A Table for Two (3 page)

"I didn't know you felt that way. You've always been my single lesbian idol."

"Well, idols tend to disappoint. Toward the end of the last school year, I used to come home from work and dread the thoughts of eating another dinner alone or spending another evening with the only other voice I heard coming from the television. My apartment doesn't feel like my home anymore, if it ever did." Ridley grabbed a chair and straddled it so she was facing Laurie. "I feel like I'm missing something important, something I can count on."

"I think that something is love."

"My mother said the same thing to me, just the other day."

"You told her how you feel? I wish I could talk to my mother like that."

"I know you do and I know how lucky I am. I can tell her just about anything." Ridley took in a deep breath and made another admission. "Falling in love hasn't happened to me and I guess I'm having a hard time believing it ever will. I used to, but not anymore."

"Don't you ever give up hope. Love has a way of seeking you out when you least expect it and it has a nasty habit of sneaking up on you when you're looking off in another direction. It shows up when you've decided you don't need it and worse yet, when you don't even want it."

"Do you really think so?" Ridley wanted so much to believe Laurie's words. She hated to acknowledge it, even to herself, but she had pretty much given up believing in love.

"I know so and I also know that when you fall for someone you're going to fall hard. In the meantime, while you're waiting for Ms. Right to come along, you should come over to our house when you're tired of being alone. You can have dinner with us anytime or you and I can have dinner together is closer to the truth since Karen is always working late."

"Thanks for the offer. You're a good friend."

Laurie laid her hand on top of Ridley's. "Karen and I always say how much we hope you'll meet someone. We'd give anything to see you end up as happy as we are."

"I'd love to have what you have with Karen, but I'm not sure I'll ever get it." Ridley hung her head. "Maybe I'm not destined to fall in love. Some people never do, you know."

"It has nothing to do with destiny. You just haven't met the right person. You're a real catch and someday, someone other than me and Karen is going to figure that out."

"You're a sweetheart." Ridley lifted her head and gazed into Laurie's brown eyes. "I know we've talked about this before, but don't you sometimes wonder why we never fell in love?"

"Yes, I do. I used to ask myself that same question before I met Karen."

"And what was your answer?"

"I don't have a clue, but I do know we have no control when it comes to love. You and I would have been a brilliant match, but we never had one single molecule of chemistry between us. One week after I met Karen, on our second date to be precise, I knew I'd fallen hopelessly in love." Laurie fanned her face with her hand. "Talk about chemical reactions. We would have burned the entire lab down."

"I think you still could. The chemistry is obvious to anyone who knows the two of you or is around you for any length of time."

"Things have cooled down a bit since then, thank God. You can't go around in that state for the rest of your life. That reminds me, how do you feel about going out with us this weekend? If you don't already have plans, that is?"

"I don't know. My mother wanted me to come back to the shore for the weekend, but I think I've had enough of the shore for a while. I'd rather stay home and get my life together before things get busy at work. I have nothing to eat in my apartment and I need to clean and tackle a mountain of laundry. What did you have in mind?"

"Karen and I have been invited to try a new restaurant on South Street. It's supposed to be one of the best new restaurants in the city. I wish you'd come with us."

"I don't know, maybe. What do you mean you were invited?"

"The owner is an old high school friend of Karen's. She just moved back here from Chicago to open this restaurant. We went to visit her a few years ago, but then Karen lost touch with her. We probably told you about her, but you may have forgotten. Say you'll go with us, please? It'll be fun." Laurie batted her eyelashes as she often did when she wanted to charm you into doing something. "Come on...please? Pretty please?"

"All right already. I can't stand to hear you beg. When are we going?"

"On Saturday. Our reservation is for seven o'clock." Laurie got up and stood by her chair. "I've got to meet with the roster chairman. Why don't you come over around six and we'll all walk to the restaurant together?" She walked out of Ridley's office.

Ridley hurried to catch her. "Laurie..." She waited for Laurie to turn and face her so she could look into her eyes because what she had to say was crucial. "Before you go, convince me this isn't another plan to fix me up. You know what happened the other times you tried to play matchmaker." Laurie's prior attempts to find the perfect person for Ridley had been disastrous and Ridley had made her swear she would never try again. "You promised, remember?"

