“Alright everyone now that you have your potatoes cut up, go ahead and drop them in the water. They’ll need to boil for about twenty-five minutes, so set a timer. We’ll use that time to get everything else prepped. You can all start by setting your ovens to 450 degrees.” Lloyd was suiting actions to words at his own cooking station at the head of the class. The gathered students watched along as he instructed them to slice a shallot and prepare a portion of whole green beans.

Jim was already looking ahead at the recipe projected on the white board behind their instructor. He looked up at Pam while completing the chopping to ask her to prepare the skillet they’d need for the pork chops that were on tonight’s menu. However, Pam seemed deep in conversation with Beth. Long practice helped him pick up on their conversation.

“So yeah, it was the sweetest thing. The best part is now I don’t have to leave my desk for a new cup of tea,” Pam gushed.

Beth leaned over and gave Jim a smile. “Sounds like you nailed the whole Secret Santa thing.”

There was no way Jim could hide a smile forming on his face. “Thanks. I’m just glad she liked it so much. It’s been over a year now that she’s wanted her own teapot for her desk.”

“Pass the salt and pepper please hon,” Sam broke into the conversation and pointed to where the condiments were resting in a space between the two couples. “Got that pan ready?”

“Oh, sorry,” Beth apologized and handed the seasonings over. “Pam and I got a bit distracted.”

“It’s ok,” Sam easily grinned at his wife and worked on his own prep task. “Jim, here you go.”

“Yeah, uh, I need to get on that too,” Pam said slightly sheepishly. She reached for her own skillet and poured in a large drizzle of olive oil and set it on the gas stove. With a few clicks the stove flared to life under the pan.

Jim reached behind the ladies to accept the salt and pepper. He liberally sprinkled both sides of the pork chops in front of him while Pam added more oil to a baking sheet.

“Pork chops comin’ through!” Jim called out. Holding the plate of his and Pam’s boneless chops over her head he switched spots with her, so he’d be closer to the stove. Waving a hand over the pan he could feel heat radiating through the pan. The meat sizzled as it met the warm oil. Reaching over to the bin of utensils, he pulled out two pairs of tongs. He handed one over to Sam who was also placing his own pork chops to cook on a separate skillet. Both men gave their tongs the two obligatory safety clicks before using them to ensure the pork was in the perfect spots in the pans.

“Why do guys always do that?” Pam asked.

“Do what?” Jim replied.

“Click the tongs before they do anything with them?” Pam nodded in Jim’s direction while spreading oil, salt, and pepper on the beans now resting on her baking sheet.

“Man law,” Jim grinned back at her and adopted a tone of faux piety. “Thou shalst always click thy tongs twice lest thy meat shall burn. Once clicked shall render thy meat cold. Thrice clicked shall render thy meat unto thee as unto a hockey puck. Twice clicked and thy tongs shall render unto thee thy meat cooked to flame kissed perfection.”

Pam pulled a face at her partner. “Really?”

“Sam back me up here,” Jim turned to the other man who was checking the timer he’d set on the manual chronograph style watch on his wrist.

“Always click your tongs,” Sam confirmed. “No guy would want to incur the wrath of the meat gods.”

“Hear hear!” Jim said proudly and held his tongs up towards Sam who dutifully tapped his own against Jim’s in salute.

Beth leaned forward and caught Pam’s eye. “I’m not going to say all guys are the same, cause they’re not, but in this instance, Jim and Sam are right. Look up at Lloyd.”

At the front of the class, Lloyd was preparing his own pork chop. Just as Jim and Sam had done, their teacher had also clicked his tongs twice before using them.

Shaking her head with a rueful smile, Pam stepped forward with her sheet of green beans for the oven. “Excuse me please,” she requested as she and Beth slid the two trays into the now warm oven. She stepped back after closing the door and looked up at the clock. “Okay those will be done in about 12 minutes. How are the potatoes coming?”

“We’re getting there,” Beth replied. She took a fork and stabbed a potato rolling around in the boiling water. The two couples were sharing the same large pot to boil their potatoes. “Not quite soft yet, but we still have a few minutes.”

