Chapter 86: Working Girl

I wasn’t sure if I was surprised or not when Sarah and Arnie slept in their room that night. It didn’t upset me at all and since they’d not really had a lot of time together during the week, or at least not time where they could indulge themselves in each other, I guessed they had some catching up to do.

Mary and Amanda had been asleep in a sweaty heap in the bedroom when we’d gotten back from the supermarket. I’d had to wake them so they could shower and get ready for dinner. Josh and Louise were in a slightly better state, but not by much. When I’d knocked on their door after waking the twins, they invited me in. I found them both in a very aroused state and looking at me like lions eyeing a herd of zebra. I laughed and told them that Ness was starting dinner. Louise’s moue of disappointment made me laugh even more.

Throughout dinner I watched Arnie, trying to see if he had any regrets about what had gone on but, if anything, he seemed more relaxed around us all than he had been before. It was like he’d had his lightbulb moment and he seemed to be perfectly happy with his and Sarah’s lives.

On Sunday we did the rest of the shopping. Arnie was flying, so he’d left reasonably early, although he’d not got up with Sarah when she, Melanie, and I went out to exercise. We’d forgone our run and had done some martial arts work in the back yard. I’d decided that I’d take them both to the Dojo and ask Kevin to take over their training. Perhaps one or both of them could take over the evening classes that I’d been taking, since my time was becoming even more strained, despite the fact I’d dropped all my school hypnotherapy sessions and all but one of my college classes.

I spent the afternoon finishing up a couple of assignments that needed to be handed in that week and emailed them to the relevant professors.

We had four weeks to go before the Christmas holidays and I couldn’t wait. In fact, I was, now, merely marking time before I could finally leave school and looking forward to the next stage in my life.

Sunday evening, I was out having my usual beer when Chris and Jane came out into the yard.

“Where’s the bundle of joy?” I asked.

“Asleep,” Jane said. “I put her down just after seven, and she’s fast asleep. That’s two nights in a row now, and this morning she slept until almost six.”

“Excellent,” I said. “It seems to be working.”

Chris nodded. “It seems so,” he said.

He and Jane exchanged a glance.

“I got the job,” he opened.

“Congratulations,” I said. “When do you start?”

“Next Monday,” he said. “But I have to spend a month working in the office to be trained, before I can start my working from home rotation of four weeks at home and one in the office.”

“You have to stay there for a whole month?” I asked.

“I think after the second week,” he said, “I’ll be able to come home weekends.”

“That’s something,” I said.

“I was wondering if I could ask you a favor?” he said.

“Sure,” I replied, my mind still going over my own thoughts about what had happened over the weekend.

“Will you keep an eye out for Jane?” he said. “And help her out if she needs it?”

“Sure,” I said. Again, still not paying full attention. It was then I caught the full meaning of his words.

“Wait,” I said. “You mean?”

“She’s only just starting to relax,” he explained. “Getting all frustrated and wound up again isn’t going to help.”

“You’re only going away for two weeks,” I said. “Surely...”

“I’m not saying she will,” he explained hurriedly, “but sometimes, you know, she gets a little ‘stressed’ and needs to unwind.”

I sighed.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea if you’re not here,” I said. “These kinds of things can blow up in your face.”

“I’m not going to want to leave Chris for you,” she said with a smile.

“No,” I said. “But you are hoping that maybe I’ll give you another baby. No?”

Both of their eyes widened.

“How did you...?” Chris asked at the same time as his wife said.

“What?”

I shook my head.

“Look,” I said. “I’m not quite a dumb as I look. I suspected the night of the party that’s what you had in mind. I got the impression that night, and Chris just confirmed it. I’m fairly sure that you’re not trying to trap me into anything, and I don’t know if it’s some kind of fetish, or that Chris has an issue, but there’s two things you need to know. First, I can’t get you pregnant. I’m sterile. That’s one reason that I am not overly worried about using protection. I know I’m clean and I know I can’t impregnate anyone, so it’s all good for me.”

“You’re sterile?” asked Jane. “You poor thing.”

I shrugged. “It is what it is,” I said. “If and when I’m ready for a family I’ll have to figure something out. But right now, I’m not there.

