by Jacie Lennon
“If you two are done gossiping, let’s get down to business,” he says before turning to the desk behind him and grabbing a stack of papers.
Grumpy professor aside, I’m ecstatic to be sitting here. This seems like it’s finally the first day of the rest of my life. I know that’s so cliché, but for as long as I’ve wanted this, to actually be here, living it, it’s the happiest I’ve ever been. I don’t want to let anything overshadow it. I just want to live in the moment.
The introductory class passes quickly, and we get our course syllabus, showing us what to expect. We have several trained chefs that will teach us and provide demonstrations. They’ll supervise us in the kitchen, and I’m most excited about getting to work with all different kinds of ingredients. I can already tell the baking and pastry class will be my favorite since it’s what I want to do.
We tour the state-of-the-art facilities that we’ll train in and meet the rest of the staff. We will have homework to take home and be able to try out recipes on our own. Basically, I’m in heaven. This doesn’t even feel like actual school.
There are about ten other students in the class, and I think that this could be good, a place to make friends with like-minded people. I breathe a sigh of relief. I feel like I’m where I’m supposed to be, and that’s one of the best feelings.
“Gah, that went fast,” I say to Andi as we pick up our stuff. “I wish we had gotten to cook today.”
I’m chomping at the bit to get started.
“I’m glad you ended up coming in. I was beginning to think I wouldn’t get a partner and would have to suffer through Chef Ramirez alone,” she says.
I laugh. “I don’t think you would have made it. He’s a little uptight.”
“A little?” She looks at me, eyes wide.
I snicker. “So, Andi, I’m new to these parts, and I don’t have any friends. Unless you count my cousin and his family or my roommate and his dog.”
“Wait, your roommate is a guy?”
“Yes. He works with my cousin. Unfortunately for me, I think I’m in love with him.” I roll my eyes.
“In love?” She raises her eyebrows. “I thought you just moved here.”
“Okay, I’m being dramatic. He’s just a friend. Anyway, his dog really likes me, so I’m thinking he’ll put a good word in for me.”
I smile brightly, and Andi laughs.
“You’re crazy. I think I like you.” She grabs my arm and pulls me along behind her. “Come on.”
“Where are we going?” I scrunch my nose up as I shuffle my feet to slow down.
“To your place, obviously. I’m invested in this soap opera you’re living in.”
Well, that escalated quickly.
“Hold up. You don’t even know me. I could be a serial killer.” I stop and raise my pointer finger. “Or you could be the serial killer.” I narrow my eyes.
Andi laughs and swats at my finger. “The only cereal I kill is my bowl of Cocoa Pebbles in the morning.”
She wraps her arm around mine, and I almost feel normal again since moving hundreds of miles from home. I think that this just might work out.
Andi throws her stuff in the backseat of my car and makes herself comfortable, plugging her phone into my auxiliary cord and starting some music as I navigate us back to my apartment. I’m not sure how I went from zero friends here to picking up two in the span of a week and a half, but I’m glad it happened.
“Okay, friend-audition time,” Andi says suddenly.
I furrow my brow. “Come again?”
“Well, we have to make sure we’re compatible as friends,” she says with a shrug.
“Shouldn’t we have done that before you jumped in my car to come home with me? Speaking of, how are you getting back to your car? I didn’t sign up to drive you all around town.”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. Okay, rapid-fire questions. I’ll ask, and you say the first thing that comes to mind.”
Looks like she’s someone who talks as much as I do.
“Okay, I’m ready,” I say, gripping the steering wheel and focusing.
“Favorite color?” she starts.
“Purple.”
“Favorite dessert?” She turns her body, so she’s facing me, a serious look on her face.
“Chocolate chip cookies.”
“Favorite TV show?”
“The Office. Jim and Pam are life.”
“Agreed. Now, your turn.”
“Wait,” I say, glancing over at her. “That’s it?”
“Yeah, your answers were satisfactory.”
