“I am all ears.”
He nodded, as he continued to drive.“Here’s the thing,” he said, words perfectly pronounced and spaced as if he’d thought about what he wanted to say.“Talking with Batya made me really think, deep down, into why I do what I do.”
“Really?”
Jason nodded as he turned onto the highway.“Did you realize I never really stuck with one type of food, that I learned different types of cooking, and then focused on different ways of cooking during my series of…stages, for lack of a better word?”
“I didn’t,” Naomi replied after digesting what Jason had said and what it had meant.“Not until now at least.What does that mean?”
“It means,” Jason continued, “that my goal has always been to…have culinary adventures, both for myself and to facilitate them for whoever I’m cooking for.Whether it’s an athlete who needs basic meal prep, a bit of knish folding and recipe creation for a family empire, a friend who needs a chef on set, a wedding, graduation party, a gala, or someone special in my life who desperately needs a pick-me-up.That’s what I want.”
It sounded like he had a philosophy, but…not much else.
She had so many questions; did he want to be a small-batch caterer, open to both larger and smaller experiences?Did he want to go back to personal cheffing and do a pop-up restaurant every once in a while?So many questions and very few answers.
But Naomi knew Jason well enough to recognize the end of a conversation angle when she saw one.Tonight’s conversation was meant to be more general and encouraging, not about putting things on specific checklists.The checklist would have to come after tomorrow.
But now?
“I love this,” she said, doing her best to remind herself what the focus of the conversation was.“Now you have a way of positioning yourself.The philosophy and positioning will help you narrow down what your ideas are, which will help when you sit down to put together your business plan.”
Jason nodded.“And I think it’s definitely your influence,” he said.“I mean the way you organize things, the way you think about things and present them.”
“You mean my influence got you to actually think about what you want?”
He nodded.“Yes.Seeing you create a business out of nothing, when so many lesser people would have given up and shoved this wedding, and this part of your life, into someone else’s hands.But you’re not.You’re making sure your cousin gets the wedding she wants and using that to force yourself back onto your feet.”
Which was something she hadn’t thought of.Then again, as she told Batya earlier in the evening, she really hadn’t taken the time to process what had happened or even analyzed what she’d been doing.She’d been way too focused on putting one foot in front of the other, taking one step at a time to even think about why or how she was doing it.“Thank you,” she said.“I mean…”
“You have to know,” he continued, “that if I wasn’t driving, I’d kiss you right now.”
“And if you weren’t driving,” she returned, “I’d kiss you back right now.”
“I’ll use the energy to get us home,” he replied, a look on his face she definitely wanted to kiss off.“Your place or mine?”
She shrugged.“You choose.Which is easier traffic wise?”
“Mine,” he said.“Getting to yours requires a whole bunch of other things including Queens.Mine just requires getting all the way downtown.”
“Then yours it is,” she replied.
If nothing else, the choice would allow her to stay in his bed, skin to skin, by his side, for one more night.Any more, and she would have to start to think why staying so close to him, covered in his scent, was important to her.
Maybe love?Maybe lust?
But instead of freeing her, attaching possible words to her emotions terrified her.No relationship she’d ever been in survived her being anything less than perfect.And the last thing she needed was attaching relationship words to her most important person.
So, she closed Pandora’s dictionary and let the thoughts go.
*
As far asJason was concerned, there was something about seeing Naomi getting the praise that she deserved from someone who wasn’t him.And the night they’d spent with Batya and Abe was all of that and more.
Over two nights of art exhibits, Naomi heard, over and over again, that Ida’s way of interacting with people in general, and eventually, the way she conducted her business, were horrible.And that Ida’s personal failings had nothing to do with Naomi and choices she wasn’t permitted to make.Words spoken by contractors, professionals, who then immediately agreed to follow her into an uncertain business future.
But tonight?
A business professional had told her that he had her back.Someone who spent his time doing work for people who had been in business for a long time, had offered to help her.And that was priceless.
