Page 13 of The Chef

Pearl doesn’t mean anything by it, she’s just stating facts. Her mommy did die only a few months ago from an aggressive type of cancer. It took hold in only a matter of months. No child should see their parent fighting such a horrible thing.

The whole situation is horrible.

Every day I want to cry for them, to comfort them. The truth is that they seem to be stronger, braver, and are coping with it better than me. Better even than their dad.

That’s why I’m here in New Water. Once I heard about what was happening, I packed my bags, moved out of my rented flat in the city on the other side of the country, and moved to this small town where my brother lives in order to look after my nephew and niece in their time of need. It was the very least I could do. They needed a mother, a female presence in their life, and I could provide some semblance of that.

Their dad works full-time out in construction trying to put food on the table. I have to be here to make sure they get looked after while he deals with his grief and also with trying to provide. I hope I’m doing a good enough job, but I know I could never match up to their real mother. Not in a million years.

But I try my best.

“That’s very nice,” I say, responding to Pearl’s picture. She beams at me, unaware of how much my heart is breaking for her and her older brother.

Behind us, Davy leans forward in his seat. “Do you have a boyfriend, Bay?” he asks.

“Boy, you’re full of questions today, aren’t you?”

Davy shrugs. “I’m just wondering. Why don’t you have a boyfriend? Do you have one?”

I laugh. The question’s thrown me off-guard. I did not expect to be questioned about my love life today, it’s another one of the surprises of dealing with my nephew and niece. “You’re too smart for your own good, you know that?”

“Answer the question.”

God, he’s so inquisitive and confident he should be a detective or something.

I turn my head around to look at Davy. “Where would I have the time to even have a boyfriend when I’m so used to looking after you two brats.” I reach over and tickle Pearl. She giggles as my roving fingers dance over her tummy, her pigtails dancing on her little head. She’s so goddamn cute.

It’s true though. I don’t have the time to even think about a man when I’m so tied into dealing with Pearl and Davy, as well as try to set up my own baking business.

Well, that business won’t even take off now, thanks to the bank.

Ugh.

I need money.

Everything hinges on this waitressing interview tonight, then. Gotta make that work. And not just for me, but for my niece and nephew and my brother. I can’t stay unemployed for long.

I need a job.

5

BAY

I’m getting ready for the job interview when my brother comes through the front door.

And it’s pure panic in the house.

I’m standing in our little kitchen, applying lipstick in the mirror, with Davy and Pearl sitting around and watching me. When we hear the familiar crunching of my brother’s – their dad’s – car pull up outside the house, I quickly hush them away back to their bedrooms.

“Go, guys, back to bed before he sees you.”

Davy grunts and Pearl giggles as they sprint back to their rooms.

It’s nearly eight and, according to their dad’s instructions, they should already be tucked up in bed and definitely not playing around in the kitchen watching their aunt ready herself for an interview.

Those naughty rascals.

I do like having them around though. They temper my bubbling pre-interview nerves with their cheeky smiles and incessant questioning over everything in the way only curious kids can. I need them to take the edge off, to calm my chattering brain as it, paranoid as it is, runs through the gauntlet of all the possible scenarios and worries about this job interview.