by Sandi Scott
“We’ll see,” Ashley said.
Marie squeezed her arm. “Don’t worry about it tonight. We’re eating spicy food and drinking a lot of wine and going dancing. You can think about it tomorrow or the next day. No rush.”
“No rush,” Patty repeated. “To wine, tagine, and song!”
They all laughed. “To wine, tagine, and song!” Ashley chanted. “Wait! I need pictures of this.”
The three of them rushed back to the restaurant then stood together as Chef Lemaire took their photo, then Malik, the pastry chef, took their photo with Chef Lemaire, then finally Chef Lemaire took their photo with Malik.
AFTER A WONDERFUL NIGHT, Ashley did think what Patty had said about Serge. She knew it was true but only since they had come to Paris. Once she had finished her job for the company Serge was working for and started going to cooking classes, he hadn’t wanted to have much to do with her. Still, she didn’t think it was fair to place all the blame for that on Serge. He was busy, but then again, he would have been a lot less busy if Ashley had been helping him with his projects.
On the other hand, he hadn’t really warned her that it would be like this when she had agreed to come with him to Paris. Serge had mostly talked about going on vacation together, saying that he would only have a little work to do for his company. Was it her fault that it had turned out to be the reverse? Did it mean that their romance wouldn’t last, though? Ashley was confused and didn’t want it to be true. She wanted to feel the same wonderful rush of emotion every day that she had felt when she was falling in love with Serge, or maybe just a notch down from that. What she had felt had been almost exhausting at first.
Serge had made her feel like a queen, even a goddess, and that got kind of overwhelming after a while, especially when she wanted to put on sweats, eat an insane amount of ice cream in front of the TV and veg out after a big programming job. All he wanted was for her to dress up so he could show her off to his friends.
Vegging out after a big job had always been one of Ashley’s traditions while working at Smith Corp. She and Ryan used to celebrate that way all the time, either watching movies or playing stupid video games together, the stupider the better. After one such celebration she had even been accused of having an affair with him by one of his girlfriends. Ryan and Ashley had looked at each other in shock and then burst out laughing. “I could never date someone who could kick my ass at Madden NFL,” Ryan said. “Come on. I’ve smelled her after a week of not showering. There’s no romance there.” Yet, the more she thought about it, there was nothing but romance with Serge. They’d gone out on dates. They’d sneaked off to secluded corners together. He’d driven her around on his Harley, without a helmet, her hair flying behind her while she laughed ecstatically.
Ashley couldn’t imagine Serge playing Madden with her. As for movies, he only liked the big action movies where everyone pretended to be ten times more serious than necessary. He couldn’t stand anything else, not even The Fast and the Furious. “Too silly.” He read business books, not novels. When she’d talked about getting a pet together, she had been ready to compromise and get a cat or a bird or a lizard or a gerbil if he didn’t want a dog, he’d looked at her like she was crazy.
“A pet?”
“A dog.” Ashley had said firmly.
“Why would we want a dog?” Serge wasn’t giving in.
“I want a dog. We could get a puppy and train it to find electronics like Ryan and I were doing with Dizzy at the office before I left.” Ashley knew right away that was the wrong thing to say. Ashley had convinced Smith Corp to adopt the rescue puppy from the pound that the Seagrass vet had asked her to foster. She loved having Dizzy underfoot, until Serge came into her life and made it clear pets were not part of his agenda. Any mention of Ryan and her work completely turned Serge off.
“But why does that mean we need to get a dog?” Serge had shaken his head. “No, I’m not ready for a pet yet, Ashley. I have too much to do, too many places to go.” Then, he’d brought up the possibility that his company might send him to Paris. They had a branch there, and a bunch of interesting projects had come up so she had put off getting a pet, telling herself that they’d talk about it when they came back home.
When are we going home to Texas? Ashley felt a wave of homesickness hit her. Paris wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t home. She wouldn’t mind staying here for a couple of years, especially if—forbidden thought—she could find a way to convince Serge that she needed to work at L’Oiseau Bleu instead of doing more projects for him, but Paris wasn’t, and would never be, home. Why? She wasn’t sure. It wasn’t like her part of Texas was famous for anything but its beaches and its barbecue. Still, it was home. Maybe her heart was just too stubborn for anything else.
ASHLEY WALKED DOWN to Rue Daguerre to pick up a pint of ice cream from a nearby market, hoping against hope that she could find some peanut butter, Parisians seemed to think she was crazy whenever she asked if they had any, then went back upstairs to put on her sweats and relax in front of her laptop screen.
About halfway through the pint, Serge came back to the apartment. He looked tired, with dark circles under his eyes, and he hadn’t showered for a couple of days.
Ashley covered him in kisses and got him in the shower. “Are you hungry?”
“No, I ate.” He was morose.
“How’s the project going?”
“I’m stuck on something.”
