NYC Master Chef

Chapter 27

(I have changed the dare a bit, please go back to the last chapter to see the change)

**Central Park - Near the boathouse**

Having have checked everywhere in the park for Jonathon, Mary had decided to look in the last place that she had left to check till the very end since she dreaded the place, the boathouse. Even as she approached the boathouse in which many were enjoying their meal, she was unable to find Jonathon.   She sighed and turned back to walk back to where everyone was having the picnic then she suddenly saw Jake talking to a man as he rented a boat as it seemed. Mary went up to him and asked him, "Are you renting a boat?" Jake went a bit pale, as this was the first time that he was doing something behind his boss's back, and laughed awkwardly and said, "Yes, miss Maltz. Would you like to take a ride with me?" Mary was just about to reject him since it seemed inappropriate to take a ride with her employee, but then she thought that it might put her in a better mood and so replied, "Sure." Mary could tell that Jake was shocked by her answer, but smiled and said back, "Great, can you wait for me in the boat. I just need to do something real quick." Mary nodded her head and so Jake left.

Mary was just about to lose her patience waiting for Jake to come, but then suddenly she noticed that the boat was moving. Jake had finally come back and she turned and said, "Where did you-". She lost her words as she that the man rowing the boat wasn't Jake, but Jonathon! She stood up from her seat causing the boat to become a bit unbalanced and asked in a loud voice, "What the hell are you doing here, Jonathon!?" Jon let go of the paddles and said, "First sit down before both of us fall into the lake." Mary cleared her throat seeing that he had a point and sat down. Jonathon sighed and shook his head in disapprovingly and said, "Why do you have to be this hot tempered?" Mary was just about to say something, but Jonathon started rowing again so this caused her to lose her balance a bit in her seat. Jonathon chuckled only to receive a nasty look from Mary. Jonathon decided to answer Mary's question and replied, "I'm here rowing this boat because Jake was dared to get us on a boat. I helped him with this because first, he politely asked and second, because it would be the best chance that I would get to explain myself to you." Mary just gave him a scowl and said, "I already told you, I don't care about what happened a three years ago between us in this damned park." "You don't sound like you don't give a damn." Jonathon stated with a raised eyebrow. Mary couldn't think of anything smart to counter attack with and so she stayed quiet. Jonathon smiled and said to Mary who was looking away from him, "I really don't care if you care or not. But, I really want to clear up the mess I created for you. So, just hear me out, I'm not even asking you to forgive me anymore as I have come to realize that it is too much to ask."

Mary didn't look back at him or stop him and so Jonathon continued as he rowed the boat, "It's going to a bit long, but I'm going to sum it up as much as I can. Please, don't say anything till I'm done." He took a deep breath and started, "It was 10 years ago, my sister got married to Charles, the doctor who had diagnosed my younger sister's illness wrong and had caused her to die in a way, I only found out that it was that guy when I followed my big sister secretly. When I found out I kind of poisoned the wedding cake and caused everyone severe vomiting." He chuckled trying to make it not seem like such a big thing and continued, "After my sister slapped me hard and kicked me out of her wedding, I did what any 18 year old would do; I took my car and left town. I went across all of America and paid for my gas and food by the little savings that I had and working odd jobs. Through my road trip I picked up most of my cooking skills and a few girls." That was when Mary turned to face Jonathon with a disgusted look. Jonathon cleared his throat and continued, "I was refilling my gas when I saw a couple's fight. One thing lead to another and she ended up coming along with me. Her name was Megan. We had just left the Inn and 5 hours into the ride she suddenly tells me that she's pregnant." Jonathon looked up to see Mary wide-eyed with astonishment and disbelief. He knew that she was misunderstanding him and so he corrected himself. "That she was pregnant from her ex." Mary gave out a sigh of relief and Jonathon fought the smirk that was threatening to show on his face and continued, "You could imagine my shock and so I kind of lost control of the car and crashed into a nearby dead tree, hard." Mary put her hands on her mouth in fear and Jonathon continued, "I didn't receive any major injuries. When I gained consciousness, I saw that Megan had received more injuries than me and was grabbing her tummy. I somehow got out of the car and a passing car noticed us and called an ambulance. When they arrived they took us straight to the nearest hospital which wasn't far since we were pretty close to Las Vegas. In the hospital, it was made clear that Megan had lost the baby because of the heavy impact and I was the person to blame for it. I had taken away the life of an innocent baby and more than that I had taken Megan's baby from her." Jonathon paused for a second and Mary noticed the great pain and guilt on his face as her heart sunk. Jonathon inhaled deeply and continued, "After that incident, I promised Megan to always be by her side when she needed me. To be exact until she truly forgives me for my sin." Joanthon chuckles and says jokingly, "Which probably won't ever happen." His face turned dark and he said, "I took her happiness from her." For a while he just turned silent and Mary was starting to get worried for his well-being and then he continued, "5 years have passed from the accident, I'm pretty sure she has forgiven me, but I can't forgive myself until I see her happy again." Jonathon sighed unhappily and continued, "After I left your parent's house that day, later that night I received a message from her that she had found her ex-boyfriend and wanted me to accompany her where she was supposed to meet him. I couldn't turn her down and so I left that night in a hurry catching the last plane. I thought that I could make it back in time for the ceremony. The only one that knew I had left was Lukas. When we met Megan's ex, it was wake up call to her. She had thought that in the past 2 years if she had had the baby that he and she would have gotten back to her. However, when Megan saw that he was actually happy that she had lost the baby, she kicked the bastard hard in his manhood and left the diner crying." Jonathon slightly laughed remembering the scene. "After we got back to her apartment, I made us some food and she suddenly apologized for blaming me all this time for ruining her life. I accepted her apology, but told her how she had the right to blame me. Then she suddenly asked me what was going on in my life and that was when I remembered that I was about to miss the last plane back to New York. All I could tell her as I rushed to the airport was that I was getting married." Jonathan smiled happily, but then saw Mary's face and frowned. He stated boldly, "I missed the plane. I texted Lukas telling him that if I don't make it he should give you a text." He stopped rowing the boat and looked straight into Mary's eyes, ". But I wasn't about to give up just like that. So I rented a car and took three different buses and finally made it to New York City wearing a black tux, but I was too late. All the guests had left and when I saw you coming out of the boathouse wearing a wedding dress, I just ... I just couldn't bring myself to face you in the state that I was." Jonathon gave Mary a determined face and grabbed her hands in his and said, "Slap the heck out of my face for being such a coward. Come on I will take your wrath." Mary just laughed and laughed uncontrollably, Jonathon a bit mad of how Mary wasn't taking him seriously, stood up and said, "I'm happy that you are enjoying this, but I want you to forgive me even though I said that I wouldn't ask of you to forgive me. Won't you forgive me, Mary?" Jonathon took a step toward Mary and the boat lost balance, making both of them fall into the cold lake.

