“Yes. And it’s ahugerisk. I mean, I’ll probably be unemployed three months from now. But I think it’s time for me to take some risks. To really put myself out there and break out of my comfort zone and do what I really want instead of what’s safe.”
Brad stared at her. “So is that it? Are you going to take the job?”
“Yes. I talked to Joey Maguire right before I came over here. I accepted the job. And I want you to come with me.”
“Come with you? What do you mean?”
“I mean, come be the executive pastry chef. Come run this restaurant with me. It can be everything we’ve talked about, but without the financial investment. Because Joey doesn’t want to run a restaurant, he just wants to finance it. He’d give us complete creative control, with some occasional interventions. And…well, not all of his ideas are bad. He wants his grandmother’s banana pudding on the dessert menu.”
For the first time since they started talking, a laugh bubbled out of Brad. “Banana pudding?”
“I know. None of this is set in stone yet, but my thought was, if you’re into this idea, we could have an eclectic menu to appeal to a wide audience, and there will be some homey, southern touches to make Joey happy, and we cater to families. Everything we’ve been talking about these last few weeks. I know it’s a lot to process, but what do you say?”
***
Brad took a moment to contemplate what Lindsay was really asking him. They’d been talking about this fantasy of running a restaurant together a lot recently, and now she was telling him that fantasy could be a reality.
He wanted that reality so much he could taste it. But.
“Let me ask you a couple of questions,” he said.
“Of course. Please do.”
“You want us to be co-executive chefs at whatever Pepper becomes. That means you and I work together and make decisions for the restaurant together.”
“Yes.” She nodded vigorously. “I don’t think I can do this alone. We can be partners in everything. And I do mean everything. In the restaurant. Romantically.”
“Have you run this by Joey?”
Lindsay smiled. Brad was surprised to suddenly realize that she’d actually thought this all through pretty well. She’d probably been working on this deal for the better part of five days. He was still a little irked she hadn’t spoken about it with him, especially since this now involved his career, too, but he saw that she had intended for this to be a surprise. It was almost like a marriage proposal.
And, well, if she’d brought this up sooner, he would have tried to talk her into it. But as was true for the two of them, this needed to be Lindsay’s decision. She was right about that.
But this was a hell of a risk. It seemed out of character for Lindsay. But on the other hand, what she really seemed to be telling him was that she was ready to take a risk. On her job, on herself, on them. And hadn’t that been what Brad had wanted all along?
He couldn’t process all this, so he just stared at Lindsay.
“I told him I wanted him to hire you as executive pastry chef,” Lindsay said, “and he was okay with it. But I don’t want to pull you away from here if this is where you think you should be. It’s your call, but the job is yours if you want it.”
Brad took a moment to think about that. “I mean, my assistants here are nearly fully trained, today notwithstanding.” He gestured to his face, which he was sure was still covered in flour. “I made a recipe book for the pastries that sell well here. So if future chefs follow those recipes, the café will be fine. Lauren might even be happy if I worked here less and she could cut my salary, since I’m more expensive than the assistants. In some ways, working across the street might be ideal, because I’d still be nearby to help out as needed.”
“But?”
“Well, what about you? I don’t want you to feel pressured to take this job because of this fantasy we cooked up together.”
Lindsay surprised Brad by reaching across the table and taking his hands in hers. “You know what I really want? I want to build a future with you. I want the future we dreamed about. I want us to be together as romantic partners, and I want us to live together in an apartment with a big kitchen and our two cats, and I want to invent new dishes with you and run a restaurant with you. I want all of that. It’s an incredible risk, but I think the reward will be worth it. And if it isn’t, well, we’ll still be together, we’ll still come home to each other each night, and we’ll dust ourselves off and move on to the next thing.” Her eyes were big with excitement, showing Brad that she was being sincere. She smiled. “What do you say?”
It was everything Brad had most wanted to hear, which was maybe why he didn’t completely trust it yet.
“You’re serious about all of this,” he said.
“I have a meeting with Joey in a couple of hours at the restaurant. You can come with me and talk to him if you want.”
This was so surreal. “Oh-kay. We’d be working for an ex-boy-band guy who thinks he knows what southern cuisine is.”
Lindsay laughed. “I know. It’s very strange. But he’s a nice guy. A little naive about the restaurant biz, but he seems to genuinely want the restaurant to succeed, and he seems to get what he did wrong the first time. Do I think I’m the right person to help him build a successful restaurant? No, not really, but he wants me, and it’s a great opportunity.”
Brad petted the kitten in his lap for a moment as he mulled all this over. It sounded too good to be true. Probably it was. Probably if he took this job, he’d have some kind of tiff with Joey Maguire. Brad could imagine coming up with some new spin on banana pudding—banana crème brûlée popped into his head suddenly—and Joey would push back. Probably Brad and Lindsay would have days when they fought more than they found harmony.