“Okay,” Pam looked up at the recipe. “I’m going to pre-measure what I can for when the potatoes are done. Are you still doing alright keeping an eye on the pork chops Jim?”

“All set here,” Jim replied.

Pam measured out milk, heavy cream, cream cheese, and double checked that a stick of butter was at room temperature. By now, Jim and Sam had flipped the pork chops to cook on the other side in a hiss of oil. The exposed side of the meat was golden brown. Jim took the time while the meat cooked to prepare the ingredients for a glaze they’d prepare once the meat was done. Apple cider vinegar, apple butter, more water, some sugar, and more salt and pepper were placed in easy reach along with the shallot he’d sliced earlier.

Once the potato timer beeped, Pam put a metal colander in her sink. Beth helped her pour the potatoes and water into the colander with a cloud of steam rising from the sink. Beth put the pot back on the stove and brought the heat down while Pam poured her pre-measured ingredients into the pan. The milk, heavy cream, and cream cheese quickly started to melt and combine in the bottom of the pot. Sam passed Jim the food thermometer he had just used to ensure their pork was up to the proper temperature before they took the chops out of the skillets to rest on clean plates. Pam took her pot off the stove once everything was fully melted and dumped the potatoes back into the pot to start mashing them. Beth grabbed the beans out of the oven while Jim and Sam browned the shallots in the pans they’d just used to cook the pork chops. After a few minutes the pans sizzled to life again as the vinegar was poured in followed shortly by the apple butter, water, and sugar. Using their tongs Jim and Sam stirred the sauce as it started to thicken. They added some butter as well. Once it was all stirred together, they placed the pork chops back in the pans and drenched them in the aromatic glaze.

Beth and Pam fetched plates, flatware, and water glasses while the pork chops finished cooking. They loaded the veggies on the plates before the guys served the pork chops. Spooning some more sauce onto the mashed potatoes, dinner was served.

“Wow!” Pam’s eyes lit up after she took her first bite of the pork chop. “Jim this is really good!”

“Same can be said about your potatoes,” Jim replied eagerly. “I don’t think I’ll ever use the instant kind again if this is how real ones can turn out.” He turned to Sam and Beth. “How’s yours?”

Both Sam and Beth just nodded in response since their mouths were full of good food. Sam pointed with his fork at the beans with a delighted expression.

Beth cleared her mouth first. “Delicious! I never knew it was so easy to make such flavorful mashed potatoes! They always seemed like a lot of work when my mom or aunts made them for Thanksgiving or Christmas.”

“Seems like it would be really easy to add in some herbs or something to bring in more flavor,” Pam commented.

Lloyd was making his rounds and overheard Pam’s suggestion. He stepped towards them with a smile. “That’s a great idea! What kind of herbs are you thinking of?”

“Oh um, I don’t know. It was just an idea.”

“Well, I for one like it,” Llyod went on. “That’s part of what cooking is all about. Trying out something and then adding new variations the next time around. Mashed potatoes are a great way to do that too. They’re basically a blank canvas you can paint all sorts of flavors on.”

Jim noticed Pam’s eye sparkle at the painting metaphor. He grinned at the lovely sight and dipped his bite of pork chop into his potatoes to enjoy the combination of flavors. He added it to his mental files of beautiful Pam moments and tucked into the rest of his dinner. After they finished and helped clean the dishes Sam turned to Jim and Pam while pulling on his coat.

“We were thinking of heading out for a drink. Care to join us?”

Looking over at Pam, Jim got a nod of agreement from her. He turned back to Sam. “We’d love to. Where are you thinking?”

“Backyard Ale House is really good. Let’s meet over there.”

“Sounds great,” Jim grinned.

Sam held the door as they walked outside to head to their cars. Twenty minutes later Jim was holding the door for Pam as they walked into a cozy modern brewery. Dark tables and high-top metal chairs were offset by warm lighting. Sam and Beth soon joined them, and they found an open table. Sam and Jim took their time to go over the craft beer selection while Beth and Pam deliberated between various cocktails. Pam chose a drink called a Raspberry Lemon Drop while Beth went for the Flirtini. Sam chose a coffee stout called Nitro Imperial Breakfast Stout that the menu said was served in a chalice style glass. Jim ordered a Belgian style golden ale called Merry Monkey. After their drinks arrived Sam noticed the pool table was unoccupied. He challenged Jim to a game and the two men departed.

