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Chakrika has always loved cooking. Born in India to an Indian mother and British father, cooking was ingrained in her from a young age and she felt most at home when she was adding spices to homemade curries and expertly making rotis. Cooking has always been fun, but cooking with Jonny has been one of her favourite things since they became friends. When Jonny is in the kitchen he often regresses even more to the child he becomes when he returns home to his parents’ house for Friday night dinner, but that is a side of Jonny that Chakrika absolutely adores. She can’t believe the man-child she spends so much time with can actually hold down a serious job as an estate agent. She finds it even harder to understand how sweet and sensitive he can be when he wants to be, vulnerability isn't something she thought she would associate with him. Jonny is a terrible cook, his version of homemade is to add pre-cooked meat to store-bought cheese pizzas, but his enthusiasm for being in the kitchen is infectious. In fact, his enthusiasm is the reason Chakrika spends more time in the kitchen of his parents’ house than her own family’s. It’s the reason she eats at his flat at least twice a week, letting herself in with the spare key he gifted her and occasionally surprising him by beating him home from work and having dinner already cooking for him. She doesn’t think she’ll ever admit her feelings for him to anyone, still struggling to admit them to herself, but it’s also one of the many reasons she fell for him.
Cooking has always been something Jonny knows he is terrible at. His mother had tried to teach him on more than one occasion, constantly begging him to help her out in the kitchen when he was younger, but appearances used to mean a lot to Jonny and he wouldn’t let his older brother see him hanging out with his mum, cutting up vegetables and stirring sauces for her. Every Friday he returns home to his parents’ house, usually with his best friend in tow, and whilst he naturally regresses to the child that loves to put salt in his brother’s drink and call him the nickname he has used for as long as he can remember, he is at his most child-like when he is in the kitchen. He can’t resist jumping up to sit on the counters, squirting cream directly from the can into his mouth and picking at the crumble his mother has lovingly made. Lately he’s also taken a liking to being in his own kitchen. It’s nowhere near as big as his parents’ kitchen, and sometimes he wonders if perhaps one day he could have a nice house with a big kitchen where his family can come to him for dinner. Of course it helps that Chakrika is now part of his life. Her cooking almost rivals his mother’s. Sometimes they cook dinner together, him hindering more than helping, other times he sits on the counters and watches her dance around his kitchen, but regardless, the same thought always pops into his head. It’s a thought that scares him shitless, and one he is never going to admit to anyone. He knows he has fallen for his best friend. He also knows she is way out of his league and he doesn’t stand a chance with her. It doesn’t however stop him imagining coming home after work every night to eat dinner with her before cuddling up on the sofa and watching movies. Those things already happen a couple of times a week, but the last one, his secret longing to crawl into bed with her and snuggle under the covers, is a secret he’ll keep to himself.