The Cat’s Meow, the family restaurant across the street from the Whitman Street Cat Café, had not been an instant success, but in the year since its opening, it had built a steadily growing, reliable base of regular customers.
A bead of sweat slid down the side of Lindsay’s face as she ran a cloth along the edge of a plate to get rid of a wayward drop of sauce. One of the most popular dishes on the menu had been one of her inventions, a boneless fried chicken thigh that she served with creamy mashed potatoes and a bright, acidic arugula salad to cut the richness of the chicken. Brad had helped her with the chicken seasoning, and they’d made their own spice blend that they were thinking about bottling and selling at the restaurant.
Brad was right next to her, torching a banana crème brûlée. He shot her a quick glance as he shut off the torch and garnished the little ramekin of custard with a vanilla wafer and a sprig of mint. They put their plates up on the shelf above them and yelled “Order up!” simultaneously. Brad laughed.
Joey walked into the kitchen. “It’s busy tonight! There are six people waiting in the vestibule up front and all of the outdoor seating is taken.”
“I know we’re the only ones who care about the anniversary,” said Brad, “but it’s possible I told my friends to come tonight. They’re at table eleven.”
“Table seven is full of my friends,” said Lindsay.
Joey laughed. “Well, you should go out there and tell them to hurry it up so that we can seat all the people waiting up front.” He shook his head. “I’m only kind of kidding.”
“I have a better idea,” said Brad. “Come with me, Linds.”
They walked out of the kitchen. Lindsay spotted her friends at table seven. Lauren and Caleb were there, with toddler Hannah in a high chair between them. Paige and Josh sat there, too; Paige had so much less stress in her life now that their wedding was behind them, and married life had seemed to be pretty good for them. Evan and Pablo were at that table, too, and that was a wild story, but Lindsay was just happy her friends were happy. It looked like they’d just been served dessert.
Aaron and Sam and their spouses were seated at table eleven, just as Brad had indicated. They looked to be about halfway through their entrées.
Brad snared a water glass from a busboy and banged a fork against it. All eyes in the restaurant turned toward them.
“Hi, everyone,” Brad said.
Lindsay felt herself shrink in a little. She’d always been more comfortable behind the scenes. She didn’t like that Brad was about to make a spectacle. But she figured if he just wanted to make a speech about how grateful he was that they’d made this restaurant last a whole year, she’d let him. They clearly looked like chefs now in their white coats with the Cat’s Meow logo on them, so she figured everyone would know who they were.
The dining room was indeed packed. Lindsay craned her neck and saw a group of people waiting near the host stand. She’d never anticipated this kind of success, but apparently a creative restaurant welcome to families was exactly what the neighborhood needed.
“My name is Brad Marks, and I’m the executive pastry chef here. This here is Lindsay Somers. She’s the executive chef. The two of us are mostly responsible for the meal you have before you. And tonight marks the one-year anniversary of our grand opening, so we wanted to thank you for dining with us tonight.”
There was a smattering of applause, although some of the strangers probably thought this speechifying was a little weird.
But then Brad turned to Lindsay.
“As some of you know, Lindsay is my partner in both food and life, and I thought to use the occasion of the one-year anniversary of our running this place to ask an important question.”
Lindsay realized what was happening with a start. She stared at Brad in disbelief as he reached into the pocket of his white chef’s coat and started to lower himself into a kneel.
This was not happening. Was this really happening?
At her feet, Brad opened a ring box, revealing a perfect gold circle with a huge diamond.
“Lindsay Somers, will you marry me?”
Lindsay didn’t want to cry in front of this big crowd, but she felt tears prick at her eyes anyway. Because of course she would marry him. She loved him. In the year that they had been working and cooking and living together, she’d grown to love him more each day.
“Yes,” she said, though it came out sounding choked. So she cleared her throat and said, “Yes!” more forcefully.
Brad was on his feet and holding her in his arms before she knew what was happening. She laughed, caught up in his enthusiasm. Then he slipped the ring on her finger and held her hand in the air.
“In case you didn’t hear that, she said yes!”
Everyone in the room applauded enthusiastically that time. Maybe people didn’t care that a neighborhood restaurant had been open a year, but everyone was a sucker for a public marriage proposal.
Brad kissed Lindsay soundly and then turned back to the dining room. “All right, everyone. Thank you for indulging me. We gotta get back to the kitchen, and you deserve to finish your meal in peace. Also, if you’re our friends, eat up and get out of here, because we’ve got people waiting to get in.”
Lindsay’s friends at least laughed at that.
When they were back in the kitchen a few minutes later, Lindsay kissed Brad and said, “I can’t believe you did that.”
“This is an important night for us professionally. I liked the symbolism of it.”
Lindsay couldn’t get over it. She admired the ring on her finger and thought about what a dream this was. All of it was a dream she never wanted to wake up from.
“Well,” she said, shoving her hand in her pocket. “Tickets piled up while you pulled that stunt. Time to get back to work.”
Brad grinned.