Page 26 of Cooking Up My Comeback
Me: Not even close. Complicated sounds like a problem to solve. Unpredictable is an adventure.
Brett: I don’t like adventures.
Me: I know. That’s what makes this interesting.
Brett: What makes what interesting?
Me: This conversation. You being all grumpy and methodical, me being all sunshine and chaos. We’re like... opposites.
Brett: Opposites don’t always work.
Me: Sometimes they’re exactly what each other needs.
Another pause. Longer this time.
Brett: The restaurant idea. You really think it could work?
Me: You’re changing the subject.
Brett: I’m being practical.
Me: There’s that word again.
Brett: Answer the question, Bennett.
The way he texts my last name as though he’s half exasperated, half amused makes me grin.
Me: I think you could make anything work. But yes, I think we could build something remarkable.
Brett: We?
Me: Well, you’d handle all the serious, methodical parts. I’d handle the measuring of the ingredients.
Brett: That’s not exactly a traditional business model.
Me: The best things usually aren’t.
Brett: It would be a big risk.
Me: The biggest. I have to think about my boys. Their stability.
Brett: I wouldn’t expect anything else. That’s part of what makes you right for this.
Right. He thinks I’m right for this.
Me: I’m not right for anything. I burn grilled cheese and forgot to pack Crew’s inhaler last week.
Brett: You made crab cakes from memory today. You raised two incredible kids on your own. You kept a failing restaurant running for three years. Stop selling yourself short.
I blink at the screen. When’s the last time someone saw me like that? Not as a struggling single mom or a charity case, but as someone capable of remarkable things?
Me: How do you know I made crab cakes?
Brett: Lucky guess. Also, Hazel may have mentioned it when she stopped by the hardware store.
I laugh out loud in my empty kitchen.
Me: She’s a menace.
