They headed back out into the night, and a rideshare car dropped them off in front of an unassuming place called Jimmy’s.The awning was gorgeous, covered in a painting of the midnight sky illuminated by the brightness of the moon.
“This guy,” Jason said as he ushered Naomi into the tiny restaurant, “has had a few different places.One in his hometown, one on the beach.Now he’s come here to try his craft.And I am so glad he did.”
He half staggered into the place, blown away, as he usually was, by the tantalizing smell of the food.Jimmy was a genius.
“Is that Jason being dragged in here?”
Speaking of geniuses, Jason turned to see Jimmy himself: tall, lanky, wearing a shirt that said, ‘Chicken for days.’
“Yes,” Jason said once he’d pulled himself together.“It’s me.Brought someone who needed some really good chicken rice.”
“You’re with her,” Jimmy said, “and you’re thinking about me?”
Jason snorted.“Only your food would bring me out of my cozy apartment at night.”
“He couldn’t stop singing your praises,” Naomi said with a grin.“I figured I had to see what the fuss was about.”
“High praise coming from him.”Jimmy shook his head, and Jason laughed.“I guess I’m going to have to cook for you, huh, even though you didn’t bring me that hybrid chicken soup I asked to try.”
“Fusion possibility,” he said, turning to Naomi.“I told him I’d work out a matzah ball soup recipe with the base of his seasonings for some kind of celebratory dinner sometime.Haven’t figured it out yet.”
Because of course, he’d been completely otherwise occupied.
“But that sounds amazing,” she said.“One of the things I love about Jewish food is how fungible it is, how varied it is and how easily it fuses with other cuisines; the flavors and the principles stay the same but everything else changes.”
Jason nodded.And in one single nugget of an answer, she’d managed to capture everything he loved about preparing singularly Jewish food.Not to mention the adventurous spirit he tried to infuse into his own versions of things.
“As much as I love to sit and chat with you two, I need to go cook some food,” Jimmy said with a laugh of his own.“Go, find a table.I’ll find you.”
Jason took Naomi’s hand and led her deeper into the small restaurant to a table by the back window.“What did you think?”
She poured some water into her glass at first before offering some to him and lifting up her head.“Of…?”
“Tonight.”
She nodded, tapping her fingers on the table as if the motion would push her mental muscles forward.Because if he’d asked a question that required her to critique something, she never really answered without thinking.Finally, after a while, and a long, extended sip from her water glass, she looked up at him.“It was interesting.”
He nodded; the show concept and execution was much different than he’d expected for an artist with Max Parker-Roth’s reputation.Which meant that though it was a bit more accessible for the crowd, it wasn’t as accessible as someone who wasn’t familiar with visual art would need.
Then again, Jason wasn’t entirely sure how familiar Naomi actually was with Max Parker-Roth and his art.So, he asked another question.“What do you mean interesting?”
Once again, Naomi took time to answer.“I’ve never been to a show like that one.Usually, things that sit on the highly interpretive end of the art spectrum aren’t my type of art.I love to dive in to see things, but I don’t usually like interpreting them.This one?”
“Yes?”
“This one was fun and really destroyed my preconceived ideas of what this type of art was.If this is a scaled-down version of one of his shows, I’d actually love to see what he does when he’s not scaling down for the benefit of the audience.”
“So, you would go again?”
“I don’t know, honestly,” she said.“I’d have to be fascinated by the concept to get around the need to interpret.He’s really nice, and I’m looking forward to working with him at the wedding.I was lucky that the light wasn’t migraine-inducing.”
“That’s mostly my complaint,” he replied.“The interpretation and the concept, not the migraine.I’ve been to a bunch of his shows though; in search of the one that opens up and shows the elusive perfect pearl, you know?”
Naomi nodded.“He is a nice guy, and I think he’s really talented.I can see why you’re trying to support him.”She paused.“Do you want to debrief?”
Jason nodded.“I think the biggest lesson I learned from Max is very much the whole ‘don’t count out expanding your skills.’Keep yourself open to the possibilities of using everything you can to do different things.Like pop-ups and classes, catered events and movie and TV private cheffing and…I can have it all, basically.”
“Right.You can have it all.”And of course, that was when he heard a loud buzz from what had to be Naomi’s phone.“What?”
