Waifu Wars: A Food Wars Fanfic

Ch. 27 Cajoling in Cairo

During his shift the next day, Torrey once again found himself messing up orders left and right. Even simple tasks, such as stacking various combos of meats and cheeses in between pieces of bread, could be troublesome if one's mind wasn't in the right place.

            Yesterday, the problem had been Soma's Shokugeki with Eizan. Today, it was Azami Nakiri's offer to reinstate Torrey at Totsuki. Torrey had been completely opposed to the idea of joining Central at first. Azami seemed like some kind of cult-leader with a strange and distorted vision for the future of cuisine. To reject his offer a second time, however, would mean heading home with potential regrets.

            These were the sort of thoughts going through Torrey's head at work, which created the impression that his shift was dragging on forever. After finally clocking out, he resolved to eat something delicious upon returning to Polaris.

            When he entered the kitchen, he waved to Soma, who was seated at the counter and eating leftovers from the victory party. That's it! Leftovers! thought Torrey, who practically ran to the freezer to check for a particular dessert.

            He was pleased to find a generous portion of homemade ice cream. All it needed now was a killer topping. Wasting no time, Torrey set a small pot over a medium-low burner and threw in some sugar, half-and-half, butter, and a pinch of salt. When the doorbell rang, Soma, who'd just finished his plate, offered to get it.

            While Torrey was whisking the mixture and reflecting on the disaster that had been the last surprise guest at Polaris, Soma returned to the kitchen.

            "Yo Waldenpond, you got a visitor," he said, putting his empty plate in the sink and disappearing. Torrey looked up from the pot to see Rindo standing in the doorway.

            Rindo was breathtakingly beautiful, and flirted with no shame. Her spontaneous nature could be very disarming, and Torrey instinctively kept his guard up whenever he was around her. She literally made him grab her ass within a few minutes of meeting for the first time.

            "Hey kid," she said, her hands hidden in the pockets of her purple Totsuki coat.

            "Hey Rindo-Senpai," said Torrey, turning his attention back to the stove. He barely had time to take a deep breath before Rindo was suddenly standing beside him, her elbows resting comfortably on the counter. She watched him work with fascination.

            "Ooh, caramel sauce?" she said.

            "Yeah, I was just going to top off some leftover ice cream."

            Rindo leaned in, much closer to Torrey than was necessary, and closed her eyes, inhaling deeply.

            "Mmm...can I have some?"

            "There should be enough for two."

            "Great! But just so you know, I didn't come here to ask for your sauce."

            "Oh? I figured you had a sixth sense. Like you always know when and where food's being made, or something like that."

            "Ha! I wish. I wanted to say sorry for that phone call the other night. I might have been a little insensitive..."

            "Don't worry about it. You were just being honest. I was actually the one being insensitive. I should have tried harder to understand your perspective before jumping to conclusions. I can't even imagine what it's like being the second-best chef at the world's finest culinary institution."