MaryAnne

He hadn't liked the chili. He had taken one spoon of it and made that bloated face look as if he'd stuck a skunk in his mouth. He courageously managed to swallow and sigh with wide open eyes. He looked at her as she stood there waiting for his critique. With a short whistle, he grabbed some saltines next to the chili and munched on them. She was patient and eyed the journey of fallen crumbs jump from his lips onto his t-shirt. "Hey, that was crazy...Thank gawd you have these crackers to cleanse the palate.." and walked on to MaryAnne's table.

Everyone was around MaryAnne's table.

I was too self conscience to stand next to my crock pot of bubbling goo because I knew that I hadn't gotten it right. I had put too much spice and not enough flavor, too much thought and not enough heart. So my table was empty except for the ladle encrusted with a reddish film.

And everyone else had come up with such creative names like "Maurice's Melt-your-Mouth-Madness","Chili-Plus-Beans-Equals-Toot","500-Alarm Chili","Slap-Yo-Mamma-And-Send-Her-Back-To-Timbuktu Chili"...

And all I could think of was "Spicy Chili-No Beans."

Oh, who cares. Its just chili. And who cares if everyone else likes MaryAnne's chili better. It was really good though. I had taken a small sample of it while everyone else was gushing over how they thought a curry chili was so creative and imaginative. And the use of cilantro and lime, genius!

*sigh* I walked over to Maurice's table.

"Hey why aren't you standing at your table, Beth? You should be marketing that bad boy till the last drop is eaten up."

I shook my head. "Its not that good. I didn't have a good recipe. Did you make up your own?"

Maurice shook his head. "What? No way. I had my girlfriend make this. She's all into the cooking thing. She's over there at MaryAnne's table right now probably asking for the recipe."

I glared in MaryAnne's direction. She looked so cute with her hair tied up and little curls falling around her face as if she'd been in the kitchen all day but still looked flawless.

"Ehh, its not all that great. I don't like curry." Maurice shook his head. "Because if you think about it, that just makes it curry, not chili, right?"

I nodded but still wanted to knock all the limes off of her table and shove the cilantro in her face.

Maurice noticed the animosity in my eyes. "Wana know a secret, though, Beth? I know why everyone's around her table...."