Love At Last

CHAPTER 60

THE NEW RECIPE

Preparing a new recipe in so short an amount of time had me wishing that Jarod was around as we both made a great team. I had a lot of recipes in mind but wasn’t so sure about the best one to go with.

I slapped my cheek to get myself fired up, changed into work clothes and got down to business. Owing to Jarod’s absence I knew I had to work twice as fast as I normally would; thank goodness my shop was stocked properly.

I made up my mind to go with three pastry recipes I came up with – potato cinnamon rolls, chocolate cannoli and Lavender-honey lemon tart. I employed the co-operation of every staff that was disposed to help me get ready.

In preparing the cinnamon rolls, we used mash potatoes to achieve a soft, pillowy texture in the mouth. For the chocolate cannoli, a plastic bag was used to pipe chocolate filling into purchased cannoli shells. Out of all three recipes I had in mind to prepare, the lavender-honey lemon tart was the most time convenient. Despite its complicated look, it only took about ten minutes to prepare; perfect for the part! Candied lemons were key ingredients in its preparation as they served as an impressive topper. To add spice to everything, I made little twitches in different phases of preparation.

One hour forty-five minutes later, we rounded up our cooking and made little adjustments where necessary. We discerned that the judges were also going to judge us not only based on our cooking, but also our customer care service in general. Fortunately, I didn’t have much customers present at the time so getting ready in time wasn’t much of a hassle.

Fifteen minutes later, the judges arrived; I was a bit nervous. I served them to the best of my abilities and made them taste each and every one of my cooking, explaining to them how they were made, the importance of each ingredient and how they complemented the entire dish. Some of the judges seemed to have really enjoyed my dish while others didn’t show any particular emotions. They threw questions at me concerning the whole business as a whole, and not just about the cooking; I knew they were other criteria to be judged. I answered every question they asked honestly to the best of my abilities. They also asked my staffs some questions and they didn’t disappoint me at all.

Moments later, the scrutiny was over.

“Good job today, everyone,” I appraised my staffs and hugged them individually.

The judges didn’t really tell me my stand or anything, but I felt relieved that it was finally over. I immediately called nana over the phone to share my experience with her.

“Nana!” I called out when she picked up my call excitedly. “It’s finally over?” she asked. “Yes ma,” I heaved a sigh. “When I come home, I’ll tell you everything.” I was so excited to share with nana everything that happened over the past hours.

“I’ll be waiting for you at home, honey,” she replied cheerfully.

“Alright, bye,” I stressed the ‘bye’.

“See you soon, honey,” she chuckled and hung up.

Few hours later, we closed the shop and all headed our different ways. On getting home, I was greeted by nana who was so excited to see me. I threw my box and purse to the floor and dived into her arms; I missed her so much. I cuddled nana so tightly and planted a couple of pecks on her neck.

“I’ve missed you so much nana.”

“I’ve missed you too, my dear,” nana replied. She took my things from the floor and kept them by a corner while we sat together to converse.

“Where’s Jacek? I don’t see him,” I looked around.

“He’s asleep already, Lily,” her tone expressed ‘you should know your son by now’. I chuckled and smiled.

“How did the scrutiny go?”

“I was so nervous nana, but I somehow managed to pull through.”

“I trusted that you’d be just fine,” she smiled.

“So how was your trip?” she inquired with concern. “How did everything go?”

“Well, everything went pretty smoothly. I accompanied him to a special event and even to a golf meeting,” I narrated.

“Golf?!” nana exclaimed hysterically.

“Yes nana.” We both laughed

“His colleagues were all swept off their foot by me, nana. You needed to have been there,” I exaggerated a bit.

“I trust you honey, I knew you’d take my advice and show them the stuff you’re made of,” she appraised.

“What about Jarod? I didn’t see him today of all days.”

“I really should be the one asking you that, you know? Not the other way round. Few minutes after you left yesterday, he came over with a bouquet of flowers…,”

“Flowers?” I cut in.

“Yes, flowers. And you didn’t even tell him you were travelling. When I told him, he stormed off. I could sense he was completely psyched up by what I said to him,” she narrated. “What exactly happened?”

“I wouldn’t know why he brought flowers, nana,” I said, laying emphasis on ‘he’.

“You still claim you don’t know?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, why didn’t you tell him you were travelling?”NôvelDrama.Org content.

“I didn’t want him to talk me out of it, nana. You advised me to go for it,” I said. Nana just heaved a sigh.

I felt a bit guilty abandoning Jarod all by himself but I didn’t even conceive the thought of calling him; I was the one wronged so why would I call him. Besides, the competition was strictly professional, he shouldn’t have dragged our personal matters into the whole thing and try to sabotage my chances of winning – yet another sabotage! Jarod’s presence would have made all the difference in getting us prepared, but he deliberately stayed away so why would I be the one to call?

“I made dinner for you,” nana said, initiating my lips to grin. “As always nana, you’re the best,” I did the ‘thumbs-up’ sign.

“What did you make?”

“Yours and Jacek’s favorite,” she replied and had me all smiley.

I was so happy to be back home with nana and my baby boy. I didn’t even tell nana the bad aspect of my trip because that would only trouble her needlessly. I decided to go with the flow and keep my granny and myself happy.