Page 22 of The Chef

I point to them each in turn with my pencil, letting Pearl count them out one by one.

“One, two, um… three, four, and that’s five!”

“So, if we take away two from five, what number is this one.”

“Oh, three!”

“Correct!”

“Can I have a cookie now?”

“Alright, then. Only because you’ve been a good girl.”

Okay. Fine. I am also bribing Pearl to do her homework with the promise of her favorite food. Chocolate-chip cookies. But we are making amazing progress, so you can’t really fault my methods, corrupt as they are.

I lean back in my seat as I watch Pearl race around to the kitchen cabinet and reach up on her tippy toes to impatiently grab the cookie jar, super excited to get her number one treat.

Yep, my brother has one hell of a cute daughter.

As I watch her struggle to open the cookie jar, my mind casts back to last night, and that strange interview.

I never expected to see Cliff there. I never expected to run back into the man I humiliated with a glass of water. I certainly didn’t expect him to be the owner of the place I was trying to get a job at, the one place in town that would be accepting of my limited skill set.

I didn’t expect Dominika to come waltzing back into the manager’s office offering me the waitressing job after her talk with Cliff in the kitchen, which I tried, and failed, to overhear.

I didn’t expect to immediately accept the job as soon as she offered it to me.

Hey, I need the money.

And it seems like Rockpool needs a waitress.

“That’s enough homework for today,” I say to my niece as I watch her greedily bite into the cookie she’s taken from the jar. Pearl’s little face beams up with the thoughts of the next hour taken up by cartoons and dolls. I let her get away with too much, but I can’t resist her cute face and singsong voice. I’m not the best auntie in the world for nothing.

“You going to watch TV with me?” she asks, finishing the giant cookie in about two eager bites.

“Unfortunately not, sweetie. I have to get ready.”

“Get ready for what?”

I grab her in a cuddle and kiss her tiny forehead. “I have to get ready for work, Pearl. Today’s my first day.”

“Your first day?”

“Yeah, it’s like my first day of school. You remember that?”

“Are you nervous? I was nervous on my first day of school but then I made lots and lots of friends and now they’re all invited to my birthday party.”

“Your birthday’s not for another three months, Pearl, there’s no need to hand out invitations just yet. But, yes, I’m a little bit nervous about today. My boss is a scary man.”

“Oh, no. Is he a monster?”

I chuckle. “Yes, a scary monster but, don’t worry, I know how to deal with him. He thinks he’s scary, but inside he’s just a big old scaredy-cat.”

I mimic a scary monster, turning my fingers into talons and letting out a mighty roar. Pearl giggles at my display and runs to the living room. I follow her in and help her turn on the TV to her favorite cartoon. My niece sits back on the sofa and watches the screen with her big button eyes, sucking her thumb.

I can’t avoid glancing at the photo frame above the TV. In the photo are Fisher and his wife, arms tightly wrapped around each other in front of the skyline of New York City. It was taken the day he proposed to her. That first spark I remember seeing they had together, right on through their wedding, that spark was what gave birth to my beautiful niece and nephew. They continued that spark even through her cancer diagnosis, right on to the end. Their love never faltered. Not once.

What they had was true love.