Page 43 of Slow Simmer

“You look like the cat who just ate a canary,” Carlo remarked. “I can practically still see the yellow feathers twitching.”

Luke grinned. “Tweet, tweet. I never really thought this day would come.”

“What day?” Suzannah demanded, impatient as ever.

For answer, Luke set a magazine down on the desk,Australian Gourmet Dining. “It’s the annual Best Restaurants issue,” he said. “Page twenty. Take a look.”

Suzannah’s fingers shook as she fumbled through the glossy pages, Carlo’s head tilted close to hers as they both peered at the magazine. Finally it fell open to the right page, and they stared at the half-page, glossy photo of the two of them, one taken from the resort’s website publicity pages.

“Best restaurant in Queensland?” Suzannah read the caption underneath the photo incredulously, before her head snapped up and she stared at Luke. “Is this real?”

“It certainly is.” Luke’s grin widened even further. “Not only that, you’re fifth in the entirecountry.”

Suzannah’s eyes filled with tears, but Carlo knew they were happy ones. It was an incredible achievement for a restaurant in its first five years of operation to make that list, and it was largely down to Suzannah’s talent and hard work. He put his arms around her and kissed her brow as she tilted her head down to put her face into her hands, crying happy tears into them.

They both knew what it meant; that second star was all but in the bag. All of the top ten restaurants in the country in the previous year’s edition of the magazine had earned at least two stars.

“You earned this,” Carlo said fiercely into Suzannah’s ear. “Every bit of this is down to you; it should be your picture alone in there. Not me stealing your glory.”

She shook her head, pulling her hands away and frowning at him. “No, Carlo. Look.” She stabbed her finger at the facing page of the magazine, where several photos of dishes served at La Sirène accompanied the article. “That’s your lemon and mint souffle, and your bush honey and macadamia cheesecake. We’re ateam.”

Carlo stared at her, at the pride and determination in her expression, and he’d never loved her more than right at that moment.

“Will you marry me?”

The words came out without conscious thought, but he knew as soon as he said them it was the right time, the perfect moment.

“Ahem,” Luke said, and they both looked at him, startled. “Clearly you’ve forgotten I’m here, so I’ll just, ah, not be here. Take as long as you like. Bye. And if it’s not too premature, congratulations!” He practically ran from the room, closing the door firmly behind him.

Suzannah couldn’t help it; she started to laugh. “Oh, Carlo. You just made poor Luke flee his own office in embarrassment!”

He grinned. “I’ve been trying to scare other men away from you for years; it finally worked!”

It took several minutes for both of them to stop laughing, but finally Suzannah clasped his hands in hers and leaned in to kiss him, giggles still intermittently bursting out of her.

“Yes,” she said. “Of course, Carlo. I’d love to. I loveyou.”

~ The End ~

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