Local Flavour: Playing With Fire (Book 2, the Local Flavour Series)

Part 5: Chilled

Lucy was late to her own party. Going through her closing checklist and payroll for the restaurant was taking way more time than she thought. She wondered briefly if she should have accepted the offer of help from Marnie. She opted instead to let everyone go early and close herself.

The lobster boil on the beach was Quinn's idea: "You have to reward your staff." It was a mantra with him. She agreed — they were all working hard, and everyone deserved a treat, so she closed the restaurant early and invited everyone to her cottage. Her plan was beers and hot dogs on the beach, but Quinn had other ideas.

He was as excited as a kid at Christmas, planning elaborate beach cocktails, figuring out the appetizers and sides he wanted to serve with the lobster, and paying a local catering firm to set up tables, chairs and elegant lighting for their crew. It warmed her to think about how much planning he put into it, like the care he put into everything he did.

To Lucy's delight, Quinn offered to cook some nights in her restaurant when he wasn't busy with his own cooking show, which he shot from the barn, and his other projects. He said he wanted to cook in the busy restaurant "for the fun of it." He volunteered, but she insisted on paying him and she did — the equivalent of what she paid her regular chef, Leon. Quinn accepted, which made her feel a bit better, but she had it on good authority that he donated the money anonymously to the local high school's breakfast program. Her twin sister Faye, a guidance counsellor at the high school, never could keep a secret.

Lucy could never afford the price Quinn usually commanded, but it was important for her to assert her independence in this small way. She vowed to never tangle up her professional life with a man again after the disaster of dating her boss for years and how that ended.

This felt less like a favour Quinn was doing for her, and more like a natural fit for the two of them to be working together. The fact was, she enjoyed having him around, it was fun to work together — he, dreaming up culinary masterpieces in the kitchen and she, greeting customers and running front of house. They were both in their element.

Lucy's patrons were also thrilled with the arrangement. She had customers from across the Maritimes and beyond clamouring for reservations, hoping to catch a glimpse of the world-famous celebrity chef. Quinn dropped in to cook whenever he had the time, so it was always a random surprise that became a fun gamble for her customers. They never knew when they might be treated to a gourmet dinner by a world-renowned, Michelin-starred chef.

On "Quinn nights," he did a special and affordable prix fixe menu based around whatever he had foraged that day, or whatever local produce or meat supplier he wanted to highlight. It gave him a chance to be creative and experiment, and the local vendors loved the publicity. Quinn said the reason Lucy was successful was all thanks to her, but she knew better. She and her staff had worked hard to turn the place around, but she knew it was Quinn who turned her restaurant into one of the hottest in the Maritimes, with a waiting list well into the next year.

"Why are you doing this for me?" She couldn't help but ask him one night after closing, when they were having a glass of wine after everyone had left. It was a tradition that started when they filmed the TV contest. He looked surprised.

"I like to cook. And, I like working with you," he said, reaching across the table to hold her hand. "It's fun working together, don't you think?"

She gazed at his impossibly handsome face in the candlelight, his eyes warm and curious. He's too good to be true, a voice whispered in the back of her mind. It was an irritating mantra she couldn't seem to shake.

"Nonsense," she muttered out loud, before looking up from her paperwork and realizing the time. Shit. Lucy was so late, she might just have to go in her breezy summer dress and change into shorts later.