Page 1 of Brooke
PROLOGUE
Ten years ago, I landed the best deal of my life.
Although I didn’t know it yet.
I came to Paris for business school at the Sorbonne—that’s right, Dean Harris from a tough neighborhood in Oakland, California, got into the Sorbonne—but I needed money. So I found a crisply worded ad on the school bulletin board advertising free room and board in exchange for working at a well-known Parisian restaurant named Nanine’s.
I figured I loved food—French food in particular—so why the heck not go for it?
I didn’t expect it would completely change my life. But when I arrived to meet the head chef, I found the mother I’d always been looking for. In fact, we all did. I worked with five other American students who’d come to Paris with big dreams. Despite being totally different from one another—imagine the characters inThe Breakfast Clubworking and living abroad together in Paris—we became a family for life.
Nanine liked to say we were all one big French meal, with each of us headlining a particular course. She’s always right.But this isn’t about me (not really). This is about my bestie, Brooke.
She’s theplat—Third Course,the anchor of the meal—the main event that holds the rest of the meal together.
That’s Brooke to a T, from her Chanel down to her Jimmy Choos.
I’m the dreamer of the group—Second Course—also known as theentréeor the appetizer. I’m the dish designed to whet your appetite for more. Ladies, don’t get excited, okay? I’m already taken. I may be the appetizer, but my life is a complete buffet now with endless chocolate cake for dessert since me and my beautiful Jacqueline fell in love, brought together by a cuisine-loving parrot.
A what? Oh, there I go on a tangent, but Ihaveto tell you this story. I was walking the streets of Paris looking for inspiration for my next big thing after the rest of my old roommates and I returned to the City of Lights to help Nanine recover from a heart attack and a crisis with her restaurant…when boom! I had this feeling I had to go into the pet store. My friend Sawyer was with me in all his usual philosophic art professor-like awesomeness and thought I was nuts. But I spotted this fabulous African gray parrot after it called out,“Bœuf bourguignon,”which I’d just eaten—mind-blowing, right?
Turns out he was a famous parrot who’d worked with a big-time Michelin chef in Paris, and when the store owner showed me a photo of the chef and his daughter, I beheld my Jacqueline for the first time.
I knew she was my dream girl.
So I bought Pierre on the spot, thinking Nanine’s new-and-improved restaurant could use the little guy for its big launch…and also hoping deep in my very excited heart that having him would bring my dream girl to me.
Guess what? It did, and even better, it turns out she was part of my new big thing, being a really hot sommelier—yeah,she’s gorgeous too. Stars aligned. Lightning struck, as the French like to say, and whabam, we’re in love.
I get to wear my hearts boxers every day, but Brooke would tell me that’s disgusting. Fine, she might not be the only one of my roommates to think so.
Okay, well, Thea wouldn’t. Little sister is a sweetheart and the cutest and most innocent baker you’ll ever meet, because usually bakers are really naughty. Did you know? All that soft dough to play with… Anyway, Thea is First Course, what the French call theapéritif,the small bites you get as a paying customer to set the theme for the meal. Yes, there are themes. Madison tells me this all the time. She’s Fifth Course, but wait, I’m getting ahead of myself like usual.
Before her is Sawyer, whom I mentioned in my pet store story. Sure, the dude has a Ph.D. in art history, which is why I like to call him Doc, but Nanine calls him Fourth Course, which is the salad. Are you groaning and thinkingthat poor guy?Well, here in France the salad course is a crazy refined tradition.
Sure, some people think it’s insubstantial or unnecessary. But ask my Jacqueline about it and she will passionately tell you that the salad not only aids in digestion, but also cleanses the palate for more inspiration in the meal. She tells me to stare into my greens and look deeper to see its complexity. I indulge her because she’s my babe.
Next up is Madison, the new head chef since Nanine needs to take a step back for health reasons. She’s the cheese course, Fifth Course, another very misunderstood part of the meal to outsiders. The French have over twelve hundred kinds of cheeses. Towns have festivals for them. They’re famed for them. Everyone knows Roquefort, right? Well, that hot dairy commodity is from the hallowed Combalou caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon.
When you think about it, Madison is named for a pretty tony course. Except it’s a course with sometimes strongflavors, ones that don’t suit everyone. Heck, some people—not the French—don’t even want the cheese plate when they visit Paris. Sawyer would say it’s the end of civilization as we know it.
I usually laugh at that.
And then Kyle, Sixth Course, comes in last, which I like to remind him of whenever possible. Truth is, he’s the dessert course for good reason. He’s the perfect Golden Boy, the kind of guy who was the starting quarterback and the prom king (gross, right?), but he’s got layers. Like a cake or amille-feuille,that tasty paper-thin French dessert I can’t get enough of. It’s because of those layers that Kyle’s the perfect guy to head up our new Paris Roommates Group, which we all formed together after returning to Paris.
He made millions with a restaurant and hospitality group, and now he’s decided to invest in us—in the new Nanine’s, in Thea’s new bakery, and also in my new storefront with Jacqueline. Pairings by Pierre, it’s called, a totally radical way of selling wine—like Uber and Sotheby’s andThe Wine Enthusiasthad a baby (aren’t you curious?), and boy, do we have a lot to do before we open. Like buy one of Brooke’s famed day planners for myself and start filling it in with task after task (except the very thought makes me queasy).
I feel pretty guilty about leaning on Brooke, although she loves to help other people fix things, being the go-getter she is. Jacqueline and I have agreed we’re not going to let her take on too much. Brooke’s already got tons on her plate with Thea’s wedding coming up and her father moving to Paris for retirement, not that she’s complaining. She loves keeping busy.
But that’s her problem right now.
Keeping busy is preventing her from digging in deep to her problems and finding her purpose. I get it. I was in my own quagmire before I found my way out so life could lay out its smorgasbord at my feet.
And Brooke’s not the only roommate who’s struggling. There’s Sawyer, with his debilitating lack of confidence in his painting (which is really good!), and then there’s whatever’s going on between Madison and Kyle.
Shh—we don’t talk about that, even though it’s a big pink elephant with yellow polka dots.
Instead, we are all focused on the grand reopening of Nanine’s restaurant.