“We weren’t trying to trap you into anything,” said Chris. “We just both really liked you and thought we’d like you to be a father to our next child.”

“Is Kirsty yours?” I asked.

“If you’re asking if I’m her biological dad, the answer is, I don’t know, nor do I want to. If you’re asking if she’s my daughter, then of course she is. I love her more than anything in the world. Just as I would have loved any child Jane had conceived with you, had that been possible.

“I’ll admit that it is a bit of a fetish of mine, having my wife impregnated by another man, especially as I’m not exactly the most fertile man around. I can potentially have a child, but the chances are low. But we do want more children, and ... well...”

“Don’t you think it would have been better to ask?” I asked.

Chris looked down.

“It was a spur of the moment thing,” said Jane. “Honestly, I didn’t plan it. We were at the party, and Kirsty wasn’t settling, and Chris told me to ask you. Then we just looked at each other and I knew that he and I were thinking the same thing.

“Then we were over in our house, and you were inside me and ... well ... it was just so wonderful.”

“Spur of the moment?” I asked. “I thought you were on the pill?”

“IUD,” she said. “After what happened, Chris and I decided that we wanted to ask you to help us with another child. I went to my doctor, and had it taken out, so we’d be ready after we’d spoken. Then at the party, things just happened, and...”

“Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you,” I said. “But now you know.”

“What was the other thing?” Jane asked.

“What?” I asked.

“You said there were two things we needed to know?” she pressed.

“I have four fiancées,” I said. “Each of whom deserves the opportunity to be the one who bears my first child. I’m a little unhappy that you’d want to steal that from them.”

“Ah,” said Chris. “I ... We never considered that. We just thought...”

“You thought that a horny youth wouldn’t even consider the consequences of having unprotected sex?” I asked.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “We didn’t think it through, but...”

“I like you Caleb,” Jane interjected. “We both do, and I like being with you. I know we should have asked before trying to get you to give me a child but, like I said, it was a moment of madness, spur of the moment thing. Always, up to now, with any other guys, we’ve always discussed it at length before trying. I was honestly going to talk to you about it, but we kind of got carried away.”

“Well,” I said, “like I said, it’s not going to happen, not by me at least.”

“Now you’re mad at us, at me?” asked Jane.

“Not mad,” I said. “Just disappointed that you’d do something like that without talking to me first. Even if what you say is true, and you intended to just bring the child up as yours, it would be my child. You’d be taking away my choice about being involved in the life of my own flesh and blood.”

“But we’d have...” said Chris but stopped. I’m not sure what he was going to say, and I’m not sure he knew either.

I stood up.

“Congratulations on your new job,” I said to him. “Goodnight.”

I felt their eyes on me as I walked into the house.

“You okay?” asked Ness as I came back into the kitchen. I smiled at her.

“Yeah,” I said. “Just setting some boundaries with the neighbors is all.”

“That’s a first,” she said.

“They were hoping that I was going to impregnate Jane for them,” I told her.

“They asked you that?” she said.

I shook my head. “No,” I said. “That’s one of the problems. If they’d asked me then I might have thought about it, although I really think it’s only fair that my first child is with one of you guys, not someone who’s probably going to disappear out of our lives in a year or so.”

Ness nodded. “I agree,” she said. “Were they planning on stinging you for maintenance and stuff?”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “I don’t think they were being maliciously dishonest. They just want another kid, Carl is not particularly fertile, and they like me. One plus one plus one equals three. They just didn’t think to consult one of the ones before acting.

“So what did you tell them?” she asked.

“I told them I was sterile,” I told her, “which is true. I also told them that I thought it was wrong of them to try and do that without asking first.”

“So does that mean that the swapping thing is off?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t think so. At least they say not. They say it was a ‘spur of the moment’ decision and that they’d normally ask first.” I shrugged. “I’m just not sure I trust them anymore, and if I don’t trust someone, why would I sleep with them?”

“Makes sense,” she said. “You’re at your most vulnerable when you’re being intimate with someone.”

