Substitute Wife for the Mafia King R18-Chapter 225: Fastest Way to a Man’s Heart

“His work isn’t really that busy, is it?” I spoke up suddenly.

“I’m honestly not sure about that. I guess he is somewhat busy,” Jenna replied softly.

I hadn’t realized that I had spoken my thoughts out loud and hadn’t expected a reply from anyone. Although I should be focusing on what Jenna was teaching me so that I could cook up some of Bradon’s favorite dishes, I couldn’t stop my mind from wandering to the man himself. One of Jenna’s suggestions was for me to personally cook Bradon something that he likes to eat. I wasn’t convinced that this would do the trick but I didn’t have any better ideas and I surely had a lot of idle time to burn.

That was how I ended up in the kitchen with Jenna, Bella, and a few other cooking staff. I stared at the vegetables on the chopping board in front of me as I wondered if what I made was even going to be edible. Cooking had never been something that I enjoyed doing and that was probably because I was horrible at it. Cooking classes had always felt like a nightmare for me, and I managed to get by with Diana’s help.

“I think the time he comes home is highly correlated with whether or not he wants to come home. If he wants to come home, he’ll come home early...and if not, then he’ll come home late or not at all. Work is probably just his excuse...” I muttered darkly.

“The poor vegetables are not to blame...” Jenna reminded me with a grin.

My hands stopped when I realized that I had been applying too much force in chopping the ‘poor vegetables’ as if I was beheading them in my mind. Unfortunately, Jenna was right in pointing out that I shouldn’t be taking out my anger on the vegetables.

“I’m a horrible cook. In fact, I won’t even count myself as a cook because I can’t cook...” I muttered before placing the knife back on the chopping board.

“Patience is the key. Everything will be fine as long as you are patient and follow the recipe and guidelines. Don’t worry, I’ll teach you,” Jenna said calmly.

She was clearly the one with patience and not me. I sighed loudly when I found my mind wandering to Bradon again. I wondered what he had been up to and why he was so active in avoiding me. There would be no point in cooking anything if he wasn’t going to come home to eat it. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

“He might not even come home today for dinner,” I pointed out.

“You should send him a message that you’re cooking dinner for him. I’m sure that he’ll be back,” Jenna suggested with a bright smile.

“I doubt it...” I muttered softly.

“Although I can’t say for sure, I would say that there’s a high chance that he’ll come back to eat your food,” Jenna said quite confidently.

“Maybe this is just a bad idea. No offense to you or anything, but the food that I make usually doesn’t end up edible,” I said with the intent to just give up.

“What about I take a photo of you cooking? Then you can send it to him. I’m sure that’ll make him look forward to coming home,” Jenna suggested as she wiped her hand on her apron before holding her hand out towards me.

“Well, whatever...” I mumbled as I wiped my hand on the table before handing her my phone.

“Now, just smile. Yes, just like that...” Jenna said cheerfully.

I posed and smiled for her as she took the photos. Jenna seemed to be enjoying herself and I found myself playing along more for her sake than because I thought that this plan had even the remotest chance that it was going to work in breaking the impenetrable invisible wall that had sprung up between Bradon and me.

“Look at all these photos. You look so adorable. Don’t look so worried like that, don’t they all say that the fastest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach?” Jenna said as she showed me the photos she had taken on my phone.

I grinned to myself as I thought that the fastest way to Bradon’s demise might be through his stomach after he eats the food that I made. I had to say that I do look quite adorable smiling and standing there at the kitchen counter with a white lacy apron on. It surely wasn’t the way that I usually portrayed myself.

“Isn’t the fastest way through crawling into his bed?” I asked with a sarcastic laugh.

My joke made the atmosphere awkward for a brief moment before everyone returned to their cooking. I took that brief break opportunity to send a photo to Bradon along with a short message telling him that he better be home for dinner.

“Sent. Done,” I declared.

“Good. Now, back to cooking. So for this part here, all you have to do is...” Jenna continued where we left off right away.

...

**A few hours later**

“Oh, finally! This smells so good,” I exclaimed in pure delight.

“It doesn’t just smell good, it looks very yummy as well,” Bella chimed in.

“It’s simple, isn’t it? All you have to do is follow the recipe and listen to me,” Jenna said while sounding quite proud.

Looking at the dishes that we managed to make on the table, I also felt quite proud of what we managed to achieve. I never thought that the food that Bradon prefers were quite common dishes. Jenna’s home cooked food must have been something that he grew up eating. Even though the dishes were common ones, that didn’t mean that they were at all easy to make on my standards. I was thankful to have Jenna’s guidance and Bella’s help.

“Shall we have a taste?” Jenna asked invitingly.

“Wow, this tastes amazing!” Bella cried out happily.

I put a spoonful of food into my mouth and immediately had to agree with Bella. The food didn’t taste fancy but there was a very warm and homey feel to the taste that reminded me of what a lovely casual dinner between family members must have felt like.

–To be continued...