Steamed

of meat. He would’ve had to hop out of the kitchen, kill Eric, and jump back into cooking. The restaurant was swamped by then, and I’m sure someone would have missed him.”
    “Any others on your list?” teased Josh, evidently enjoying my desperate attempts to pin this murder on someone else.
    “What about Veronica? I wonder if she thought she’d inherit his money. She probably knew Eric and his parents weren’t particularly close and that he was pretty serious about her. She might have wormed her way into his will. Maybe they broke up and she killed him before he could change his will.”
    “I know you want to help me, but I still think you’re reaching here.” Josh polished off his salad and took the plates to the sink. I couldn’t believe he actually rinsed them off and put them in the dishwasher.
    “Have you talked to Detective Hurley again?” I asked. “Yeah. I went down to the police station this morning to talk to him. He is not pleased that my knife was the one used in the murder. Obviously my fingerprints are all over it. And I don’t know how to convince him I was home. It’s a boring alibi, but I can’t help it. I was tired and stayed home and watched television. I even told him about every show I watched. It was shark week on the Discovery Channel, so I gave him a lot of facts about sharks and shark attacks,” he explained. “But that doesn’t help much since anyone can look at a TV schedule or the Internet and get plenty of information about what was on. But I’m still not in jail. And I explained to him that he couldn’t arrest me since I had a very important dinner to cook tonight.” Josh winked at me, turned the front burner up to high, and placed a skillet there to preheat. He then filled a small pot with a precooked rice mixture. “Do you have a lid for this, by any chance?”
    I shook my head. “Sorry, no. Um, I might have a bigger lid you could use. Would that work?” I resolved that Uncle Alan would buy me a nice set of cookware, which I’d somehow justify as a necessary student expenditure. Oh, and a cutting board and some knives.
    “That’s okay. I can just use plastic wrap.” Josh sealed a sheet across the top of the pot and turned the heat up. I didn’t think you could put Saran Wrap on top of the stove, but soon enough the plastic began to puff up like Jiffy Pop. Josh, I reminded myself, had gone to culinary school and worked as a chef, whereas I was a social work student who did unpaid work for the Boston Organization Against Sexual Things I Couldn’t Remember. In other words, if I tried covering a pot of steaming rice with plastic wrap instead of a lid, there’d be an explosion that would leave me with rice all over the kitchen and burns all over my face.
    “The rice smells delicious. What’s in that?” I asked curiously.
    “Cardamom. Goes perfectly with the tuna.”
    Josh threw the fish steaks onto the hot pan and seared each side briefly. I could smell garlic but couldn’t figure out what the rest of the aromas were. Josh must’ve caught me sniffing inquisitively because he said there was a mix of spices that made up the beautifully seared crust. He pulled the tuna off the burner and began slicing half-inch-thick strips to reveal the rare middle. When he put our plates together, the tuna slices fanned out on top of the cardamom rice. He garnished the dish with baby bok choy slaw he produced from one of the plastic containers.
    The artistry of the food and the delicious aromas made me wish for a dining room with a small, intimate table set with linen, china, crystal, and silver. Once I tasted the meal, however, I realized the Josh’s culinary skills had triumphed over the humble setting of my kitchen. I gushed to Josh and savored every bite.
    “Oh, I was going to ask you,” I began, swallowing a crunchy piece of bok choy, “what’s up with Madeline and Brian?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Well, Ade and I noticed her sort of playing with his hair and being kind of touchy with him.”
    “Yeah, they kind of have a flirty thing going on. I don’t think anything has happened, though. Brian looks up to her—you know, attractive older woman, successful in business, who encourages him and supports him. Even when he screws up, she’s really patient. And Maddie likes the attention she gets from a younger man. I try to keep out of it, though. As long as they don’t get in my way, I don’t care what they’re doing.”
    “But do you think Brian