“Satisfactory? Those were some great answers,” I say with a huff. “Okay, favorite NSYNC member?”
“JT.”
“Favorite boxed cake mix?”
“Ugh, you play dirty. Betty Crocker.”
“Favorite animal?”
“Zebra. What the heck, man? Those were some random questions.”
“I gotta feel you out. I don’t know who you are by just knowing your favorite color.” I nod my head to the song pumping through the speakers.
“Pep—can I call you Pep?”
“Yep.”
“Pep, we’re going to be best friends, you and me.” She cranks the music up louder and rolls the window down, letting the breeze whip our hair around our faces, filling the car with the sounds and smells of late summer.
I’m doing what I want to do. Cooking, baking, making friends, and it’s freeing. Once I get my dirty little secret aired out, I’ll actually be able to enjoy it.
14
Pepper
Between the coursework and the actual cooking classes, my days are busy. Before I know it, a week has gone by.
We jumped right into ingredients and the multiple ways they could be used, and it’s almost intimidating, trying to remember it all. I’d thought I learned a lot from my grandma, but those cooking “classes” have nothing on actual culinary school.
We have Fridays off, and Andi is at my apartment, hoping for a Ben sighting since he didn’t come home when she was here on Monday.
“You could help, you know,” I tell her, narrowing my eyes at where she’s sitting on the couch, Danger draped across her lap.
He’s such a lap whore. Anyone will do.
“Not my parents,” she says, rubbing lazy circles through his fur as she grins at me.
I’ve been cleaning all day since my parents are coming to visit this weekend, and every minute that passes, I grow more anxious, a ball of nerves gathering in the pit of my stomach. Now that my schedule is so hectic, I’ve only seen Ben a little over the week. We haven’t really had a chance to hang out or talk since I started culinary school. I do know he’s going to be home tonight, so I’m hoping for a chance to brief him on my parents’ visit.
“When is Handsome McHunk getting home?” Andi asks from her perch on the couch.
I glance up, swiping the back of my hand against my forehead, and scowl at Andi’s teasing tone. I hear a key in the door and look at Andi from the kitchen.
“Now.” I grin.
Her eyes go wide. “Oh God. I’m not ready. What if you’re blind and he’s hideous, and then I have to tell you that you aren’t a good judge of hotness?”
I scrunch my face up at her.
“I’m not prepared to be the bearer of bad news just yet.” She sits up straighter, and Danger lifts his head, glaring at her for moving.
I just laugh as the door swings open, and Ben’s deep voice rings out.
“Pep, truth or dare?” he says suddenly.
I flush, thinking of the last time we played this game at the pond. The door is between Andi and Ben, so he hasn’t seen her yet, but he has a clear view of me standing in my cleaning clothes, hair flying around my head and a coating of dust on my skin.
“Truth,” I say, smiling. “I don’t think I can handle another dare right now.”
He does a quick scan of my body before meeting my eyes again.
Is he thinking about the pond?
“Is it true that your parents are coming this weekend and you haven’t told me?” He crosses his arms and raises an eyebrow.
“Shut the door, Ben. You’re letting bugs in.” I sidestep around the question.
He hooks it with his foot, still facing me, and I see Andi’s eyes scrutinizing him from the couch on the other side of the room. He strides around me to the kitchen, where he hunches over the open fridge door before looking back up at me.
“Well?” he asks, pulling the container of lemonade out and grabbing a glass.
“How did you find out?”
“Talked to Mason briefly.” He stands at the counter and starts to pour his drink before freezing. “Pep, don’t look now, but there’s someone in our apartment,” he mutters out the side of his mouth.
I swat his arm and laugh. “Ben, meet Andi, my only friend here. We’re in culinary school together.”
“Andi,” he says, giving her that bro nod that guys do.
She shoots me two thumbs-up when he takes a drink of his lemonade, and I mouth, Told you.
