I let out a sad chuckle. “Fuck you, Cal.”
I felt and heard the knock at my back. “Atalanta, are you okay in there?”
It was Hip. I must have been gone longer than I realized. Lost in my memories.
I took a deep breath before answering. “Yeah, I’m all right. I’ll be right out!”
Okay. It was time to stop my pity party.
Chapter Fourteen
Hip
I stepped back when Atalanta came out of the bathroom. It was clear she had been crying and now I knew why. At least she stood with her shoulders held high. She was getting there. Slowly getting back to that little light I’d seen a few times before all this shit happened.
I wiped away the tears on her cheeks. “You should wash your face with some cold water before you head in to the other room for dinner.”
She stiffened and touched her cheeks.
“What is it they say? Never let them see you sweat? Brave face, my little kitty cat.” I winked and walked away, giving her a moment alone to compose herself.
I sauntered back into the kitchen where Percy stood at the stove, preparing a basic pasta sauce. When I came in, he looked up and met my eyes with a glare. It wasn’t completely my fault he just so happened to drop the only jar of sauce. It was a good thing I also happened to pick up the ingredients on the way over. Homemade was so much better, anyway. It was a lucky happenstance, really.
I crouched down and peered into the oven’s glass door. The garlic bread looked almost done.
“Smells good,” Atalanta said as she came into view, looking much more refreshed.
“It still has a while before it’s done. Why not settle down with Jason and Theseus? The two idiots are still fighting.”
She studied me before saying, "It’s my time with the two of you right? I think I’ll stay here. Maybe I can help, if you want?”
I laughed. “Didn’t you tell me you can’t cook? I think it’s better if you just sat right here.”
With ease, I lifted her by the hips and propped her up on the counter. “You can be our beautiful culinary muse.”
She may have rolled her eyes but she couldn’t hide her smile. “That was cheesy.”
“And from what I hear, you like cheese.”
“Did someone say cheese?” Jason asked poking his head into the kitchen.
“Sorry to disappoint, it’s just Hip.”
“Hip is made of cheese?”
I rolled my eyes and pulled the bread out of the oven. “I would like to think I’m made of the finest quality of milk products.”
Atalanta inhaled deeply. “Is that garlic bread?”
“It sure is.” I placed the tray on the opposite counter of Atalanta, next to Percy. “I made it my—”
“Hand it over.” Atalanta demanded, holding out her hands.
I poked her nose. “It’s still hot.”
“I’ll wait till it cools, just give it!”
How could I resist that smile? Cutting off a bit of bread, I put it on a paper towel and handed it to her. I couldn’t help but laugh as she was practically drooling.
“That looks really good.” Jason said as he intently watched the slice in Atalanta’s hands.
“Mine!” She growled.
“I wasn’t going to steal it,” He pouted.
“I see your eyes. It’s mine.”
“It is far too crowded in here. Monroe, Clark, please leave.” Percy said as he stirred his sauce.
I scowled. “I’m cooking too, you know.”
“Yes, and your bread is done.”
I rolled my eyes at him before kissing Atalanta on the cheek and sitting over at the kitchen table with Jason. He was tapping away on his phone, probably texting those human friends of his. Which reminded me that I needed to call Anita. Theseus was sprawled across the couch, seemingly taking a nap. I wonder where Ajax had scampered off to?
“Oh my fucking God, this bread is delicious!” Atalanta moaned over on the counter as she devoured the rest of the slice I gave her. “What brand is it?”
“Mr. Clark’s” I grinned coyly.
Jason looked up from his phone. “Wait, you made this? As in, you bought a loaf and put garlic butter on it? My mom used to do that.”
I shook my head. “No, as in, I made the bread from scratch. I did put garlic butter on top but I also mixed sliced garlic and herbs into the dough.”
Atalanta’s face lit up with wonder. “Whoa, you really made this from scratch? Hip, that’s so cool! Can you bake other things? Like muffins? Or cakes? Can you make brownies!?”
“Yes, I can in fact make those things.”
“Good. Then I say you’ll have to make them for us. I think brownies would be a great dessert, don’t you think?” Jason asked.
I gave him a wicked grin. “I will only bake for my kitten.”
“Okay, then.” Without hesitation, Jason smiled and looked over to Atalanta. “Sweetheart, ask Hip to make us some brownies!”
“While I don’t want to manipulate Hip for your gain, Jason, I do really love brownies.” She turned her attention to me, a pout ready on her lips. “Pretty please, make us brownies.”
“Atalanta, you should know better. If you want to manipulate me, you can’t blatantly point it out like that.”
“Please,” She said again, giving me the puppy dog eyes.
“No.”
“But it’s Valentine’s Day. Shouldn’t a girl get chocolate on valentines day?”
“Jason gave you chocolate earlier.” I pointed out.
“But you haven’t given me any chocolate. Brownies would be perfect.”
I growled and glared at Jason. Standing up, I grunted. “Fine. But you’re cleaning up, and I’ll make sure I make a nice big mess.”
He gave me a shit-eating grin and shot a wink in Atalanta’s direction.
Luckily, Ajax had most of the ingredients I needed. All that was missing was the fresh chocolate, which I decided to steal from the extra box of chocolate I knew Jason had bought for himself yesterday.
Percy finished up dinner while I swiftly measured out and mixed together the batter. As they sat down to dinner I popped the tray into the oven and set a timer on my phone. When I noticed that Ajax was still missing, I set out to find him while everyone else sat down and began eating.
It wasn’t hard to find him, back in that workshop of his. I wondered if he ever took a break.
I poked my head in through the door. “Dinner’s ready!”
“Coming.”
I waited patiently for a solid minute before rolling my eyes and walking in. I found Ajax sitting on a stool behind a medium sized canvas, his face tight with concentration.
“Hey, Ajax. Dinner.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Don’t make me douse you in water,” I threatened.
“I’d like to see you try,” He grunted, not bothering to even look at me.
I raised an eyebrow. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.”
God, this was awkward.
I sighed. “Alright, silent giant. What’s up? If you were just being your usual reclusive self, you’d still be in there laughing at Atalanta manipulating me to make brownies.”
He glanced up and cocked an eyebrow at me. “She manipulated you?”
“Well, I guess it’s not manipulation when it’s blatantly obvious, but she gave me the puppy dog eyes. What was I supposed to do?”
He snorted and turned back towards his painting. I walked around to see what he was so focused on. It was a painting of Atalanta. She was sitting on her father’s air mattress, reading a book. There was something about the painting. The colors he was using. It wasn’t like he was doing a still life because her skin tone wasn’t right and neither was the room. Instead of an alluring brown, the color of her skin was almost blue with hints of yellow. The room around her was a light yellow and blue as well, and it almost looked like that yellow was bleeding into her figure. Did the paint smudge?