“I’d like a chicken curry,” she says, “but no turmeric. I’m allergic.”
Chef Maurice closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and blows it out through his nose, causing his thick mustache to wiggle. “As I told Jim, you must prepare your own dish. I don’t have time.”
“But I don’t know how to cook,” Quinn says.
“Then I suggest you learn. It’s a very useful skill.” With that, Chef gives us his back and returns to his hunt for the missing lamb.
I pick through the ingredients she’s dropped onto the table. She’s gotten some of the shit right, but I’ve never prepared a curry that uses sushi rice. I leave behind what she needs and take the rest back to the pantry. As I’m going through the other ingredients, she realizes what I’m doing.
“You . . . know how to cook?”
I nod. “Aye, lass. My mother worked at a pub as the head chef for most of her life. Until her death, actually.”
“I’m sorry to hear she passed.”
“Do you want more or less heat?” I raise some pepper options.
Quinn offers a small smile. “You don’t want to talk about that, huh?”
“What? Heat levels? After the kiss, I figured you made it clear that you wanted heat levels to stay pretty low, but I figured I’d ask.”
I give her a smirk and hope she’ll choose the topic of her dinner over the depressing subject that is my mother’s death. It’s a shameful secret I keep tucked tight. After all, her death was my fault.
“You aren’t getting out of this that—wait, what? What are you talking about?” She grabs my arm and spins me to face her. “What did I make clear, exactly?”
“After the kiss,” I say, trying to help her remember. “Your exact words were, ‘Shit, what are we doing?’ Not exactly what a bloke hopes to hear after he kisses the lass he fancies.”
Her jaw drops, and she starts to laugh.
“Ach, no need to pour salt into my wounds. I can’t help admiring you still, but I’m keeping my lips to myself.” I turn back to the shelf and lower the basmati rice to the tune of more of her laughter. “If you’re just going to make fun of me, you can make the curry yourself. I’ll show you where the turmeric is.”
She shakes her head and grips my hands as she quiets. “No, you don’t understand. When I said that, I meant we shouldn’t have been kissing instead of making sure I was safe.” Her hand rises to my face, and she runs her thumb along my cheek as her jovial smile shifts to something much softer. “Aven...I loved kissing you.”
“Really?”
“Yes, you big idiot. Really.” She rises onto her tiptoes and places a gentle kiss on my lips. “Really, really,” she whispers.
“Then why’d you run off afterward? I didn’t even have a chance to talk to you because you locked yourself away.”
Her hands smooth the dress shirt over my chest. “The kiss was incredible, but...it complicates things for me. I just needed time to think.”
“And did that time clear anything up for you?”
She blows out a breath and averts her gaze with a shake of her head. She looks like the weight of the universe presses her feet to the earth. I’d give anything to lift that weight and help the girl fly. Maybe as Green Guy, I can give her some peace.
I place my finger beneath her chin and lift her face to mine. “Hey...none of that, now. Tonight should be about having a good time. Now that we’ve cleared the air, nothing but smiles. No stress, yeah?”
She finally smiles again. “Yeah.”
We gather a few more ingredients, then head back to the kitchen. It’s empty when we return. I guess Chef found his lamb.
I set to work on Quinn’s dish, but I take time to teach her how to do a few things, like how to cook the rice without turning it into risotto. By the time we’ve finished, I’ve made enough curry for four plates.
“Guess I’m not too good about estimating portion sizes,” I say as we survey the large quantity of food. “I usually just cook a mess of something and eat on it until it tastes off. A bachelor’s life and all that.”
Quinn shrugs and dips her finger into the sauce, giving it a taste. “It’s incredibly good. Maybe someone else will want some too. It smells amazing.”
I know something that smells a touch better, and it’s right in front of me. I lean a little closer to get a hit of that sweet vanilla scent.
