Chap­ter 12 begins with Teal shar­ing an evening in the kitchen with Bran­thor, where they face the humor­ous chal­lenge of using his over­sized cook­ing equip­ment. As they pre­pare the meal togeth­er, their play­ful ban­ter reveals an under­cur­rent of ten­sion relat­ed to their uncon­ven­tion­al arrange­ment. Teal, notic­ing that Bran­thor doesn’t have the spe­cial­ized uten­sils that his sis­ters-in-law use, gen­tly inquires about it, and they both laugh, acknowl­edg­ing in a light-heart­ed exchange that he nev­er expect­ed to have a human bride. Despite the lev­i­ty, the com­ment hints at deep­er feel­ings about their unique sit­u­a­tion, with Teal real­iz­ing the sub­tle com­plex­i­ties of their bond.

Through­out the evening, Teal reflects on her own habits, par­tic­u­lar­ly the social taboo of lick­ing spoons while cook­ing, which she ques­tions after see­ing Bran­thor casu­al­ly indulge in the act. Their teas­ing esca­lates as Branthor’s play­ful behav­ior becomes increas­ing­ly charm­ing, and Teal feels her­self drawn to him, espe­cial­ly when he licks the spoon clean, ignit­ing unex­pect­ed desires in her. The kitchen, once filled with laugh­ter, shifts to an inti­mate space where attrac­tion begins to build between them, leav­ing Teal more aware of her feel­ings for Bran­thor. The con­nec­tion they share seems to grow with every play­ful inter­ac­tion, yet she sens­es that Bran­thor remains hes­i­tant about their rela­tion­ship, unsure of ful­ly embrac­ing their chem­istry.

The evening takes on a more roman­tic tone when they share a meal of spaghet­ti and meat­balls on the back porch, sur­round­ed by soft gar­den lights. As they enjoy the meal, Teal becomes more attuned to Branthor’s reluc­tance to acknowl­edge their poten­tial rela­tion­ship, despite their evi­dent chem­istry. She can’t help but notice the irony of their situation—while their DNA sug­gests com­pat­i­bil­i­ty, Bran­thor still seems unsure about tak­ing the next step. This moment of inti­ma­cy con­trasts with the emo­tion­al dis­tance Bran­thor main­tains, leav­ing Teal to won­der about his true feel­ings and why he resists the con­nec­tion that seems so nat­ur­al between them.

As the night unfolds, Teal grows increas­ing­ly tired but feels a sense of reluc­tance about retreat­ing to her own bed­room, where the real­i­ty of the next day’s expec­ta­tions at the Tem­ple weighs heav­i­ly on her mind. Instead of going to bed, she takes a bold step by sneak­ing into Branthor’s bed­room, slip­ping into his sheets with­out clothes, in an attempt to shift the mood and cre­ate a more inti­mate atmos­phere. The deci­sion feels dar­ing, but Teal is dri­ven by her desire to get clos­er to him, to test the bound­aries of their rela­tion­ship, and to con­front the ten­sion that hangs between them. When Bran­thor finds her in his bed, a mix of embar­rass­ment and attrac­tion fills the air, as they both try to nav­i­gate this unex­pect­ed turn in their rela­tion­ship.

Their flir­ta­tious exchange con­tin­ues as Teal teas­es him about the com­fort of his bed, and the play­ful ban­ter takes a deep­er turn when they dis­cuss a mys­te­ri­ous oil Bran­thor men­tions. Bran­thor explains that this oil is designed to help cou­ples with sig­nif­i­cant size dif­fer­ences, sub­tly acknowl­edg­ing the phys­i­cal chal­lenges their rela­tion­ship might face. This con­ver­sa­tion, while light­heart­ed at first, reveals more about their vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and the obsta­cles they might encounter. Teal, intrigued by the oil’s effects and the way Bran­thor speaks of it, express­es a desire to under­stand its pur­pose and how it feels. Bran­thor, though con­flict­ed, is unde­ni­ably drawn to her, and the shared moment feels like a cross­roads in their rela­tion­ship, one where both are forced to con­front the com­plex­i­ties of their phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al con­nec­tion.

The chap­ter inter­twines moments of humor, romance, and deep­en­ing ten­sion, reflect­ing the evolv­ing dynam­ics between Teal and Bran­thor. The play­ful nature of their inter­ac­tions con­trasts with the under­ly­ing emo­tion­al stakes, as both char­ac­ters strug­gle with the expec­ta­tions placed upon them in their arranged mar­riage. Teal, despite the chal­lenges, grows more deter­mined to act on her feel­ings, sig­nal­ing that the emo­tion­al stakes in their rela­tion­ship are only becom­ing more sig­nif­i­cant. This chap­ter sets the stage for future growth in their con­nec­tion, high­light­ing the inter­nal con­flicts and desires that will shape their jour­ney togeth­er.