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Kai
Kai felt like an idiot for admitting that she didn’t even know the basics of cooking. She wasn’t lying when she told him that her mother didn’t have much to teach her about cooking. If she was lucky, her mother would get home in time to toss a TV dinner in the oven. Most nights, she ate cereal or had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which didn’t involve her having to do more than use a spoon or knife to cut her sandwich in half.
Being a single mom, her mother had to work two jobs just to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. It was just the two of them, and for the most part, Kai wouldn’t want things any different. Her mother lived with the motto that she didn’t need a man and Kai had to agree—they didn’t need one to survive.
Her mother not being around very much while she was going through her teen years ended up with her making a few decisions that she later regretted. She had to grow up way too fast and now, she was just trying to catch up with the rest of her old friends and make it through college. She started late, but she was always up for a good challenge. She was so close to finishing college and then, she wasn’t really sure what her next challenge would be, but she was looking forward to it.
“Does your mom live around here?” Taz asked.
“No,” she breathed. “She lives back in the little town that I grew up in, about two hours from here. I try to get home as much as possible to visit, but with working my way through college, that’s tough to do.” Kai tried to take as little time off as possible. If she took off too much, she would miss a tuition payment, and they were hard to catch up on when she was also paying for her apartment and her car. It’s one of the reasons why she was taking so long to get through college. She was paying for it on her own, but that made her even more proud of her accomplishments.
“You have any brothers or sisters?” Taz asked.
“No—it was just me and my mom. I never knew my father. He took off as soon as my mother found out that she was pregnant with me. I guess the news of my pending arrival was too much for him to take.”
“That sucks,” Taz said. “I’m sorry about that.”
She shrugged, “Well, you can’t miss what you never had,” she said.
“True,” he agreed. “So, you’re working your way through college?” he asked. She wasn’t sure what was up with all of the questions, but at least he wasn’t giving her the cold shoulder like he usually did.
“I am,” she agreed, “although it’s taking me forever to finish.”
“You still have time,” he said. “I mean, you’re what—twenty-three?” he asked.
“I’m twenty-five actually,” she said. “I didn’t go right from high school to college. I took a couple of years off. I needed to work for a while to save up some money for tuition. So while all my friends were graduating, I was just getting started, but I’m fine with it. I’m taking my time paying for it, and when I’m done school, I’ll be debt free, so I consider that worth a few extra years.”
“Yeah, that would be worth it,” he said.
“How about you?” she asked. “Where’s your family?”
“In town here,” he said. “I have a brother and a sister and they both live close too. I guess we never really got the bug to leave home, you know?” he asked.
“Well, you did go to Paris to go to culinary school, Taz. I consider that leaving him, even if you came back,” she said.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he agreed. “Paris was great, but it wasn’t home. I stuck around for a while after I finished school and then, I came back. I missed my family and decided that I’d bring my skills back here and use them in town. I just underestimated the people around here wanting Parisian food.”
“I don’t know, it sounds pretty good to me,” she said. “I mean, there isn’t much of a choice for food like that around here.”
“I know,” he said. “It’s one of the reasons why I’d love to open my own place someday. When I got back to town, there was no place for me to apply to work. No restaurants around here needed someone with my skills,” he said. He handed her an onion and a knife. “Be prepared to cry,” he said.
“Why? Does your story get sad now?” she asked.
He couldn’t help but laugh. “No,” he said. “Onions will make your eyes water when you cut them.”
“Well then, it’s a good thing that I’m not wearing eye makeup then, right?” she asked. “I thought that you were going to tell me something sad,” she said.
“Um, no,” he said. “My story didn’t really turn sad as much as depressing. I worked odd jobs around town—mostly in home repair and carpentry. I was good at that kind of thing and there seemed to be a need for it around here. I had to pay my rent and not working wasn’t really an option.”
“And then, Ryker asked you to work in the kitchen at the bar?” she asked.
“Nope,” he said. “I basically begged him for the chance to work there. The bar didn’t serve food when Ryker first took it over. But then, he got the idea to bring in more money, he’d have to serve food, and I jumped at the chance to prove myself. At first, it was all burgers and fries, but then, he let me branch out and the guys really seem to love the specials.”
“Yeah—the families that come in do too,” she said. “They especially love your fish fry Fridays.” He knew that was quickly becoming a hit around the Smokey Bandits. He liked that he had a hand in sprucing up the place, even if it was just through his cooking.
“Yeah,” he said. “I get a lot of requests for that one.”
“Why don’t you make some of your fancy French dishes—you know the ones you probably learned at culinary school in Paris?” she asked.
