‘So… can we talk? I won’t keep you long.’
‘Okay.’
She was pleased to see he looked a little shamefaced as she waved him inside. Bloody right!
‘This is nice,’ he said, looking around the living room. ‘Where’s Jack?’
‘Fiona was taking him to football after school.’
She waved Aidan to a seat, but he remained standing, leaning against the dresser, arms folded.
‘So,’ he said, raking a hand through his hair. ‘I’m sorry about earlier. I shouldn’t have flown off the handle like that.’
She hadn’t been expecting that. ‘Well, if this is what I get for pissing you off, I should do it more often,’ she said, rewrapping the fish.
‘Don’t get used to it,’ Aidan said as she stowed it in the fridge. ‘And it comes with conditions.’
‘So what brought on this sudden change of heart?’ she asked suspiciously.
‘I tasted that soup you made.’
‘Ah, like I asked you to.’ Lou was enjoying the feeling that she had the upper hand now. She set her jaw, determined not to let him off the hook easily.
He sighed. ‘I’m not usually such a dick, honestly. You can ask around. In my defence, I was having a crap day and that was the last straw.’
‘But you didn’t even try it. You just assumed I’d have done a terrible job.’
‘Guilty.’ He held up his hands. ‘But to be fair, it was a reasonable assumption. A palate as good as yours is rare, even in trained chefs.’
Lou was stunned into silence. Had he really just said that?
‘You’re very talented. Has anyone ever told you that?’
‘Not often enough. So… does this mean I’m not fired?’
‘No, you’re not fired. The job is yours if you still want it. Which I get that you may not after what happened just now.’
Lou shrugged. ‘I’ve had worse. The industry isn’t exactly renowned for its even-tempered individuals.’
‘That’s true,’ he said with a wry smile. ‘But I’m not usually such a prime example of the worst of our business.’
To be fair, the Coast kitchen was usually a remarkably calm and pleasant place to work.
‘There are plenty of chefs out there who’ve passed all the exams and trained in the best places and think they’re the second coming who couldn’t have got that dish right.’
Lou could relate to that. At her last job she’d worked with a chef who thought he was the next Gordon Ramsay despite not being able to poach an egg accurately. ‘So… it was good?’
‘It was excellent.’ He shifted his stance. ‘Ihavegot other people to make it before. I’ve tried writing the recipe and teaching other chefs, believe me. But no one’s ever got it quite right. Until you, today.’
Lou couldn’t deny the swell of professional pride his praise gave her.
‘Look, firing you like that was a dick move.’
‘No argument from me there.’
‘But youhadbroken kitchen protocol and refused to follow Shane’s orders.’
Lou had to concede that she’d been in the wrong too. ‘Yeah, I know I shouldn’t have done that.’
