2020-03-09 - Low Sodium Soy Sauce

The last few days have been rough on Easton. Things that he didn't even realize were going to be issues or hurdles to his sobriety popped up out of no where and bit him in the ass. But now that he had a day off to get his shit together, he's doing a little better. It helps that he already drank all the beer in the apartment. In some ways even that little barrier to having to decide to go drive and get more is enough to help him stick with the plan. And so he's home.

He even managed to make a grocery run without making any unplanned detours or purchases. And now he's home with a tablet on the countertop open playing a video showing him how to make Mongolian beef stir fry. No he's not a good cook, but he can follow a recipe when he tries. And here he is, very much trying. He's dressed in jeans and plain cream colored tee shirt, in his hand in lieu of an alcoholic drink is just a can of cherry coke zero.

"Something smells good in here." Bennie says as she's opening the door, once more back to using her keys. Despite the fact that they are Most Definitely not moving back in with each other, she's spending the majority of her free time and free evenings here, trying to give Alexander back a bit of his space. As she goes about hanging up her coat, and saying hello to Gunner with a quick scruff, she comments, "Find a new place for take out?" Not really computing what he's doing in that kitchen with how rarely they use it save his meal prep or transferring things from container to plate.

The first compliment is replied to with "Thank you." Before he realizes that she hasn't even groked to the fact that he is actually cooking. He looks over his shoulder at her and waits for it to sink in, prompting her, "Yea I found this crazy place with shelves and shelves of food like substances that can be combined into an infinite number of meals with time and heat." He pulls the pan off the heat and sets it aside to check another pot and then pull out plates. "How was your day sweetie?"

Bennie straightens up from taking off her steel toed work boots from the Station, blinking at Easton with the full dumbfounded blonde expression that her hair color is known for. "Who are you and what have you done with my boyfriend?" She scurries into the kitchen, peering into the pan as if he's conducting witchcraft. "Alright, Dark Men. I don't know what you're playing at, but if you want to be believable, you need to tone down the domesticity..." She's teasing, clearly, but the grin that blooms soon after and she's wringing Easton around the back of his neck to steal a quick kiss. "Blissfully uneventful which means there was nothing supernatural about the car accident or the old lady who broke her hip."

His voice deepening as he rolls his eyes back, "We ates him." He stops that and says, "Not really, but I needed something productive to do today." He pulls her in for a quick hug and kiss. He winces at "Aw, broken old lady hips." but then he adds. "But I'm glad you're here to try this meal." He pulls the other pot off the stove and dishes up two plates.

"Creepy." Bennie states as he does that eye roll and voice, then, "She'll be fine, she's feisty. Kept trying to hit me with her newspaper because she thought I was after her coupons. Her family met us at the hospital, all twelve of them. She's in good hands." As to dinner, she can't help but snick a piece of meat as it's being transferred to one of the plates, popping it in her mouth and giving a noise of appreciation. "Seeking a distraction from the sudden appearance of your ex?"

"Thank you." He takes the /creepy/ as a compliment. Finally getting settled in to try the meal, Easton gives it a half-shrug of approval. His palate is not exactly well developed. "Seeking a distraction from the booze that was a distraction from my ex and .. And the white crow dripping in tar that showed up to yell Tom at me the other day." He winces and shakes his head at that last part. He turns to face her and admits, "I got a little fucked up.." He hesitates, "For a day or two." Funny how time flies when you start drinking.

Bennie slides into a seat to join him after grabbing a drink from the fridge, noting the suspicious absence of beer silently. She's certainly not going to complain, even if she could use a frosty beverage after her double, but these are the sacrifices you make when your partner is trying to be good. You become so by default in solidarity. Her eyebrows go up at the comment about the white crow. Dripping tar. Saying Tom. "That'd fark up anyone, babe." She pokes her fork into her food. "I'm...going to admit I don't know what to do with this. I don't want to be judgmental, I want to be supportive. But I'm torn between yelling at you for taking things too far again, and yelling at you for not calling so I could help you. And then..." She sighs. "Not knowing how to help at all."

Easton's head goes back and forth about the fact that a crow would mess anyone up. Yes it was weird but really he should have been able to just brush it off. He knows things are out to fuck with him, so just accept it and move on. He nods and says, "Okay. You can be pissed?" He offers. "I mean, you just went through hell getting clean. And I..." He starts to say something and trails off. He pokes at the food for a minute before looking up at her and asks, "I just need to figure some shit out still. And yea, Katherine showing up was not fuckin' helpful." After eating a bit more he adds, "Maybe a slap upside the head and stern talking to?"

Without so much as a second of hesitation, Bennie leans over and smacks him on the back of his head with the flat of her hand. "First of all, we're not going to compare you and I. They are completely different things, with completely different triggers, born out of completely different things with completely different recoveries." That said she lumps back into her chair. "Then you're going to make another appointment with a therapist for the same reason that Alexander had to handle my detox. Next, we're going to start running together. Every morning. So if that means your hungover? You're going to be puking your guts out by the time we hit the first mile marker."

The slap doesn't even stop Easton from taking a bite, though he does rub at the back of his head afterwards, giving her a sideways glance. He nods in agreement to her terms, "Ok" and then again, "Agreed." and at the last one his eyebrows raise, "Do you realize how far I run? Because I have a feeling I'm not going to be the one puking Oakes." He has nearly worked his way back up to his normal distance of five to ten mile runs. "I managed to bail out at the bar-lympics, but still not sure why that tripped me up. Katherine, yea, obviously. But bar drinking isn't.." Oh. He shoves some more food in his mouth and just shakes his head, "I probably shouldn't plan events based on things Tom and I would have done."

