“I think I know what your love language is,” Ximena suddenly spoke, having silently watched Oliver while he was cooking. It was autumn, and every autumn he would get out all his pumpkin-related recipes and throw the finished products at his friends, even if they didn’t particularly like pumpkins. He would figure out a way to make them like it, even if that meant repeating recipes and tweaking them to their liking. They had all gotten used to it at some point, and Ximena had started to join him every autumn by sitting and watching him. She definitely wasn’t going to help him to Oliver’s annoyance.

“Where is that topic coming from?” Oliver asked, looking at her with a raised eyebrow, stopping with chopping the carrots.

“I don’t know, Haru and I were talking about it, we weren’t sure about you and Max. I’m still debating on whether to say Max has an acts of service kind of love language or just physical touch, but you are definitely an acts of service kind of guy,” She shrugged, returning her gaze to her phone again, playing another dumb cat game she had found.

Oliver chuckled at that, taking a grip on the knife again and continuing to chop up the carrot. It honestly didn’t surprise him that Ximena and Haru talked about that, those two probably never ran out of topics to speak about, one of them would get distracted from the topic and start a whole new one. “I am not going to confirm or deny that, Iria would probably know the answer to that better. I am not in the mood for self-reflection at the moment… And what about you and Haru? Haru is probably more on the physical touch spectrum, right?”

He immediately noted the change in Ximena’s behaviour, she was shifting in the barstool, keeping her eyes on the phone instead of looking at him while he talked. That was one thing he always noticed whenever someone said love and Haru in one sentence, which was why he made it an effort to bring it up. “Am I wrong?”

“No, no, not really, I just don’t think that’s how I would explain her you know, she doesn’t just have that, it isn’t just that,” Ximena mumbled, turning off her phone and laying it down on the table, looking at his cutting board. “Anyway, don’t you have a pumpkin soup to finish? Go on, chop chop.”

“It would be a lot quicker if you just helped me.”

“It would be a lot quicker if you shut your mouth for once,” she retorted quickly.

Oliver hummed at that, grabbing a peeler and the butternut squash, beginning to peel it before chopping it up into small pieces. The silence between them dragged out, not wanting to force her to talk more about it even if he wanted to know more. He took a soup pan from the cabinet and put it on the stove, adding olive oil and the already-cut onion, ginger and garlic. “I know you aren’t going to help me, but can you at least get me some seasoning? Tablespoon of coriander, two of chilli powder and a bit of cumin,” he paused, rereading the instructions he had written down. “And one cube of vegetable stock too, it’s in the same drawer.”

Ximena nodded, getting off the barstool and opening multiple drawers until she found the seasoning drawer. Even after being here almost weekly, she still couldn’t find anything in his house. He never changed anything, he always had everything in the same place, but that wasn’t enough. She put the seasoning in while Oliver put the carrots and pumpkin in, then added the water and stock cube. It was a simple recipe, but it was enough on a cold night, and it was going to be just that today. He put it to a simmer and covered it with a lid, before sitting down on the barstool, Ximena returning to hers.

“I have to wait for like 20 minutes now, so can I talk?”

“Fine. 20 minutes.”

“How would you explain her then?”

That question got another sigh from Ximena, he knew that this wasn’t the topic she wanted to talk about after she had shut it down before, but as long as he wasn’t getting hit or anything he would bring it up again and again. If Iria and Jess were correct, something was going on and this time he wasn’t going to sit still. Figuratively that was.

“I don’t know. I think she is a bit of everything. But mostly quality time. When we are alone, she takes her time with me, she makes sure we aren’t interrupted. It’s nice to have that… to have someone who cares enough to focus on you, to make you feel like you are the whole world to her,” Ximena explained, looking down while picking on a small wound on her thumb, another nervous habit he had seen on her. “But then she also has a lot of words of affirmation going on, I don’t remember a day where she hasn’t gone out of her way to compliment me. Or hug me, so I guess Physical touch too. It’s overwhelming sometimes, you know. The way she can love.”

Oliver thought about it, staring in front of him again at the pan on the stove. Ximena had never opened up about love before, it was a topic she always avoided, but here she was talking about someone else’s love like it was nothing. “Overwhelming in a good way or a bad way?”

“A good way. I don’t think she can be overwhelming in a bad way, at least to me. Ever since we met we clicked, we know how we work and we don’t have to talk to know what the other person needs, it’s honestly strange,” Ximena chuckled awkwardly, turning on her phone and looking at her wallpaper, a group picture with all of them. Of course, with her standing next to Haru, like always.

“I think I also know what your love language is. Words of affirmation, specifically when it is about Haru. But normally, probably quality time.”

“You’re acting as if I only talk good about Haru.”

“I’ve never heard you talk about anyone else like that.”
Ximena groaned, going through her hair with her hand. “You are honestly so annoying. I want to say that I don’t understand why Iria puts up with you, but she would probably do the same thing you are doing right now.”

“I don’t know about that, she would probably ask a lot more. But I do want to add to the record that I am more annoying than her, just because I don’t think she is annoying… Anyway, what about you?”

“What about me?”

“You said Haru treats you like you are the whole world to her. Is she the whole world to you?” Right after Oliver finished that question he was smacked on the back of her head by Ximena, earning a laugh from him before rubbing the spot she struck. “Hey, that hurt. I am just asking, come on. You could also just not say anything instead of hitting me like I insulted your entire bloodline.”

“I am not answering that, I know what you are trying to do and it isn’t going to work.”

“For real? Come on. If that was too much then what are you two?”

“We are friends, but we belong together. I don’t think I want to ever be separated from her,” Ximena finally responded, looking out of the kitchen window to avoid his gaze. “But the whole being someone’s world was an over-exaggeration, she doesn’t think of me like that. I think I just meant that in a general sense.”

“A general sense? You are not making any sense, but you do you. I can compare you two to something lighter then, with less heavy connotations. You two… go together like pumpkin and carrot, if one of you two were missing, it wouldn’t be the same,” Oliver explained, “A pumpkin soup without carrot misses its sweetness and a pumpkin soup without pumpkin would… well, it wouldn’t be pumpkin soup anymore, but it would also miss its heartiness.”

Ximena looked at him, staring at him and glaring at him when she processed his words, “You are comparing us to food? What the fuck, Oliver?”

© E. Orchids