Page 37 of Eternally London

“No!” I wave my hand out to stop London. “Don’t put in the shrimp yet. They take two minutes to cook. We haven’t even put the noodles into the water yet. By the time everything else is done, the shrimp will be overcooked and chewy,” I explain.

“But the butter is boiling.” She motions toward the pan.

“Well, turn it down.” I chuckle.

“Cooking the shrimp is my job. If I can’t cook shrimp, what am I supposed to do?”

“You could help me slice these red peppers,” I offer.

“With a knife?”

“No, London, with your Jedi mind power. Yes, with a knife.” I shake my head with a grin.

“That sounds dangerous.”

“Why do you think I gave you the job with the shrimp?”

“Well, what should I do?” she asks.

“You could pour our beverages, load the dishwasher, or just stand there and look beautiful.” I shoot her a wink.

She presses her lips together in mock contemplation before lifting herself onto the island. “I’ll take the latter.” She smiles, her legs dangling off the edge of the marble island top.

“Good choice.” I lean in and give her a kiss. “You’ve perfected the act of being beautiful.”

We talk about her latest articles and my work at the VA while I finish up the meal.

After a while, we sit at the table, plates full of shrimp pasta in front of us.

“This looks fantastic, especially those shrimp,” she says.

“Definitely,” I agree, shooting her a wink.

“So, I have something to talk to you about,” she says.

I urge her on as I chew a mouthful of pasta.

“Well, I was offered a really awesome job a few months back. Jovana, my editor, knows someone who knows someone withNational Geographic. Right? So, she recommended me to write this piece. Well, it requires traveling, and we were doing all of the fertility stuff, so I turned it down. Well, I just got a call last night. Turns out, the writer who was going to cover the story backed out for some family emergency, and they were wondering if I’d reconsider.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty cool. And I was thinking that it might be nice to take a break from all the baby stuff for a while.”

I nod in agreement. “Definitely. I think it’d be great for you to go out on assignment and focus on writing for a bit. We can try in vitro again at some point.”

“Exactly, and it doesn’t have to be now. We have time, right?” Her voices rises with fake enthusiasm that I know she isn’t feeling.

“Right. So, what’s the story about? Where are you heading?”

London releases a sigh. “That’s the part I wanted to talk to you about.”

My guard goes up at the sound of her voice. I put down my fork to expectantly look at her.

“It’s in Africa, and I’d be gone a little more than a month.”

“What?” I say for lack of anything better as I process her words.

“Yeah. It’s a wonderful opportunity. It’s kind of off-grid, so it’ll take a bit to get there. Then, when we arrive, there will be lots of investigating to do. This isn’t going to be a quick interview, and then I’m done kind of thing. I’ll have to get to know these people so that they’ll trust me with their stories.”

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