"I remember and it's going to be just the three of us, I swear to God." Laurie made the sign of the cross on her chest, a residual habit from her Catholic upbringing.

"It had better be." Ridley glared at Laurie, her eyebrows drawn together.

Laurie raised her arms in the air as if to surrender. "I swear. I meant it when I said I'd never meddle in your love life again and I won't. You'll have to find that one special person who sets your soul on fire without any help from me."

"Good. I see you've finally learned your lesson."

"I have and I'm glad you're joining us on Saturday. Karen made me promise I'd ask you today. So, don't work too hard and I'll see you tomorrow morning?" Laurie managed to escape this time and hurried through the door that led into the hallway.

"I'll be here," Ridley said to the empty gymnasium.

"THEY HAD FRESH Chilean sea bass and the shrimp were so big and plump, I couldn't pass them up," Dana announced to Tracy the instant she burst through the back door of the kitchen at her restaurant, Café De Marco. It was close to nine on Saturday morning and she'd just returned from an early morning food-buying excursion to the wholesale markets located near the Delaware River in South Philadelphia. She loved going to the markets. As a matter of fact, she loved everything about food-- reading about it, talking about it smelling it, preparing it and of course, eating it. "They had fantastic asparagus, so I got a lot of it along with our usual order of vegetables."

"Super. What do you want to do with it?"

"I've got something in mind, but I'll tell you about that later. First let me finish telling you what I got. I was excited when I saw what they had today and I think we should use a lot of Thai and Asian influence when we plan our specials for tonight. And before I forget to tell you, they had the most dazzling display of fresh flowers I've ever seen there so I bought big bunches of them so we could make bouquets for all the tables."

"You're talking a mile a minute, you're flushed and your hair's so windblown, you look like a wild woman." Tracy Morgan, Dana's sous-chef, leaned against the counter near the sink with a big cup of hot coffee cradled in her hands. She appeared as cool and collected as she always did and her gentle face left no doubt that she was quite amused by Dana's jabbering, albeit in the most loving way.

"I can hear myself, thank you very much, and I can tell by the look on your face that you think I'm way too hyped up and I need to slow down and you're right." As she took a moment to steady herself, Dana ran her fingers through her medium length dark brown hair in an attempt to smooth it into submission. It was fairly straight, but thick enough to take off on a whim when conditions were right. She tended to get overly excited when her creative juices were flowing and as soon as she felt her eyes darting from place to place and heard herself babbling she knew she needed to calm down. As of late, she derived most of her pleasure in life from buying food for the restaurant and coming up with interesting dishes. It was sad, but true. She took in a long deep breath and released it. "There, that's better."

"I hope you can also see the affection in my face."

"Yes, of course I can," Dana said. As usual, Tracy had her short, spiky brown hair wrapped in a bandana and she had a face far too cute to be capable of any real meanness. She could tease with the best of them and once in a while Dana detected a sparkle of mischief in her sharp blue eyes, but she was never cruel.

"Good." Tracy took a sip of her coffee. "So, are you going to tell me what you have in mind for these Asian-themed dishes? The suspense is killing me."

"Don't get carried away. We'll get to that soon enough." Dana planted her hands on her hips. She knew Tracy was teasing her, but she liked to play along and pretend she was a little miffed by it. "I got Thai basil, green papayas, a box of fresh coconuts, and a crate of perfectly ripe mangos and pineapples. I love working with those ingredients, don't you?"

"You know I do," Tracy said as she set her coffee cup on the counter. "Let me help you bring in the rest of the stuff and get it put away before we discuss the menu. I can't wait to see what you got."

"THESE RIPE MANGOES and pineapples smell so good, I can hardly stand it," Tracy said as she set the last box on the counter. "The entire kitchen already smells like ginger and basil and tropical fruits and my mouth is watering just thinking about what we can make with them." Tracy leaned into the box and inhaled through her nose. "Mmm, that is heavenly."

