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“So, how has meeting your students gone so far?” Phillip asks, attempting to change the subject.
“It’s been good so far. There are a few duds, but most of my students seem to have a good head on their shoulders. You?”
“About the same. Although meeting Avery was not at all like I expected.”
Wesley nods in agreement.
“How so?” I ask.
“I knew she was beautiful, but that’s not what threw me. She has this grace about her that is just immediately captivating. I couldn’t look away from her no matter how hard I tried.
“I got so flustered, I completely screwed up the meeting agenda. Everything was done out of order.”
My hand freezes halfway to the conveyor belt, and Wesley drops his fork with a clatter.
“You went off your meeting routine?”
Phillip holds up his hands helplessly.
“I could barely string a sentence together, truth be told. It was a minor miracle that I managed to ask any of the questions I’d planned to ask. Honestly, if it weren’t for the chess game, I would have just gawked at her the whole time.”
“What did you get from that?” Wesley asks.
“She’s brilliant. A little reckless, but ambitious for sure—at least she is when she plays chess. It’s definitely a unique play style, but it suits her.” He smiles. “She almost beat me.”
“Holy shit.”
I don’t think any of his students had even come close to beating him. For her to do that, especially the first time they played, was nothing short of impressive.
“Was she some kind of whiz kid in school?” I ask.
“Member of the high school chess club.” He chuckles.
“We really shouldn’t be that surprised.” Wesley shrugs. “She’s got no training in pastry other than what she’s taught herself, and look at what she can do already. That’s not a stupid woman. It’s part of the reason I pushed hard for Reginald to award her the full scholarship. Her potential is endless.”
“It really is,” Phillip agrees.
Wesley seems to suddenly deflate.
He pulls a rice pudding off the conveyor belt and dejectedly stabs his spoon into it.
“I’m glad your meeting seems to have gone well even if you were a little flustered. Mine was a disaster, and I’m worried she’s not going to come back.”
“What happened?”
“I was an idiot is what happened.” He shakes his head ruefully.
“It can’t have been as bad as you think,” I say.
“I couldn’t stop flirting with her. It felt way more like a date than a consultation, even if she ended up crying at the end.”
“She was crying?”
“Yeah. She didn’t say much about it, but I got the feeling her head chef treats her like she’s trash. That was when she started bawling. I don’t know if she mentioned it to you guys, but she told me the biggest reason for applying to AGA was to be able to get away from him.”
Phillip shakes his head. “No, she didn’t say anything about him to me, but then you’ve always been good at getting people to open up to you. I mean, I had to learn that in school, but you? You were born with that gift.”
“Some good it did me. I came onto her like a horny teenager and then made her cry.”
