Page 59 of The Chef

19

BAY

I’m going to make his house less barren. Less empty. Less like some unlived-in bachelor pad. The place looks like his soul, and I’m going to change it.

Cliff eyes me suspiciously as I size up the living room and its single chair.

When we left just an hour ago, I couldn’t get Cliff out of my head. I kept on imagining him in this empty house all alone and it pained me. I knew I needed to do something about it.

So, it was good that Fisher was home when we got back. I dumped the kids on him and immediately shot off to the hardware store, picking up some paints I think will go well in this place. I also bought myself a pair of overalls, ready to paint.

I needed to come back here and resolve this house.

Without kids.

And to also resolve that kiss we shared. The kiss that made me so… confused.

Cliff drops the hardware store bags in the middle of the room and waits for me to say something. I don’t blame him for being confused at the sight of me, I’ve burst back into his house in a blur of passion ready to redecorate.

And, I think, he’s still obsessing over the kiss. I know certainly I am.

I’m back to paint the house, and also to understand what the hell’s just happened in Cliff’s kitchen.

I didn’t expect us to do that. If you told me we would be kissing just a few days ago I would’ve laughed in your face. I didn’t expect him to lean over and kiss me, and I also definitely did not expect to find myself falling ravenously into it.

In that moment when our lips touched I realized how much I wanted it.

That was the most shocking thing of all. I wanted it. I wanted Cliff to kiss me.

But I was still so confused immediately afterward. I made the soup quickly and got the kids out of there in a panic. I didn’t want to spend a moment thinking about it. I didn’t know what I’d do if I did. I didn’t know how I would react, so I swept the kids up and bundled them into the car wanting to get away from the place.

But, once gone, all I wanted to do was get back to his house.

Get back to Cliff.

Oh, god. What’s going on in your mind, Bay?

Have I gone mad?

Well, at least I’ve come back like a crappy Sherlock Holmes. Now I’ll discover if my feelings were right, if it was right to kiss Cliff. If I was right in kissing back.

“You want to paint my house?” he asks me as I survey his living room.

“Sure.”

“Paint?”

“Yeah, that’s why I brought these,” I reply, gesturing at the paint pots. “Your place is looking far too bare for my liking. You need to liven it up a little. You need a woman’s touch.”

“A woman’s touch?”

“I was thinking about this wall here,” I say to him, pointing at the side wall of the living room.

“This wall?”

“We’ll try this one first as a tester, and then move on,” I reply. “What do you think?”

Cliff glances at me, then at the paints, then back at me. “Sure,” he says, shrugging.