“I don’t think they’d try to hurt me, but I’ve kind of lost all the attraction I had for them. Maybe that will be enough to dampen the Empathic attraction they are feeling for me at least.

“Maybe Melanie and the twins will be enough for them, and they can have some fun. I’m just not particularly interested any more.”

“You still love Kirsty though, right?” she asked.

“Love?” I asked. “I’m not sure...”

“Stop deluding yourself.” Ness said. “I’ve seen you holding that little girl. I doubt you could love her more if she were your own. Like Jeevan said, you’re emotionally vulnerable to children. If you build up any relationship at all with them, you’ll end up loving them, and they you.”

“That doesn’t help,” I said. “What’s going to happen when we move back to the other house, or they move away? I’m going to lose her. A child I have no right to love in the first place.”

“I guess that’s one of the down sides of being a power user and an empath,” she said sadly. “I guess you’re in for a lot of sadness in your life. Not just from things like this, but also that you’re going to outlive a lot of your friends, loves, and lovers.”

I sighed.

“Weren’t you supposed to be cheering me up?” I asked her with a wry smile.

“Oh?” she said sounding surprised. “Was it not working?”

I picked up a cloth and threw it at her. She didn’t react in time, and it wrapped itself around her head.

She spluttered at me indignantly. “That’s wet,” she said.

“You’ve never complained before about getting wet,” I told her.

She laughed. “And there he is,” she said, then she moved across the kitchen and put her arms around me, before drying her face on my T-shirt.

On Monday, I surprised Kevin by turning up at the Dojo with Melanie and Sarah.

“Well,” he said. “What do we have here?”

I explained the situation with them and told him that I was going to be bowing out of the Dojo, since I had so much else going on in my life. I asked him if he would be willing to train with them, given that I’d transferred all my knowledge to them in the same way that I’d gotten it.

He put them both through their paces, and I followed along just for something to do.

“They have all the bad habits you started with,” he said. “But I can see that with some practice they’ll soon get out of them. I’ll give you two the same deal I gave Caleb. I’ll train with you in the mornings, same time. Probably three days a week would be enough. You’ll take the Tuesday night class. You still have to work on both your strength and stamina. Caleb was much further along on both those when he first came to me.” He turned to me. “You’ll have to hand over the class to them, it’s only fair to the students.”

I looked at the girls. They both nodded.

“That sounds good.” They agreed.

By the time we arrived home, Ness was in the kitchen making breakfast, and the rest of the household was up and around. Arnie had already left since he had an early lesson and the weather looked to be reasonable to fly in. I’d be heading to the flying school later to get a couple of hours last minute practice in, and again on Tuesday, since I had my check ride on Wednesday afternoon.

I arrived at the range just before my first appointment with the Chef from Coquine. He came in full of life and happy, since he’d had a good amount of success and indeed was coming to the end of his course of treatment. He’d not had any cravings of any kind and was feeling much better in himself having managed to quit smoking.

“I can taste things so much more,” he said happily.

“Good,” I said. Then stopped talking. He looked at me enquiringly.

“Can I ask your advice about something?” I asked him.

“Sure,” he said.

“I think I might have mentioned that my fiancée is at Culinary School.” I told him. He nodded. I did sometimes make small talk with my clients.

“She’s about halfway through her first year,” I said, “but she’s been advised to drop out and just get a job in a kitchen. The guy who told her said that she already knew everything that she needed to know, and all she was lacking was experience. Was that good advice do you think?”

He shrugged.

“I would say not,” he said. “Most kitchens won’t employ someone without either experience, or a qualification from culinary school. Without that she’d have to start waiting tables, or washing dishes, and perhaps wait to work her way into the kitchen.

“What idiot told her to drop out?”

“Gordon Ramsay,” I said. He gaped.

“Seriously?” he asked.

I nodded. “We had a cooking lesson with him. It was a charity thing he did, and Ness bought it for me for my birthday. Well, really, she bought it for her, but you know what fiancées are like.”

He laughed. “And he told her she didn’t need to go to school?” he asked.

“He wrote her this.” I told him pulling out the email from my bag.

His eyes zipped across the page.