Jonathon swims up to the surface, but notices that Mary wasn't up yet. That's when it hit Jonathon that maybe Mary didn't know how to swim! And this lake was actually a bit deep. Jonathon took a deep breath and went underwater to look for Mary. At last Jonathon was able to find Mary in the water and brought her to land. All this while it seemed like nobody had noticed them falling into the water. When Jonathon brought her to land, she looked a deathly pale and Jonathon found it hard to breathe, but something deep inside told him that it wasn't too late. With shaking hands he checked her breathing and gave her mouth to mouth and moved on to pushing on her chest, he continued this pattern 3 times and each time he grew more frightened. As he was giving her mouth to mouth the 4th time he noticed that her eyes opened and she got up coughing up water. Jonathon relieved with happiness, sighed and smiled at Mary who was lying down in the grass. He took out his inhaler and took a deep breath and tried to calm down his still shaking hands. Mary called out for Jonathon. Jonathon looked at down at her and smiled, Mary gave him a frown and said, "Why are shaking so much and why do you look so pale, you know I'm the one who almost drowned?" He gave her frown and said, "Do you know how scared I was. Thinking that I had lost-" Mary cut Jonathon short as she pressed her lips on his and kissed him. Jonathon was caught off guard and it took him a minute to process the situation and kiss Mary back, but in a matter of seconds they were making out like they had been yearning for it for years and only god knew that they actually were yearning for this for quite a long time.

Few bystanders that had now decided to show were whistling at the two, but they didn't even notice it as they were so caught up in each other. A certain on looker, Jake, watched his boss, Mary Maltz, make out with her head chef, Jonathon Holder, in complete bewilderment. He couldn't stop himself from smiling happily for what he was really happy to see his boss this happy. In the three years that he had worked with her, she never seemed to be quite happy even though she had everything that any woman would kill for, but at that moment she looked like the happiest woman on earth. Jake certainly didn't regret his choice of saying dare anymore and he had a feeling that Miss Mary wouldn't scold him either for making her take a boat ride with her ex-fiancé that she most obviously still had feelings for, moreover, the other party seemed to be feeling the same way as well.

The party ended earlier than the set time because of the little lake accident, but still everyone had a good time. However, what nobody knew was that Mary and Jonathon had the best time out of every one of them. Jake decided to not bring up what he saw until tomorrow where he would tell his boss that he will cheer for her relationship to work this time and to personally help Miss Mary in any way he can. Jake would soon regret that he ever said that for what he didn't know what plans were cooking up in Mary's head. Plans that all depended on him, who would help Mary to erase all of Jonathon's guilt over that car accident that still chained him up.