"Which doesn't count the volleyball plans with Geoff and Harper, that's still happening. And I'll just get better at at least texting you if I'm headed off the rails." He thinks that sounds like at least a reasonable plan before adding, "Not that I'm planning on doing that a lot."

Bennie makes a little head wobble, "I think you're basing your opinion about my athletic performances purely on the bedroom, because we rarely leave it. But I'll have you know I was a camp counsellor." Which somehow makes her more qualified for taking him in a foot race than her highly physical job. "Babe, if we're being honest? Simply owning a bar and becoming part owner in a business where the model is plying people with free drinks so they lose more money is a completely horrible idea for a man trying to kick his reliance on alcohol. So." She finally gets around to eating, "You need to start talking about Tom in your sessions. It might help, even if it's just helping us identify what we need to avoid. Like beer pong."

"I'm basing my opinion on watching many men vomit around mile eight." Easton smiles at her and then shakes his head, "I would have rubbed my dick raw if you were my camp counselor." Ah that very special time in a boys life were he can't keep his hands out of his pants. She brings it back to earth with the honesty and he nods, "Yea. I know." He sighs and says, "I'm thinking about getting someone else to bartend, like more permanently." It's not a thought that he loves and it shows in the lack of enthusiasm in his voice. "But I do like it."

The part about Tom cause him to wince and look at her with raised eyebrows. "Why? What's with this post-adderall wise Bennie poking at shit?" He's half-joking at least. "I fucking hate talking." He can almost hear Tom's forever reply that he loves talking just not saying anything. "Especially about him."

Being called post-adderall wise makes Bennie frown. Deeply. The blonde goes to just nudging around her food with disinterest, even though her stomach is rumbling. "Because Tom is your biggest trigger. Your guilt." She says quietly, setting down her fork with a clatter as her fingers seem to loose the strength to hold it. She could explain. Expound. But does he really need her to?

Her frown gets matched by his for just a moment when she talks about his guilt. It takes him a second before his eyebrows go up and he says, "Oh. fuck" He shakes his head and says, "I'm sorry." He takes her hand and says, "Okay." emphatically, nodding. "Okay, I will do that." He sucks in a breath even at the mention of talking about Tom openly and honestly with a therapist. As much as he likes Maggi (asking him to shit-talk a religious building is just weird enough to charm him) he still balks at the prospect. "I should have asked. How are you doing? How's work without it? You holding up okay?"

Bennie's smile forms easily on her lips, soft and genuine. "You don't have anything to be sorry for." Her fingers squeeze against his, "I know it's hard for you, but if it were easy, it wouldn't be worth doing, right?" She says softly. As to work, she sort of winces, "I feel...dumb. Like seriously. It's like everything takes me ten times longer. Can't focus as well. I get distracted. Almost dosed someone wrong the other day, and didn't even catch it until I was already filling up a syringe. At the diner I'm forgetting orders, refills. And then there's the headaches I used to just...pop a pill for. Can't help but think I was better off before." A shrug, trying to be dismissive about it. "One day at a time, right?"

"Pretty sure I have a lot to be sorry for?" Easton smiles at her, cracking jokes about his mistakes comes maybe a little too easy for him. "I just wish I could explain it without talking." Like he tried and utterly failed with De La Vega the other night. He is hardly eager to try that again with anyone. "Adderall didn't make you any smarter Babe, and you are just as fucking sharp. You just need to let your body chemistry catch up, that's all." He states this very firmly, very sure. "But yea. One day at a time. We'll figure this shit out."

"Don't...suggest that to your therapist. Next thing you know you'll be using hand puppets and crayons." Bennie grins and leans into him, kissing him squarely on the mouth before her fingers scritch lightly against his sadly bare face where normally she'd be petting his glorious beard that was sacrificed for the sake of a handlebar mustache. "I'm just saying, you better still love me if it turns out this is permanent and I keep being distracted by anything shiny."

"I would rock the shit out of a puppet show retelling of the accident, complete with machine gun noises and radio comms." He laughs and kisses her back. His stubble is at least growing in and he's shaved down the mustache to match that so it's an improvement. His beard will return soon enough. "I will always love you Benz." He doesn't even have the urge to break that sentiment up with a joke or anything. He lets it hang, watching her, clearly meaning it.

Bennie lets that sentiment sink in for a long glorious moment, basking in it as she coyly bites the corner of her mouth. Then that full beam of a smile emerges, unable to hold it back. "Good. Because if you keep cooking like this as a coping mechanism I'm going to get sooooo faaaaaat." She sing songs as she leans back, her appetite restoring with gusto.

Easton keeps his gaze on her as she lets it sink in and can't help but smile back when she grins like that. "Okay, but turn abouts fair play. You get fat, I get fat and then those abs get covered up." He just shrugs and says, "That's just how that works." He eats more of the dinner finally and then asks, "I still haven't figured out why low sodium soy sauce exists and who is buying it?" As if this has been bugging him ever since his excursion to the grocery store.

"I guess it's a good thing we've added running to the mix, then." Bennie points out with a jab of her fork at Easton, as if that threat about losing his abs might actually be a stabbable offense. "Communists. That's who." She answers about the soy sauce before she takes another bite, 'accidentally' dropping a piece of meat onto the floor for Gunner with an innocent 'whoopsie' expression on her face.