“Hello, ladies…,” he starts, and I fix him with a smirk. “May I?”
“Sure,” Nia says, flashing her pretty gap-toothed smile. “You’re Benny, right?”
We chat and eat for a few minutes more, Benny charming the pants off everyone present per usual.
“I might bring this pudding for the cookout. Are you all coming?” Nia asks.
Benny and I exchange glances, and I feel like we’re the two kids in the class not invited to the Chuck E. Cheese birthday party. Clearing his throat, Benny says, “Uh…cookout?”
Nia’s brow furrows, and Lily looks distracted by something over my shoulder.
“Hey, Aiden,” she calls out. “Can the interns come to the cookout?”
I turn to see a confused expression on the boss’s face. “Yes, of course. Didn’t you two get the invite?”
Benny and I look cluelessly at each other again before shaking our heads.
“Huh. Maybe I sent them before you got here. Anyway, yes, all-staff summer cookout at six-thirty on Saturday. Seb’s housein Queen Anne. BYO…juice or soda or whatever you like to drink.”
I try not to roll my eyes at his shade, and I can tell Benny is holding in a laugh. Nia gives us another of her sympathetic smiles, adding quietly, “I’ll forward you the email.”
And just like that, it looks like I have weekend plans again.
I spend most of Saturday playing around with graphic design apps on my tablet. Margie casually mentioned wanting to create anAmateur Hourlogo after we filmed our most recent video, and I jumped on it, asking her if I could present some ideas. She’d barely looked up from her computer as she gave me a “sure,” and she might very well forget we had the conversation, but I’m excited enough at the prospect of doing real design work for Friends of Flavor—and, okay, showing off what I can do that Benny can’t—that I’ve already started three different mock-ups.
That evening, Benny and I meet at the fountain between our dorms to head to the cookout. I’m not so keen on spending more time with him than necessary, but since I haven’t trekked outside our few blocks of downtown yet—and the prospect of doing so alone makes me a nervous wreck—I agreed to his suggestion that we make the bus trip together. Seb’s neighborhood, QueenAnne, is a ritzy area on a hill that overlooks downtown and Puget Sound. As the city bus winds up, and up, and up steep streets, Benny gives me the scoop he’s gotten from working with the other Friends. Apparently, Seb’s husband makes bank as an exec at one of the big tech companies.
“They don’t want any kids, but their dogs live in serious luxury,” Benny says as we disembark at our stop near the top of thehill.
“Isn’t that the dream,” I sigh.
Benny uses his phone to navigate the rest of our path. As we get close, it isn’t hard to pick out Seb’s house. The music blasting out onto the street has to be breaking some kind of noise ordinance, plus there are Friends of Flavor–branded balloons tied to the mailbox.
Benny and I obey thecome on in!sign on the door, and I’m happy to be behind him as we enter the fray. There are more people here than I’ve ever seen around the offices, but I guess significant others were invited, along with the mysterious “suits” I always hear about and additional staff who work behind the scenes.
Benny glances over his shoulder at me as we cross through the kitchen, which is crowded with folks doing food prep. He gestures toward the backyard, and I nod at him with wide help-me eyes. It’s way too crowded indoors for my comfort.
On the deck, Seb turns from his spot at the grill to greet us.
“So glad you both made it!” he says with a big, sparklingsmile. I cheese back at him like a dazzled superfan. Which I suppose I am.
Benny pokes me in the side, looking unimpressed by my reaction before he steps forward to give Seb a hug. “Hey, man, thanks for having us. Need help with anything?”
Seb looks around before picking up his spatula again. “Nah, I think we’re good. Everyone’s hanging out—Kath and Raj are down in the yard playing with the dogs, and I think Lily is taking pictures. Good night for it.”
I let my eyes drift in the direction Seb is nodding in, and my jaw drops. The view from up here isridiculous.We can see the entire Seattle skyline, with the Space Needle in the foreground and Columbia Center and surrounding skyscrapers in the distance, as well as the waters of Elliot Bay and the Olympic Peninsula beyond it, with ferries drifting in all directions. The sky has that golden evening glow it gets before a long summer sunset, making all of the glass and water shimmer.
It’s breathtaking.
I now understand why people who can afford it choose to live up here.
“Not a bad view you’ve got,” Benny muses behind me, and Seb chuckles. I tune out whatever else they say, letting my eyes take in the view without distraction.
Soon enough, Seb’s husband, Harry, rounds everyone up to eat. At the other end of the sprawling deck, Aiden gives a short spiel thanking everyone for coming and for all their hard workso far this year, then directs us on how the buffet line will work. It’s more detail than seems necessary for a group of people in the food industry, but such is Aiden’s style.
The food, as expected, is phenomenal. Steaks, grilled veggies, half a dozen kinds of salad, Lily’s new mac and cheese recipe, Nia’s bread pudding, and more. Sticking with each other in the default awkward-together-instead-of-awkward-alone mode, Benny follows me down the line and we mutually decide a return trip will be necessary. We plant ourselves against one of the wide deck railings and use it as a makeshift table. Because, as Benny puts it, “We probably don’t have the seniority to claim actual seats, right?”
As we enjoy the most gourmet cookout food I’ve ever had, a little group forms in our corner with Teagan and a couple of women from marketing along with some kitchen assistants I don’t know. We eat and exchange small talk, with Teagan throwing the occasional eyebrow-waggling look between Benny and me when he isn’t paying attention and me shooting eye-daggers at her in return. Both Benny and I visit the buffet a couple more times, as predicted.
