He seemed very grateful for the opportunity. I was somewhat confident he'd actually show up.
After I'd jotted down a few notes for the following morning, I switched on the TV to unwind before bed. There wasn't much on, a lot of reality show marathons and some live musical performance that was being simulcast across a few networks. Until now, I'd almost forgotten that the holiday season was rapidly approaching.
Ugh. Better not to think about that.
A familiar face flashed up on my screen. I paused, feeling my heart thump-thump traitorously in my chest. It was an episode of one of Chef Dylan's many reality features, one of the competition shows where he yelled at people for an hour straight. There was a time when I would have switched it off in disgust, but...
He really did have a nice face.
Shelly had a point, after all.
My ears felt hot. Come on, Jill, get it together.#p#分页标题#e#
He wasn't yelling in this particular scene. He was speaking low and intently to the aspiring chef across from him, very close, looking the young man right in the eyes.
"...and you have to trust those instincts, because they're never going to lead you wrong. I've seen you made an incredible amount of progress since you first came here, and it's unbelievable. I would have written you off in the first challenge. But you wouldn't let me. You kept on pushing forward, and when it comes down to it, that's all that matters."
The guy had tears glistening in his eyes. "Thank you, Chef."
They hugged, and I tried desperately to convince myself that it was just a show of false compassion for the cameras. But Chef's face showed nothing but genuine respect. He might be a hell of an actor. I'd been fooled before.
But I had my doubts.
CHAPTER TEN
Blanch
When we blanch a vegetable by quickly plunging it into boiling water, then into an ice bath, it cooks just enough to brighten the colors and flavors. Enough to make it better, but not enough to make it limp. The idea is to shock the vegetables into life - nothing more.
- Excerpted from Dylan: A Lifetime of Recipes
***
Max
***
"Okay. You have customers who've been waiting forty-five minutes for their entrées, and the phone's ringing. You're the only one working the dining room. Go."
Aiden's eyes were bigger than I'd ever seen them before, which seemed impossible. Jill had been running him through these hypothetical scenarios all morning, watching him discover and develop this own coping mechanisms. It was a painfully slow process, but I never would have guessed it was possible at all. Credit where credit was due - I would have given up on someone like Aiden if he wasn't my nephew, but Jill clearly saw something that I couldn't.
She was watching him with a proud smile on her face.
"Good work," I muttered, as I watched Aiden mime a conversation with an empty table. "I have to say, I'm impressed."
She glowed. "Thank you."
Head held high, with a smile and a flush of pride on her cheeks - she looked so happy, and this was exactly what I wanted for her. She deserved to be proud. She deserved to be praised. She deserved someone who could really appreciate her for everything and everyone that she was, and...
What the hell makes you think you're the first person in her life who can do that?
It was silly. It was presumptuous. I knew all that, but for some reason I couldn't shake the feeling that she craved validation. And coming from me, the notorious perfectionist, it had to be worth more than the average person - right?
I wasn't being conceited, I was just being honest.
"I think he's doing really well," she said, suddenly. I shook myself out of my thoughts.
"Remarkably well," I agreed. "Thanks for this, Jill. You're very selfless."
"Don't believe it," she said. "It benefits me as much as it does you."
"Well, that's as may be," I said. "But when you boil it down, isn't everything selfish?"
"I don't know," she said. "I think some people do things out of a pure sense of altruism."
"Isn't altruism just another word for self-gratification?" I watched Aiden zoom around the tables and chairs, having a hard time believing this was the same kid I'd hired a few weeks ago.#p#分页标题#e#
She glanced at the floor, her arms folded across her chest. "I guess," she said. "I don't know. I don't really think about it that way. Human nature is what it is, you know? It doesn't really matter how you look at it, as long as it helps you understand it."
This immediately struck me as some Kumbaya bullshit, but I bit my tongue.
"Hmm," I said. "I suppose you're right."
She looked at me like she knew exactly what I was thinking. And that, really, was the most unnerving thing that had happened to me in months.