“Is this genuine?” he asked. “You’re not playing with me?”

“Email him and ask,” I said. “His address is at the top there.”

He read it again.

“When can I meet her?” he asked. “I need to see her in the kitchen, see what she can do. If this is genuine, I’ll hire her tomorrow and give her all the kitchen experience she needs. I’ve been looking for someone good to take on for a long time.”

I searched his mind when he said that. Like Ness, I was a little concerned that, although he might be looking for a protégé, he might assume that being taken on as one must come with some strings.

Fortunately, he had no such intentions. He was really looking for someone to train. The last couple of chefs he’d taken under his wing were okay, but they’d moved on and he was looking for his next project. He loved cooking, and loved to help people who shared his passion to progress.

“You tell me,” I said. “When’s best for you?”

“This afternoon?” he asked eagerly.

I checked in with Ness.

“You free this afternoon?” I sent to her.

“Sure,” she said. “I’m just talking to my cohort leader now. He’s trying to talk me out of leaving but I showed him the email from Gordon Ramsay and he’s kind of run out of arguments.”

“What time?” I asked, “and where?”

“At Coquine,” he said. “And any time up to four. I have to start prep for dinner service then so I’ll be busy after that.

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll get her there between one and two?”

“Perfect,” he said. “The restaurant will be closed. But just bang on the door. I’ll tell the staff to expect you and bring you to me.”

“I’ll do that,” I said. “Anyhow, should we get to the actual reason you’re here?”

He started to count back from one hundred.

I arrived home just after twelve and found Ness already home and waiting for me.

“So what did they say?” I asked.

“Like I said,” she replied. “My cohort leader tried to talk me out of it, but once I’d shown him the email, he kind of ran out of steam. He did say that if I was unable to get a job, I could go back at any time before the end of the year, and take the finals, to progress to year two.”

“What did your friends say?” I asked.

“Tiffany cried,” she said. “Made me promise to keep in touch. Neil looked and felt upset, and Sam, well, she said she was upset, but for some reason I felt that she was secretly pleased.

I laughed.

“It seems like training your empathic power is working. You’re picking up on peoples unguarded emotions. Maybe if you keep going, you’ll get to see auras.”

“Cool,” she said. “I think Sam is glad for me to be out of her way, so she can have a shot at Neil”

“Possibly,” I said. “Anyway. The chef from Coquine wants to meet you. He damn near wet himself when he saw the email, and he wants to see you.”

“When?” she asked. I looked at my watch.

“Now” I said. “It’s about forty minutes to the restaurant, and I said I’d have you there between one and two.”

“NOW!!” she screeched, adding at least five years to my hearing age. “Why didn’t you say?”

“I need a shower,” she said. “And to get changed.”

She dashed out of the kitchen and into the bedroom. Twenty minutes later she was back, in a clean set of student chef’s whites, which in this case were black, knife roll in hand.

“Well,” she said. “let’s go.”

I had an idea. I was betting that once he’d seen Ness in the kitchen, he’d want her to stay and see more. “Let’s take both cars,” I said. “If he’s as impressed with you as I think he’ll be, I’m betting he’ll ask you to stay and do a service with him.”

“Okay,” she said. “But I don’t know where I’m going.”

“Follow me,” I said.

Thirty-five minutes later, we pulled into the empty parking lot to the side of the restaurant.

Ness looked jittery as she stepped out of her car, her knife roll clutched in her hand.

“Come on,” I said rolling confidence and relaxation over her. She grinned at me.

“I saw that,” she said, “and thanks.”

We walked to the front door of the restaurant, which was closed and locked. I knocked.

It seems they were expecting me, as a youngish guy opened the door almost immediately.

“Are you Caleb?” he asked.

I nodded. “This is Ness.”

“Come in,” he said. “Chef is in the kitchen.”

We walked through the front of house, and through the doors into the kitchen. There were a few people in there, but less than I had imagined. My client, the head chef, looked up as we entered. His face split into a grin.

“Caleb,” he said. “Is this her?”

“This is my fiancée Ness.” I told him.

He looked her up and down. Then spotting her knife roll said. “May I?” wordlessly she handed it to him.