He drains his cup, and I sit there, mesmerized, watching him swallow, before Andi clears her throat. I jerk away as if he spontaneously combusted in front of me.
“You okay?” He raises an eyebrow at me as he sets his cup down.
“Yep, okay. So, my parents are coming this weekend, and we need to go over the game plan,” I tell him as I pick the vacuum cleaner back up.
“Why do you need a game plan?” Andi pipes up from the couch, clearly confused about what is going on.
“Pepper is a liar,” Ben says with a grin my way, and I huff.
First, that’s not the only way I can be described. Second, it should be a crime to look at me and smile like that, making my girl parts tingle.
“Shut up, Ben,” I scoff, trying to stop my body from an impending lady boner.
“A pretty little liar,” he says.
I sharply look at him and then dart my eyes to Andi.
“Isn’t that the TV show?” he says and then coughs.
“Yep.” I gather my thoughts. “Okay, so Mom and Dad will be here tomorrow afternoon, and I’m going to the airport to pick them up about three-ish. I’ll probably bring them back here. I’m thinking about cooking dinner for them.”
“Have you told them about me?” Ben asks.
I tilt my head. “What about you?”
“That I’m your roommate,” he says, giving me an incredulous look.
“Well … no.” I shrug and then wipe a hand down my face.
“Here’s what you should do,” he says, leaning over the back of the kitchen table chair beside me. “Just rip off the Band-Aid. Tell them everything in one fell swoop. You have a guy for a roommate. You’re going to culinary school and not Vanderbilt. Any other secrets you’re hiding? Just come out with it.”
“I’m not hiding any other secrets.” I fiddle with the drawstring on my oversize pajama pants.
Liar. Liar, liar, pants on fire. I think about my attraction to him.
“Well, that’s what I think you should do anyway,” Ben says, standing and slapping a strong hand down on top of the back of the chair, like a gavel hitting the judge’s stand.
I feel like that is a metaphor for my life right now. A large gavel is about to slam down on top of me, and there’s nothing I can do about it because I caused it.
I know Ben is right, and I should be up-front with my parents about what I’m doing, but I’m also afraid of leaving this little bubble I’ve built for myself.
“Do you want me to make myself scarce?” he asks, walking toward his room before stopping and peering back at me.
“No. I’ll tell them everything,” I say with a groan.
He grins, a slow wink topping off his irresistible charm before he saunters into his room.
I’m distracted by my phone ringing where I set it on the counter, and I tear my gaze away from Ben’s backside as I reach for it.
“Hello?”
“Yes, may I speak to Pepper?”
“This is she,” I say, my ever-present manners kicking in.
“Hi, this is Paula at the Pottery Palace. Do you have a minute to talk about your application?”
Oh my goodness, this is it.
“Yes, ma’am.” I pull a chair out and sit down.
“We only need someone in the evenings for four days a week. Would you be available for those times?”
“Yes, I can work any evening you need as long as it’s after five,” I say, glancing at Andi to see that she’s lying across the couch again, Danger flopped back on top of her.
“Perfect. Could you come in around five thirty on Monday for an interview?”
“I can,” I say, my foot tapping excitedly against the floor.
“Contingent on the interview, would you be able to start that night, six to nine p.m.?”
“Yes, I should be able to.”
“Great. I look forward to meeting you, Pepper.”
“Thank you, Paula. I’ll see you on Monday at five thirty.”
It wouldn’t be a huge paycheck, but it would be something. I’m still waiting to hear back from the waitressing jobs.
“I just got a job interview,” I tell Andi as soon as I hang up.
“Fascinating. Come here. We have more important things to talk about.”
I furrow my brow as I stand and walk the short distance to the living room. I sit on the recliner beside the couch. Danger immediately jumps off of Andi and hops onto my lap, and I shoot a gloating look in her direction as she flashes me the middle finger.
“What do we have to talk about?”
“First is the fact that you haven’t told your parents what you’re doing here. Are you crazy? My parents are so far up my patootie that they know every time I shit.”
