Over the next few days, the four of us worked like crazy to get the restaurant ready for opening day. We finished painting the whole place, and we installed new light fixtures in the dining room. Flowers were planted around the outside of the building, the floors scrubbed until the original color of the tiles came through. Just as my mom had predicted, I loved my job.
Best of all, Lisa and I were really connecting. She told me stories about New York and the amazing things she’d seen and done there. She’d been on family trips to San Francisco and Paris and even Tokyo. She’d done so many things that I’d only dreamed about. We were the same age, but it seemed to me she had a big head start in life.
I couldn’t tell if she thought of me as boyfriend material though, or if she just wanted to be friends. She was always throwing her arms around me and giving me spontaneous hugs, or reaching out to mess up my hair. She spent so much time talking or laughing or dancing that it was hard to tell what she was thinking most of the time. Every once in a while, she’d get kind of moody and stop talking altogether, but it never lasted long. With Lisa, you learned to just go with the flow.
The main thing was that she seemed to like me, which was a good start. Now I had to figure out how to get her to like me like me. As in, want to jump my bones and make a man out of me. If I could make that happen, it would prove to everyone—and to me—that I wasn’t gay.
If only it was that simple. I couldn’t really figure out how I felt about her. I thought she was totally beautiful, not to mention the most interesting person I’d ever met. But even though I thought about her all the time, I didn’t care about what she looked like naked. I never thought about having sex with her. I just wanted to be around her all the time.
On the night before the opening, we ended up working till well after dark putting the finishing touches on the place. It was almost midnight when Denise told Lisa and me to stand back and look at the dining room.
“What do you guys think?” Denise asked.
“I think it looks great,” I said, and Lisa agreed. The walls were painted a soft bluish gray, the color of the ocean in the morning, and the tables were set with crisp white linens. On top of each one was a small vase of wildflowers, and on the walls were photos Denise had taken of the local area. Fishing boats heading in from the catch, kids playing on the beach, wild rose bushes beside a dusty dirt road. It looked like a real restaurant. Denise couldn’t stop smiling.
We joined JP in the kitchen, where he was putting the finishing touches on his workspace. The stainless steel gleamed, the shelves were neatly stocked and the big glass-fronted refrigerators were full of food.
“Hey, JP, if you’re not too busy admiring your reflection in the counter, why don’t you whip us up something to eat?” Denise said.
“Denise, Denise, when the clock strikes ten, I turn into a little pumpkin. You know that.”
“What if I grab us a bottle of wine from out front?”
“Now you’re talking. How about you kids? Are you hungry?”
We nodded, and he motioned to us to pull up some stools around the counter.
“If you wanna eat my food, you gotta watch me make it. Look and learn, friends. You’ll be happy you did. But first, some music, don’t you think?”
He dug around in a stack of tapes on the shelf next to le boom box and snapped one on. The kitchen was filled with music that made me feel like dancing, and that’s exactly what JP did, shimmying around the kitchen, grabbing veggies and a knife, and chopping with lightning speed.
Then that time I went and said goodbye,
Now I’m back and not ashamed to cry,
Ooooooh baby, here I am, signed, sealed, delivered,
I’m yours.
“This sounds familiar,” I said. “What is it?”
JP stopped his knife in midslice as he spun to look at me. “Sounds familiar? What the hell planet have you been living on?! You really don’t know who this is?” I hesitated, then shook my head. JP made the sign of the cross and turned to Lisa.
“It’s Stevie Wonder,” she said.
“Thank you! Yai yai yai.” JP shook his knife at me. “You be grateful. If she hadn’t known, you’d both be eating hot dogs in the parking lot. You’ve got a lot to learn, that’s for sure.”
He switched on the gas stovetop, tossed some oil into a pan and in a matter of what seemed like seconds, he’d chopped up some garlic and thrown it onto the heat. I was hypnotized by the unfamiliar aromas. Working smoothly, almost in time to the music, and occasionally reaching over to take a healthy swig from his wineglass, JP added vegetables to the pan, tossed in white wine, cream and some cooked pasta. Before we knew it, he was filling our plates, topping them with ground pepper and sliding them across the stainless steel counter toward us.
I took a bite, and for a moment all I was aware of was the food. It was like nothing I’d ever tasted—rich and smooth and absolutely delicious. For a few minutes, there was complete silence as we devoured the pasta.
Lisa let out a deep and satisfied sigh and said, “Aren’t you going to eat anything, JP?” He waved her off.
“You’ll soon realize that JP survives on cigarettes and red wine,” said Denise. “Now why don’t you kids get out of here? Tomorrow’s a big day. You should go home and try to get some sleep.” I started to gather up the dishes and take them over to the sink to wash, but she stopped me. “Don’t worry about it, Dan. JP and I will finish cleaning up. Lisa, can you give Danny a ride home?”
“Sure.”
I’d been hoping something like this would happen. Until now, Denise had driven me home every night after work. Maybe some time alone with Lisa would help me figure out what she really thought of me.
In the parking lot, as Lisa rummaged around in her bag for her keys, I could hear Denise and JP laughing on the deck. The faint aroma of sweet-smelling smoke wafted toward us on the summer breeze.
“Is that pot?” I asked, hoping I didn’t sound like a supernerd.
“Yeah, big surprise, eh? I bet those crazy old hippies couldn’t wait to get us out of there so they could blaze up. Aha!” She pulled the keys triumphantly out of her bag.
I waited outside the car for a minute while she quickly threw tapes, books, makeup and clothes into the backseat.
“Sorry! I’ve been pretty much living out of this thing. Hop in.”
“Did you drive this car all the way up from New York?” I asked as I wedged myself in amidst the clutter.
“You mean Old Bessie here? No way. I never would have made it all the way here in this piece of shit. It’s my aunt’s. This thing has been rusting out in her backyard for years. She’s letting me use it for the summer.”
She turned the key, and the engine made a horrible grinding sound before finally turning over.
“Good girl!” She patted the dashboard appreciatively.
I gave her directions to my house, and she peeled out of the parking lot. I tried not to pay attention to the erratic clanging and rattling noises that seemed to come from all corners of the car.
“Man,” I said as we headed out of town, “that pasta was delicious!”
She shrugged. “Yeah, it was okay. JP is a decent chef. Definitely not the best I’ve worked with though.”
Maybe she was right, but the meal JP had prepared was easily the best thing I’d ever eaten. I couldn’t wait to find out what else he could do in the kitchen.
“So,” she said, “tell me about your love life. Got your eyes on anyone special?”
My heart fluttered. Was she asking just to be polite, or did she have deeper motives?
“Wha—me? No. I mean, I dated this girl, Michelle, for a while, but it didn’t really work out.”
She nodded and kept driving.
“How about you?” I asked.
“Nope.” I waited for her to elaborate, but she didn’t say anything else.
She pulled into the driveway.
“Here ya go, sailor,” she said. “Big day tomorrow.”
I turned to her and smiled, and she smiled back.
For a brief moment, I imagined reaching over and putting my hand on her face, leaning in and kissing her. Maybe all I had to do was make one little move, and everything else would fall into place. Instead, I opened the door and jumped out of the car, and she pulled away with a short honk of her horn, her hand waving cheerfully out the window.
I stood and watched as Old Bessie clattered away. What’s wrong with me? I thought as her headlights disappeared into the night.