He laid it out on one of the work surfaces and unrolled it.

“Nice,” he said noting the make. He then tested the edge on all of the knives.

“You can often tell the caliber of a chef,” he said, “by how they maintain their knives.”

I hadn’t known that.

He then proceeded to put her through her paces. As she worked, I could see him getting more and more excited. Occasionally he’d ask her why she’d done things a certain way, or perhaps how she might do something differently, given different circumstances or ingredients.

Since she owned all of his knowledge, she easily answered everything he asked her, and I could see him getting more and more excited as she worked.

“I can’t believe it,” he said. “Someone so young and so knowledgeable. Caleb said that you were going to drop out of college. Have you done so already?”

“I spoke to my cohort leader today,” she said. “He tried to dissuade me, but I told him I was going to.”

“So you’re free to start straight away?” he asked.

Ness grinned at him. “What time is service?” she asked, he laughed.

“Stay for service tonight,” he said. “And you’ll get a feel for how we do things here. I’ll put you in a few different places in the kitchen and see how you cope. Then tomorrow morning we can work through all the paperwork with the owner. I can offer you a job starting at forty-eight thousand but, if you are as good as I think you are, that will soon increase.”

Ness looked at me. I raised an eyebrow.

“One thing,” she said. “I have a pre-existing commitment at Christmas. I know it’s a busy time for you, but this year only, I’ll need the Christmas break off. I’d imagined to be at school this year, so I’d made plans.

I pushed a little, making him think that if he refused this, then he’d lose the chance at working with the best new chef he’d ever encountered.

“That will be fine,” he said. “We’re closed from 24^th until 2^nd in any case. Since it’s so close I can see how you might have already made plans. But from then on, you’ll have to commit to working through most holidays. Those are often our busiest times.”

“Of course,” she said. “I know that kind of goes with the job.” She did glance at me for a moment, and I wondered if she’d seen my interference.

“Excellent,” he said. “Normally we’d not be open tonight, but we have a function booked in, and so we’re prepping for that.”

“Looking forward to it,” she said.

He looked at me, rather pointedly.

“I guess,” I said with a grin, “that I’ll get out of your way. Have a good service.”

They both looked at me. Suddenly I was the outsider, and in the way.

I turned and left the kitchen, heading for the door.

“Caleb,” Ness chased me out into front of house.

I turned around.

“Sorry,” she said. “I’m just so excited. That was horrible of me. Thank you so much for this. I love you.”

She pulled my face down to her level and kissed me.

“Ness!!” the shout came from the kitchen. She released me and grinned.

“Yes Chef!!” she shouted back, heading back through the doors.

I drove to the airfield, and was just in time for my afternoon flight.

I was asleep by the time Ness got home that night, but I saw her the next morning, curled up next to her sister in the bed as Sarah, Melanie, and I got up to go to the Dojo.

When we got back, she still hadn’t surfaced, so I made breakfast. I guessed that I was going to get to do a lot more of the cooking now, since Ness would simply not be there to do it. I didn’t mind, I liked to cook.

Ness came into the kitchen just as the others were leaving to go to school. I was due at the airfield, but not until mid-morning.

“So,” I queried, “how did it go?”

“It was amazing,” she said. “It’s one thing going to school, or cooking at home, but it’s an entirely different prospect working in a real kitchen. Everything happens so fast, and you have to keep so many things in your head, all at the same time.”

“You’re going to accept his job offer then?” I asked.

“I already have,” she said. She looked at the clock. “I’m due in work in an hour.”

“You want some breakfast?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I’m going to really have to watch what I eat,” she said. “You’re pretty much always grazing in the kitchen, tasting everything you cook. If I’m not careful I’ll put weight on.”

“Well just remember what Pops said,” I reminded her. “Don’t forget your family.”

She came around the table and climbed into my lap.

“How could I?” she asked. “I know we’ll be seeing a lot less of one another, now I’m working, but that’s going to make the time we do get to spend together even more special.”

“Just remember we love you.”

“I know,” she said a thoughtful expression crossing her face. Then she looked a little uncertain.