“So, I was telling you about the teapot, right?” Pam continued to gush and took a sip of her drink once the men had departed.

“Right,” Beth replied.

“Well, Jim really outdid himself. There were all these little bonus gifts inside when I took the lid off the teapot. A mixtape of some of our favorite songs, this really dorky but cute picture of Jim from his high school yearbook, a bunch of other fun things too from things we’ve done together.”

Beth’s eyes grew wide. “Wow, he must have put a lot of time into it to get all that pulled together.”

“I know!” Pam beamed. “We were going through everything and all I could think to myself was, ‘girl he just scored some serious Brownie points’!”

“Lady,” Beth said and took a drink.

“What?” Pam leaned back a touch with a puzzled expression on her face.

“You’re an adult,” Beth’s tone was pleasant but firm and she pointed at Pam with her glass. “A lady, not a girl.”

“Huh.” Pam cocked her head to the side and let the simple correction brew for a moment. She found the distinction a welcome one. Beth noticed her expression at once.

“You okay over there?”

“Yeah,” Pam said as her thoughts cleared. “Just felt like a moment of clarity there. Where you thought you knew something but then with a new perspective, things change.”

“Glad I could help then,” Beth smiled and took another sip of her drink then dipped her head towards Pam’s left hand. “So, when’s the wedding?”

Instantly Pam felt the by-now familiar weight of disappointment land heavily on her shoulders. She looked down at her drink and slowly stirred it with the small straw it had come with. “I wish I knew. Every time I try to talk to Roy about setting a date, he either flakes out on me or something comes up.”

“How long have you two been engaged?” Beth pressed gently.

“Three years,” Pam said quietly. She looked up and saw a shocked expression fading from Beth’s face.

“Sorry,” Beth apologized. “I sometimes forget that not everyone has had the same experience Sam and I did.”

“What was your engagement like?” Pam quickly jumped on the opportunity to deflect attention away from her own relationship.

A smile formed on Beth’s face. “I thought it went well. He proposed where we had our first date and has since become our favorite restaurant. A charming place a little way outside of the city called Christopher’s. I was on the phone during the drive home asking my best friend to be my maid of honor. He did the same with his best man. We looked around together for venues. He came with me to a wedding expo in Philly. If I remember right, he said his favorite part of our engagement was when we did taste testing for the reception dinner and cake. We did a four-part pre-marriage counseling course through our church that helped us figure out a lot of our strengths and weaknesses. He came over to my old apartment a lot to help with the decorations. Stuff like that.”

Pam cast a quick glance towards the pool table where Sam was laughing at some joke Jim had just told. “He helped out with all that?”

“Why wouldn’t he?” Beth seemed somewhat surprised. “It was his wedding too. One thing that always impressed me about Sam was that’s what he would always say. He hated the idea that the wedding industry treats the groom basically as set decoration while the bride gets treated like royalty.
“I agree with him too. Hollywood tells a lie to women. ‘Get married and live happily ever after.’ The image is that the wedding is the end of the journey. It’s actually the start. Same goes for the wedding industry like I just said. Everything seems to be tailored to the bride and, ‘her special day.’ The groom is an afterthought at best.  When you really think about it though, in the course of a lifelong marriage it’s only one day. Once the cake is eaten and the gifts are put away, you’re not getting married anymore, you are married. We wanted to take our time during our engagement to make sure our marriage was going to be strong while also planning a day where we could celebrate the start of that journey.
“He had some ideas about things like what music he wanted to play when he walked down the aisle before the wedding party, what kinds of decorations we would use, the playlist and menu for the reception, or what kind of cake we would have. My parents paid for a lot of it, so they had a say in things for sure. However, now that I think about it, the only real decision I made without at least his input was when I picked out my dress, what kind of dresses my bridesmaids wore, and hair and makeup for the day. Other than that, we talked about just about all of it together. Marriage is supposed to be a partnership and we wanted to start that out right from the start, including our wedding.”