I burst out laughing at that visual, and Danger jerks his head up at me.
“Sorry, bud,” I whisper to him as I stop jostling him around. “What’s the second thing?”
“Huh?” she asks, staring at her phone screen.
“You said first, so that usually means you have more than one thing to talk about.”
“Oh, second is the fact that Ben obviously likes you,” she says, sitting up and placing her phone in her lap as she looks at me. “Also, he’s insanely hot, so if you don’t make a move, I’m going to.” She smirks and raises her eyebrows.
“You’d better not even look at him, or so help me …” I whisper harshly.
She only smirks wider. “Just trying to get some action out of you. He actually called you pretty to your face a minute ago. How could you think he only wants to be friends?”
“He was talking about a show,” I say in denial, rolling my eyes.
She’s just joking. She has to be.
“Nah, he likes you. Believe me, I can tell.”
“How?”
“Well, for one, he watches you when you aren’t looking.”
“He does not,” I deny, pressing my lips together and rolling my eyes.
“How would you know? You aren’t looking,” she says and points at me.
I can’t defend myself there. I can’t be staring at Ben all the time. I mean, I could, but he would most definitely write me off as a creep then.
“And second, he’s itching to touch you. He was standing so close to you just now, and you didn’t pay him the time of day.”
I thought I was just being aloof.
“It’s so obvious to us on the outside—and when I say us, I mean, me—that you two have chemistry.” Andi sits back against the couch with a victorious look on her face. “You are sabotaging your own crush by not acknowledging it.”
She points at me like a fired-up gospel minister, and I attractively blow air out of my mouth.
Pffffttt.
“Will you hush? He’s going to hear you,” I hiss, putting my most menacing face on. “Why are we even friends again?” I cross my arms and raise my eyebrows.
“Because you have no other friends wit
hout me,” she says with a smirk and ducks to dodge the pillow I hurled her way.
“I have friends. They’re just back home in Texas,” I say defensively, but my voice sounds weak, even to my own ears.
I don’t have friends. My best friend hasn’t really stayed in regular contact with me since we moved to go to different schools. There’s the odd friend I would go out on the weekend with when I lived at home or in college, but now that I’ve moved on, none have bothered to stay in touch. Sometimes, I feel like an island, and I don’t appreciate Andi bringing it up now. Maybe I’m a little emotional over the impending visit from my parents. It’s a lot to take in at once.
“Whatever you say. The only thing I know is that you like Ben, and he likes you, but you are both dancing around the fact like you are trained dancers in The Nutcracker. You need to get on that shit,” she says with a laugh and a hand clap to accentuate her point. “Before someone else does,” she finishes ominously.
Yep, it’s official. I hate how right she is.
I sink off the recliner and sit on the floor, pressing a pillow over my face and uprooting Danger, who gives a little yelp and trots off down the hallway. He’s done with our shenanigans. I hear him paw at the door, and a moment later, Ben opens it, softly murmuring to him and pretty much lighting me on fire with the sweet sounds. I lean back where I’m sitting and remove the pillow from my face. I have a clear view down the hallway as he picks up Danger, cradling him to his chest.
Oh my gosh. I think my panties have melted.
This is bad. So bad.
I glance up to see Andi still smirking at me, and I groan.
“Okay, you’re right. But I’m wildly inexperienced. Like, wildly,” I stress.
She narrows her eyes at me and purses her lips. “How inexperienced are we talking?”
She leans forward, looking very interested, and I instantly regret telling her anything. Or alluding to anything.
“I mean, not a lot. I’ve done … stuff.”
“Stuff? What kind of stuff?”
“Never mind. Let’s just drop it,” I say.
I drag the pillow back up, but Andi leans down and grabs it, holding it out of my reach.
“Nope, no can do. You said it, and now, you have to live with the consequences. What kind of inexperienced are we dealing with?”