“Oh, no! Tell me about it.” Ashley was refreshed after her break from programming and she yearned to help him. He described the problem, sounding down and depressed about it. No solution immediately presented itself, but she promised herself that she would take a look at it later and see if she could surprise Serge with a solution.
Later came when Serge was asleep and snoring loudly. Restless, Ashley got out of bed and booted up her laptop to start going over the data that he’d sent her. It was another white-hat hacking job, this time for an online company named Cubiste Internationale that sold cheap imported manufactured goods from China and Indonesia.
The problem in this situation wasn’t that she couldn’t hack into the site and start messing up online transactions but that the company had been subjected to a very particular hack in the last month, and Serge couldn’t work out how it was done. Obviously, it was possible, it had already happened! But Serge just couldn’t seem to get a handle on how it was done.
Ashley sank into the deep, almost hypnotic mindset of working on a programming problem. Not that she didn’t like programming, she did, she just liked baking better. The keys flew under her fingers as she tried one solution after another, narrowing down the field of possible approaches until the number of solutions was exactly one – bypass the website itself and go through the credit card provider. Which, ouch Ashley winced mentally, would go way beyond the scope of a white-hat hacking project. Getting into a second site to get at the first one was a technique that a uneithical hacker would use, and she didn’t have the authority from the credit card company to do it.
The next morning when she told Serge and showed him the details from her report, he laughed hysterically and mimed ripping his hair out. “I thought I was going crazy! I just couldn’t find a way, I thought I was losing it. Completely losing my touch.” Once again, she was covered in kisses and praised up to the moon, and he insisted on getting her paid through his company again for her freelancing hours, along with a huge bonus.
Then Serge was out the door, anxious to get back to work – completely ignoring her. His actions chilled Ashley, Patty’s observation was true. Serge only loved her when he needed her to do something for him. When he didn’t need her, she didn’t seem to exist.
KEEP READING Crêpe Murder—find it at your favorite retailer here: www.SandiScottBooks.com/crepe
RECIPES
Apple Pie Filling
Ingredients
6 cups water
1 cup corn syrup
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup cornstarch
4 cups sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
18 cups apples, thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Preparation
In a large bowl, toss apples with lemon juice and set aside.
Cook all ingredients until thick. Boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add apples and return to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until apples are tender, about 6 to 8 minutes. Cool for 30 minutes.
Ladle into 5 freezer containers, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Cool at room temperature no longer than 1 1/2 hours. This is like Thank You brand pie filling.
Recipe from Foodista.com
Apple Stuffed Tortillas
Ingredients
2 medium tortillas
2 large apples, seeded and chopped
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup water
2 ounces low fat cream cheese
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Preparation
In a saucepan over medium heat, add apples, honey, cinnamon and 3/4 cups water. Cook for 15 – 20 minutes until the apples are tender. Add additional water if needed. Apples should not be watery.
Combine cream cheese and lemon in a bowl until smooth and spreadable.
Toast tortillas in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until just brown. Spread one side of a tortilla with cream cheese, then top with 1/2 the apples. Fold the tortilla over then warm through again on each side in the skillet.
Recipe from Foodista.com
Caramel Apple Pie
Ingredients
1 9 inch unbaked pie shell
4 1/2 cups of peeled, sliced apples
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 cup of liquid honey
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
1/2 cup of packed brown sugar
1/2 package of caramels or 15 caramels
1/2 cup chopped pecans
8 oz. cheddar cheese
Preparation
Mix apple slices, cornstarch in a bowl toss lightly
Stir in honey
Put half of the apples into a prepared pie shell
Put caramels on the first layer of apples, cover with second layer of apples
Bake, uncovered at 350F for 45 to 50 minutes or until apples are tender.
Remove from oven and cool.
Grate cheese and arrange on top of apples.
Combine, butter, sugar and pecans, sprinkle evenly over cheese layer.
Broil until topping is bubbly about 1-3 minutes.
Recipe from Foodista.com
Holiday Homemade Apple Brandy
Ingredients
1 apple, cored
2 cup sugar
2 cups brandy
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Preparation
Add all ingredients to a pot.
Warm on low and stir until sugar is melted
Put into a covered container (I use a quart jar) and let sit at room temperature for one week.
(optional) Remove apples after the one week is over and place into serving bottles. I tend to use mason jars for stuff, so I just keep it in there with the apples and drink it up.
Recipe from Foodista.com
MORE BOOKS BY SANDI SCOTT
SEAGRASS SWEETS COZY MYSTERY SERIES
Crêpe Murder —The Prequel
Cream Puff Murder
Tarte Tatin Murder
Madeleine Murder
Praline Murder
Souffle Murder
Charlotte Murder (Coming soon!)
PET PORTRAITS COZY MYSTERY SERIES
Murder at the Art Gallery
Murder on the Great Lake
Murder on the Movie Set
Murder at the Cabaret
Murder at the Car Show
Murder at the Makeover
Murder at the Pool Party
Murder at the Bonfire
Murder at the Apple Orchard
Murder at the Luau (Coming soon!)