“I am doing the right thing,” she asked, “aren’t I?”

I smiled at her. “You’ve wanted to do this since when exactly?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. “As long as I can remember.”

“Then you’re doing the right thing,” I said. “We’re all going to have to think about how all our jobs fit in with our relationship. I guess it’s a part of growing up. You have an opportunity to do something that you’ve wanted all your life. Grab it.”

She grinned at me. “I need to get ready,” she said. “Traffic this time of day is a bitch.”

When I got to the flying school, Danny was stood waiting for me, a clipboard in his hand.

“Today,” he said, “we’re going to do a practice check ride. I want you to imagine that I am your DPE, and we’ll be flying the flight that we already prepared for your check flight. Okay?”

“Sure,” I said.

“Then we’ll begin,” he said. He cleared his throat and in an official voice introduced himself as my DPE told me what we’d be doing and invited me to start my preflight inspection of the aircraft.

Just over an hour later I finished the shutdown procedure, having completed the flight. I looked across at him.

He grinned at me.

“Do that tomorrow,” he said, “and you’ll have no trouble. My only concern is that your DPE will wonder how someone with so little stick time can fly like you can.”

“I’m a prodigy,” I grinned back at him. He snorted.

As we sat there, the Baron taxied up alongside us and shutdown. I looked across to see Arnie, with an older man, going through the shutdown procedure.

“The school is busy I see,” I said to Danny.

“It is,” he said. “It’s getting to the stage where I’m going to need to employ someone to run the office. Arnie and I are spending nearly every hour flying.”

“And you’ll be getting another plane when the Baron goes back?” I asked.

“Actually,” he said, “my friend with the school in Vegas is looking like he’s going to retire. There were some complications with the surgery, and I don’t think he’s going to be able to pass the medical to fly commercially. He’s not too upset, he was getting to the age where he was considering it, but it just brought it forward a couple of years.

“I’m hoping to be able to buy the Baron from him,” he said.

“Wow,” I said. “What does one of these go for?”

“Brand new they’re about 1.5 mil” he said. “This one is a bit older, but he’s still looking for six-fifty for it.”

“Six hundred and fifty thousand?” I asked.

He nodded.

“I’m going to have to finance it,” he said. “I’m hopeful the bank will back me. There’s enough work on the books to show it’s a good investment.”

While Danny and I had been talking, Arnie’s pupil had left, and Arnie had gone into the office. A moment later he came out, shouting and waving an envelope. Danny and I looked at him, then at each other.

Danny opened the door of the aircraft.

“What is it?” he asked.

“The NTSB report on the crash,” he said.

Danny jumped out of the Cirrus, and I followed. We walked into the office.

Danny sat at one of the desks and started to read the report.

“Coffee?” asked Arnie, I nodded in the affirmative, and he made us all a mug.

“Bastards,” Danny said, after nearly a half hour of reading.

“What?” asked Arnie and I together.

“From what I understand,” Danny said, “there were no safety wires on the prop bolts.”

“What?” asked Arnie. “How can that be?”

Danny flipped through pages on the report, and read, then flipped some more and read some more.

“It looks like,” he said, “the mechanic that installed the propellor was interrupted as he did the installation. There’s no record as to who finished it, but it looks like when we asked to rent the plane, someone simply bolted the spinner cap on and sent it down to us. There was nothing in the maintenance log that I got with it about the prop being changed at all.”

“So, it was a maintenance issue?” I asked.

“It looks like the bolts weren’t even torqued down properly. There’s nothing in here to say why the mechanic had been interrupted. From what I read, he took ill while he was changing the prop, and then was out sick for the next three days. By the time he returned the plane was gone. He figured someone else had completed the job and thought nothing more of it.”

“Don’t these things all get signed off?” I asked.

“Supposed to,” he said. “But the shop might do the paperwork after the job is completed. Since there’s no record of who put the spinner cap on, there’s no individual that can be held accountable for the accident, but that still leaves the maintenance company liable for it. I would guess that we, and you, will be hearing from them very soon, looking to head off some kind of litigation.”

I grinned at him.

“You think you might get enough to buy the Baron?” I asked.