Pam cast her eyes down and her drink and stirred it again. Her eye caught on the ring around her left finger and the man who had given it to her. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard Roy bring up anything to do with the wedding on his own.

She tried to picture how asking Roy to be more involved in wedding planning would go and the first image that popped into her mind was of Roy sitting in front of their couch and telling her to get whatever made her happy. It was a far cry from the scenes Beth had laid out.

“Hey, you okay over there?”

Beth’s question snapped Pam out of her reverie. “Uh, yeah. I’m, good.”

“You sure? You looked kind of still there for a bit. Anything you want to talk about?”

“It’s just,” Pam hesitated for a second. “It seems so nice to hear you talk about your engagement like that. Kinda makes me wish mine was like that too.”

“Have you ever tried talking to your fiancé about being more involved in the wedding?”

Frost settled in around Pam’s heart. It was a familiar feeling. “I’ve tried, but it seems like he always has an excuse.”

“Can I ask how he proposed?”

Pam cast her eyes back in time to the event. “It was at a minor league hockey game. During the first intermission they were doing the whole kiss cam thing. They panned over to me, but Roy had gone to stand in line for beer with his brother. So, there I was left high and dry. During the second intermission they did it again. I didn’t think they’d put me up on the board again, but they did. After we kissed, Roy pulled the ring out of his pocket while we were still on camera. I remember being really shocked because I don’t even remember what he said or even if I said anything. Next thing I knew there was a ring on my finger and the whole place was cheering. Roy was getting high fives from everyone around us. The next day he told me he had planned all of it out with the people at the rink. Not being there with me during the first time and then asking the question for real the second time.”

“Is that the kind of proposal you would have wanted?”

“No,” Pam admitted. “I always kind of hoped he’d take me to some romantic spot that meant something in our relationship and do the whole get down on one knee thing. Seems silly I know.”

“It’s not silly,” Beth assured her. “Did Roy ever know that?”

“Yeah,” said Pam. “I’m sure I told him that a few times. We’d been together for about six years before then starting in our senior year of high school. By the time he proposed it was starting to become a running joke around his family. When was he finally going to pop the question?”

“Hmmm,” Beth looked contemplative.

“What?” Pam asked.

Beth took a deep breath before she went on. “If I’m overstepping my bounds here let me know, but it seems like there’s some issues going on. Seems like Roy has a hard time remembering what is actually important to you. He doesn’t seem to be involved in anything to do with your wedding. He didn’t think to propose in a way you would have liked. I mean by your own admission his plan was to first embarrass you publicly and then just slipped on the ring regardless of if you said yes or not. Fast forward to now, and there’s no hard plans for the wedding and he’d rather play poker with his buddies than be with the woman he claims he wants to spend the rest of his life with.”

Hearing her own thoughts repeated back to her made Pam avert her eyes once more. “We don’t always have to do things together,” she said in an attempt to defend Roy.

“That’s fair,” Beth conceded. “So, what do you two like to do together just as a couple? Apart from anything in the bedroom that is.”

Pam tried to think of a recent time when she and Roy had been out just as a couple. Each instance that appeared in her mind was also met with the memory of Roy telling Kenny, Darrel, or one of his other buddies that he was being dragged out with her and he’d make it up to them next time. Their jeers about balls and chains also echoed in her mind. Her silence caused Beth to cock her head and speak up again.

“Anything?”

“It’s, um, it’s been a while.” Pam’s voice was small.

“You mentioned that you and Roy got together in high school,” said Beth. Pam nodded so Beth went on. “Some people change or want to change from the kids they were in high school. Others don’t. It’s not a bad thing, it just is. Remember though, engaged isn’t married. If you’re having doubts or concerns, I think it’s better to work through them now, rather than drag out a potentially messy divorce.”

“I’ve been with Roy for so long though. Doesn’t he deserve a chance to remember things about our relationship?”