Dana held a piece of sea bass under Tracy's nose. "Smell this."

Tracy inhaled again. "I don't smell anything except a sweet hint of the sea."

"Exactly, and did you notice how clear their eyes are? Fish doesn't come any fresher than that. The shrimp is just as fresh." Dana helped Tracy put the fish and shrimp in the refrigerator and unpack the boxes of produce.

When they were done, Tracy fixed a cup of coffee for Dana and set it on the counter in front of her. Then she poured another cup for herself. "So, while we drink our coffee, let's talk about those specials you had in mind, boss?"

"Mmm, this is excellent coffee," Dana said after she'd tasted it. "I thought we'd do a shrimp appetizer like fried shrimp with an Asian sweet and sour dipping sauce. What do you think? With maybe just a hint of heat added to the sauce?"

"Perfect. Breaded in Panko?" Tracy suggested.

"That's even better. We have a case of Panko in the storage room and we should use some of it before it starts getting stale on us."

"What about the fresh ginger?"

"We'll use it in the sauce for the shrimp and wherever else we can use it. We could also use it for garnishing, maybe pickled or candied?"

In addition to the restaurant's standard menu, Dana liked to offer three or four additional specials based on what was available at the wholesale markets. Having to prepare the same entrées night after night got boring and in her opinion, it took all the fun out of being a chef. Having dinner specials also allowed her to make use of local products and ingredients when they were in season and at their peak.

She and Tracy collaborated each morning, always over a cup of coffee and sometimes over breakfast, to come up with the specials they'd make that day. Later in the day, when the other chefs arrived, they would review the recipes with them and go over the plating of each dish.

So that they became familiar with the specials, Dana required the wait staff to arrive an hour before the restaurant opened for a meeting with her and Tracy. That enabled them to answer the customer's questions and make informed suggestions.

Dana continued. "Also, I'd like to do the Thai green papaya salad we did about a month ago. I love that salad and we had a lot of positive feedback from the customers who ordered it. In fact, I loved it so much I'm going to have it for my dinner.

"I'll join you if you put a couple of those fat shrimp on top."

"But of course. It wouldn't be the same without the shrimp," Dana confirmed. "For one of the dinner specials, why don't we do a shrimp and red coconut curry on jasmine rice? We'll put onions, carrots, red peppers, green beans and chunks of pineapple in it. We could also offer it with chicken as an alternative."

"That sounds delicious. Would you like me to make a pineapple and coconut sorbet and serve it with those crispy little cookies you love with the fresh ginger in them? That would make a nice cooling dessert for these dishes."

Dana nodded. "That's a brilliant idea." Aside from her considerable skills as a chef, Tracy was also certified as a pastry chef and Dana thought she was a genius when it came to desserts. Her creativity seemed boundless. "Here's another idea I had. Could you do a pineapple upside down cake with rum whipped cream? If the customers like it, I might even keep it on the menu. It's something I've always loved and I think it goes well with our style of food."

"Uh..." Tracy scratched her head and paused as if to give the request some serious thought. "It's an old-fashioned dessert, but sure, I can do that for you."

"I know. My grandmother used to make it when we went to her house for Sunday dinner. What appeals to me is that you don't see it on dessert menus and it would be different."

"Anything that makes us stand out can only be good for business. How about if I put a new spin on it and make individual ones? You know...I could do a single gooey, rum-tinged ring of buttery, brown-sugary pineapple perched on top of an individual round cake made of delicate golden sponge? Your grandmother wouldn't object to that, would she?

"Hell, no. My Grandma liked rum." Dana's comment amused her as much as it appeared to amuse Tracy. "I'll give it to you. You always come up with the most wonderful ideas for desserts and you know how to give them an up-dated touch."

"I try, boss," Tracy said.

"We've got six ounce filets on hand, so why don't we do a surf and turf with beef teriyaki and shrimp? To vary it a little, we'll stir fry the shrimp and add a fresh pineapple and mango salsa next to it on the plate. It's unusual, but I think it will work."