't be too hard, seeing as it was just flour and eggs and a hint of oil. But, like with the curry, I'd never made pasta from scratch before. It had just never come up.

And then there were the meatballs.

I was pretty sure that Past!Harper had no idea what he was doing when he created [Mel's Spaghetti and Meatballs]. It almost seemed like an abomination. Something that shouldn't exist. But here I was, trying to make it anyway. Mostly because I wanted to make Mel proud.

As I suspected, making the pasta wasn't that hard. It was just a lot of elbow grease and patience. And individually, each meatball wouldn’t be hard either. I was able to prepare a few of each with the ingredients I had on hand.

It was just going to be combining them all into one dish that would be the problem.

But before I could do that, I had to cook everything.

I fetched my frying pan and got to work.

Preparing the meatballs was fun. Or as much fun as playing with raw meat could be. Everything was already ground up, and I just had to mash it into a quasi paste with some breadcrumbs, an egg, and some spices. I put different spices in each meatball, mostly to up the intrigue of the meal.

The last meatball, the “not” meatball, was the most interesting. Like with the garlic and ginger from the curry, I cut the mushrooms up fine and then dragged my knife through them to turn them into a paste.

I wasn't the biggest fan of mushrooms, but cooking them like this was gross. Most unappetizing thing I'd ever seen. I knew that as soon as I added the binding agents and turned them into meatballs they would be fine, but like this they just looked disgusting.

But that was it. Once my meatballs were prepared it was time to cook.

The key to cooking meatballs is making sure you get all the lovely brown bits to form a crust. Someone once told me what that caramelization process was called. I don't remember anymore. All I know, two things: the first is that fat equals flavor, and the second is that caramelization is tasty.

To get a good color on the meat (and “not” meat), I had to leave the meatballs in the pan for much longer than I was comfortable with. And I had to not touch them. Which was way harder than it should have been. I just wanted to check and make sure everything was okay. But if I did that, I would disturb the process and ruin the meatball. And I didn't want to ruin the meatball.

To distract myself, I did push-ups off the wall. It wasn't exactly the best use of my time, but it was better than fucking up the meatballs.

My patience was well rewarded, when I flipped over the meatball and found that it was dark brown color underneath.

Perfect.

My mouth filled with saliva look and smell. If it weren't for the fact that the little ball was only half cooked, I would've just popped the whole thing in my mouth. Would have burned my tongue something fierce, but it would've been worth it.

While the meatball was cooking on the other side, I checked on the curry. I could see in the corner of my vision that the timer was still going. Fuck, curry took a long time to cook. It said 45 minutes remained, but I knew if I let it go for longer, the flavors would deepen.

Really though, I was just concerned that the dish was that simple. Literally, I just threw everything into the pot. It seemed too easy.

But the curry was simmering away in the fire, and everything seems to be fine.

I pulled the meatballs out of the pan, and put them on a plate to rest.

All that was left was pasta. And the sauce. What kind of monster serves meatballs and pasta without sauce.

I'd made pasta sauce before, although generally it was just taking some tomatoes and cooking them down. Not exactly the hardest thing in the culinary world. The real difficulty was making sure you got the right ratio of tomatoes to water, and then added enough spices to make things not just taste like, well, tomato water. You also couldn't add flour to pasta sauce to thicken it up, like you could with stew. If you got the ratios wrong you were just going to have a thin, sad, loose sauce.

As soon as the sauce was prepared, I realized I was running into a problem. I didn't have enough pots to cook all of these dishes once. Hopefully it wouldn't come up, but if we got busy enough I was screwed.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to buy new pots however. It seemed like an expense we couldn't afford.

It did mean that making pasta was going to be pretty difficult.

At least for right now.

Order of operations in the future would need to be pasta first, then curry. Since one took 10 minutes and the other took 50 minutes.

There was nothing else to do with my time, except sit here and watch curry simmer. I decided to go out to the dining room to join Mel and Berry, and maybe find something to distract myself with for 30 more minutes.

Hopefully we didn't get any new visitors while I was busy.