“So, give him one.” Beth told her. “Just remember though, actions speak louder than words. Do you really want to be with someone who says they’ll remember things but doesn’t or with someone who actually will remember things and act on them?”

Instantly the image of her new teapot blared to life in Pam’s mind. The seemingly simple bonus gifts that had marked a special time in her friendship with Jim took on a new significance. Other memories flashed in her mind as well. Pranks they’d pulled together, the year she’d spent giving him stick shift driving lessons, talking easily while he helped her decorate for various office holiday parties, the feeling of warmth that had bloomed in her chest when he’d prevented her from eating an expired yogurt cup. Seemingly small, but beautiful ordinary things that never failed to lift her spirits. Right behind them was a cascade of doubt and guilt for feeling that way about a man who was not her fiancé. The sense of obligation she felt to Roy because, for all his other faults, he had been loyal to her.

“No offense, but how does a dental hygienist know all this?” Pam asked.

“None taken,” Beth replied. “Sam and I volunteer with our church’s marriage mentoring group. We have meetings with engaged couples or newlyweds to help them build a solid foundation for their marriages. A way for those of us who have been married for a while to help others who are just getting started.”

“Oh,” Pam’s small voice came back.

Beth leaned forward and put an encouraging hand on Pam’s shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay to have doubts about it all. Marriage is supposed to be a lifelong commitment. It deserves to be a well thought out decision rather than a blind leap based on raging emotion.”

Pam nodded before she looked back up. “Could I have your number? In case I want to talk to you more about all this before next week’s cooking class?”

“Of course,” Beth smiled warmly at Pam.

Across the bar Sam was re-racking the pool balls while Jim chalked his cue stick. He waited until Jim was about to break before speaking up again.

“How long have you been in love with Pam for?”

The surprise question jolted Jim as if he was punched in the gut. His cue stick barely grazed the white cue ball which slowly rolled over to the triangle of pool balls.

“What?”

Sam calmly walked around the table to take his shot. The crack of the cue ball slamming into the triangle formation of pool balls seemed to send a jolt straight into Jim’s chest. Sam’s break sent two solid-colored balls into corner pockets. “Come on man, you can't take your eyes off her. Also, you’re here with her instead of her fiancé. And don’t even get me started on that whole teapot thing. You don’t do that for a lady you know who’s just, ‘a friend from work.’”

Jim sighed and hung his head for a moment. “Honestly, since pretty much the first day I met her.”

“You know she’s engaged right?” Sam said while he shot another ball into a side pocket.

“To an asshole who doesn’t deserve her,” Jim shot back.

“I wouldn’t know,” Sam said evenly while sinking another shot. “And you have to admit that you probably don’t know everything about the relationship Pam has with him.”

“I see the way he treats her, ignores her, how small she becomes around him and how she lights up around me,” Jim said.

“Maybe so, but you have to admit you’re probably more than a bit biased. Ahhh!” Sam frowned as he missed his next shot.

Jim took a deep breath before he leaned over to line up his shot. He gritted his teeth when his shot also missed. “Yeah, I probably am. But even Pam herself says I’m her best friend. Not Roy.”

“Best friends enough to let her know how you really feel?” Sam prodded while sinking his next shot. “Best friends enough to tell her the guy she’s planning on marrying may not be right for her?”

“And risk messing up everything with her?” Jim leaned forward and sent his next shot into a pocket. “I don’t know if I could handle that.”

He was about to shoot again when Sam’s calm tone reached his ears. “If you’re really as close as you say you are, doesn’t she deserve you to be completely honest with her? In both how you feel about her and how you feel about Roy? If you really love her doesn’t she deserve that kind of respect from you? Do you love her enough to let her know she has a choice? Do you love her enough to respect whatever choice she makes?”

The image of the card he’d pulled out of her teapot box filled his mind. The card where he had written how he truly felt for her. He wanted to defend himself, but he knew it would be pointless.  Focusing on his shot he shot his cue forward. The white cue ball missed its mark and shot diagonally off the wrong way to land in a side pocket.

“Scratch,” said Sam.

Jim just gritted his teeth and felt his hands clench into a white-knuckle grip around his pool stick.