"What are you making?" Nat asked, closing the front door behind her.
I was leaning over a saucepan filled with simmering bolognese, sweat dripping from my brow.
"Spaghetti Bolognese!!" I announced proudly. "Who says I can't cook?"
My daughter kicked off her shoes in the hallway and emerged on the other side of the kitchen island. She was wearing her soccer gear, white t-shirt and navy blue shorts, the look finished with dried sweat and matted hair. Still, she was beautiful.
"No one," she replied. "Literally no one says you can't cook."
"It's going to be ready in like twenty minutes," I said, smiling back at her.
"Cool," she replied, dropping her duffel bag and leaning against the island. "It smells delicious!"
"That's because it is delicious," I whipped back. "Come have a taste."
I collected some into a spoon and brought it up, blowing on it. Nat circled the island with her usual effortless grace. She slid her arm around my back as she stepped next to me and opened her mouth. I slid it in and watched her face closely for a change in her expression.
"Bleh," she said, with a neutral expression. "Are you sure you didn't use dog food?"
"Oh shut it," I replied, resuming my gentle stirring.
"I'll go shower and then I'll be ready," she said, with a smirk leftover from her playful jibe. "Waaaait for me."
She grabbed her sports bag and bounced up the stairs to her bed and bathroom. How did she still have so much energy after soccer practice, I wondered. These days I felt like I needed a nap after walking up stairs. Damn teenagers and their youth.
"As soon as I'm ready I'm eating!" I called up to her. "So move that tushy!"
She gave her ass a purposeful wiggle as she got to the top of the stairs and disappeared into her room. I continued on my pasta, an old recipe from my college days. I was a pretty good cook back then, but I had stopped when I married Jessica, Nat's mother. I wouldn't have thought we would have fallen into such typical gender roles, but somehow it happened. She got pregnant. I worked. She became the primary care-giver. Before I knew it we were a typical suburban married family, straight out of a fucking sitcom. Except instead of two and a half children, we just had one. Natalie. Our now eighteen year-old daughter.
I blinked and I was thirty eight. Almost fucking forty. What happened? It seems like just yesterday I was the one coming home from sports practice to my parents cooking supper.
I could hear the shower turn on upstairs.
I had been thinking about it more recently. Jessica had gone away to her mom and sister, leaving Nat and I here to fend for ourselves. It wasn't the first time, but it was the longest. Being alone, not having her as my partner, reminded me of my life before her. Once again I became the college student, master of my own domain, cooking and fending for myself. Nat was now old enough to be self-sufficient, for the most part.
Without warning, my own life had returned to me.
"Shit!"
I looked down at my bolognese that I had been absent mindedly stirring. It was bubbling too hot. I had gotten distracted. I also need to get the water boiling for the actual pasta. I quickly turned the heat down and hurried to get a pot of water boiling on the other hob.
I could hear the shower upstairs turn off.
I should be happy to get my life back. I had longed for it for so long. Through nights spent soothing a crying baby, days chasing a mischievous toddler negotiating with a sullen pre-teen, I had dreamed of a time when I could reclaim my life and my time. Now I wasn't sure what to do with it.
I dropped the pasta in the boiling water, wondering if this was the fate of every parent and heard footsteps coming down the stairs.
"Do you mind if I use your charger?" Nat asked. "I left mine at school."
She was descending the staircase, her medium length dirty-blond hair still dripping wet from her shower, wearing a large white t-shirt.and her panties. I couldn't help getting distracted by this view of her, if only for a moment. I purposely tried to avoid noticing her nipples under the thin t-shirt, partially wetted by her hair.
"Oh um, yeah sure," I said. "You can plug it into my laptop. It's on the kitchen table."
"Thaaaanks!" she said and sauntered over. She plugged her iPhone into the loose cable connected to my MacBook and stood for a while poking at the screen. She frowned.
"It's not chaaaarging," She moaned, while putting on an exaggerated display of poutiness.
I turned away from the pasta and walked over to her, "And they say you kids are so good with technology."
"Psssshhh," she replies. "What technology? It's just a phone."
My mouth hung aghast as she said that, but I unlocked my laptop with my finger and saw a pop-up saying something along the lines of -
"iPhone connected - Unlock to enable and sync"
"Uh dad, the food?" Nat said, putting her hand on my shoulder.
I turned to see the water spilling over the side of the pasta pot. God-damnit. I clicked Accept and got up to fix it. As I reached it I heard Nat declaring victory.
"It's working," she said. "Thanks daddy!"
I grabbed the lid off the pasta pot that I had stupidly put on. Nat was back to being completely absorbed by her phone.
"How much time do you spend on that thing?" I asked her.
"What do you mean?" she replied, without looking away from it.
"I mean, do you experience anything without your phone?" I asked again.
She looked up for a moment and then raised her phone: "Smile!"
"What?" I exclaimed. "No!"
She started taking photos of me standing by the stove, disheveled and stressed.
"Oh god, are you going to post these somewhere to embarrass me?" I asked, sighing. "Dad can't even cook dinner when mom's away."
Nat stopped and lowered the phone.