Page 84 of The Chef

But now she’s here, standing in front of me in Rockpool’s office, smiling at me with her perfect white teeth.

She looks beautiful. It’s like she’s fresh off the front page of a tabloid magazine. She’s ethereal, just like the future movie star she is. A goddess among men.

“Hello, Cliff.” Her voice is soft and inviting. A singsong voice like Marilyn Monroe’s. Seductive. Her American accent is soft and gentle. The best word to describe her voice would be cooing.

And that’s what she’s doing now.

My heart wants to leap out of my chest as she speaks. I remember why I fell in love with her, why all men who meet her fall in love with her. She’s a blonde all-American angel. Silky white skin and full red lips.

She’s like a starlet out of 1930s Hollywood, all dazzling and close-up sparkles.

“What are you doing here?” I ask, my own voice trembling and hesitant. I suddenly don’t know how to speak clearly, I’m just so enamored with her powerful presence, her intoxicating movie star presence.

“What am I doing here? What do you think I’m doing here?”

“I don’t know, Cleo.”

“Well, Cliff,” she says, gliding towards me. She sits on my desk, leaning over so that we are incredibly and uncomfortably close. Our noses are practically touching. “Let me put this bluntly, we both don’t have time for games.”

“No.”

“Let me tell you straight-up.” Her eyes light up and she pouts. Her full red lips are inches from mine. “I’m here because I want you back, Cliff.”

“What?”

No way.

“How can I make it any clearer? I made a mistake, Cliff, in letting you go.”

“Yeah, that was a mistake.”

“My mistake,” she says, licking her lips. “Oops.”

“That’s why you’ve come and found me? To tell me you’ve made a mistake?”

“And I had to travel across the world to do so, Cliff. I knew you’d be here. I have my sources. I knew I’d find you last night.”

“That was uncalled-for,” I say, but Cleo ignores me and continues.

“When I walked in and saw your face as you looked at me, I knew that there is still that connection between us, I could see it. That connection is something that can’t be broken easily, and you know it. You and I are meant to be together, and if it weren’t for my little… mishap back in Paris we would still be.”

“So,” I ask in disbelief. “You’ve changed your mind?”

“Yes.”

“And you want us to be together?”

“Exactly.”

“Cleo, you walked out on me back there in Paris. You disappeared completely from my life; how can I ever forget that?”

Cleo rolls her eyes like I’m repeating myself. Going over old ground. I know she wants to move past this. “As I said, that was my mistake. But I’m here now. I’m with you now.”

I shake my head. “I know you, Cleo. I know there’s more to it than that. What is it? Why do you suddenly want me now? What’s made you change your mind?”

She crosses her legs and leans in closer. “Ugh, so many questions, Cliff.”

“Well, I want answers. You disappeared, Cleo.”