Page 69 of Love on the Rocks
The next few days flew by in a flurry of test recipes and late-night gossip sessions.
When Liv and I weren’t cooking, we went swimming with Jake at the small beach around the corner from my house or for long walks over the hills. I even took them to my old house. Funny how I thought of it like that; I had a strange fondness for it now. Liv was in hysterics when we walked into the bedroom and found one of Giorgos’s goats lounging on the mattress.
“Now I understand why you’re still so pissed off at Nikos. Cal, how could you have stayed here? I wouldn’t have made it one hour, let alone one week!”
“I really can’t explain it. Now that I know the island better, I can’t believe I assumed this was normal. No wonder Nikos thought I was a one-dimensional corporate drone.”
On the third day of their visit, Jake, our only taste-tester, rebelled.
“No more. I can’t,” he moaned after lunch when I brought out a new dessert, a riff on traditional kataifi—shredded phyllo with basil-infused syrup and pine nuts. He scraped his chair back and went inside, leaving Liv and me alone on the terrace.
As luck would have it, Nikos chose that precise moment to step out onto his terrace.
“He’s back . . .” Liv sang as she stood and waved at him.
“What are you doing?” I hissed.
“Just being neighborly.” She sat down with her cup of tea. “Jake can’t take anymore of being the solo taster here. I thought we could invite some of your new friends over.”
“We can do that. Friends only.”
“Okay, no lovers.”
“Liv!” I warned, then got back to checking my emails while Liv read her latest historical romance novel. A new message popped up. “Oh no, Anne-Sophie wants to know when she can come out. She can’t find out that I lied to her about the restaurant being open in the fall. It still might be, right?”
Liv’s eyes widened. “I just cannot stand her. I’m sure she’d still hit on Jake in front of me, even now when I’m practically bursting with his baby.”
I glanced at my watch. “Speaking of bursting bellies, don’t you have another recipe to test?”
“Ugh, you’re right. I hate when they send me last-minute requests like this.” She stood up. “I’m going to test out the knife that Jin sent me.” Jin, Jake’s former employee, had taken over Jake’s wine distribution business. He and Liv had become good friends.
I was still outside, trying to come up with a convincing excuse for Anne-Sophie, when Liv came rushing out, her face ashen. “Jake cut himself. I can’t stop the bleeding.”
“What!” I rushed inside. Jake was bent over the sink, pale faced with a deep gash in his hand. “How did this happen?”
“He grabbed the knife by the wrong end,” said Olivia.
“Seriously?”
“I’m practically in a food-induced coma,” he protested. “I can’t think straight anymore.”
I rushed to the bathroom for a clean cloth and wrapped it around his hand; the towel immediately bloomed with blood.
“I think we’re going to have to take him to the doctor.” I took hold of Jake’s arm and led him through the door. “Lean on me if you feel faint.”
“I’m not going to faint,” he grumbled. “It’s just a little blood.”
When we got to Nikos’s office, I rushed inside and banged on the door to the examination room. He called out something in Greek and opened it a crack, clearly surprised to see me. “What’s wrong?”
“An emergency, I have a bleeder.” He peeked over my shoulder at Jake and his bloody rags.
“Give me a second.” He said something to the patient in his office and then came out. “Good to see you again,” he said to Jake as he peeled back the cloth. “That’s a nice cut. Mostly superficial though. You’ll probably need a couple of stitches. Apply pressure while I finish up in there.”
“Thank you,” I said as he went back into his office.
Not even a minute later he ushered out Marilena, who was there for her weekly appointment. She told me the other day that she invented illnesses every week for a chance to spend time in the doctor’s office. She winked at me as Nikos brought Jake into his examining room.
I narrowed my eyes at Liv. “I really hope you didn’t do this on purpose.”
