On the Corner of Hopeless and Hopeful

Meal 09

0 9

Paella  

Nami was making the finishing touches on the sign when Rosemary called her to the kitchen. A regular and good friend of Rosemary was treating his girlfriend to a celebration dinner. Rosemary who wanted to make it extra special decided to close the restaurant early to have it just for the two of them.

Isabel was sent to fetch some special décor and Nami was tasked with making signs to warn about the early closure. In the kitchen, Rosemary had measured and laid out all the ingredients for the main meal, Paella.

"Over here kid," Nami said as she dropped four lobster tails into boiling water. "Let them cook until they turn pink. Then I want you to take then out, remove the shell and cut into chunks. But keep the water."

"What are you going to do?"

"I need to finish the dessert a congratulatory cake doesn't make itself."

While Rosemary was making cake batter, she continued to give Nami instructions on the rice part. In a deep pan, Nami sautéed onions before adding in the rice making sure she stirred constantly. Then she added chopped garlic and the lobster cooking water.

"Add the saffron over there along with the water it's soaked in. For the salt, paprika, cayenne and Aleppo pepper I want you to add what you see fit. Don't forget throw the taste spoon into the sink after."

Nami added in the seasoning to what she seemed fit and luckily for her, Rosemary agreed too. The cake needed to be in the over for another half hour so the chef went to check on her apprentice.

"Stir in the tomato and green beans," Nami was handed a bowl of chopped tomatoes and another of green beans, "then bring it to a boil and cook on low with the lid on."

When Nami finished making the icing for the cake and dirty icing the cake, it was just in time for her to add shrimp onto the rice. She spent the next fifteen minutes icing the second layer before finishing her paella off with lobster bits and parsley.

"I'm going to go work on the soup. Can you finish the icing and when you're done that go see if Isabel needs any more help. If she doesn't then you're done for the day kid."

"Got it."

Perhaps the hardest task Nami had to deal with was icing the cake. It wasn't a large one, it was Rosemary's classic 8 inch red velvet and chocolate checkered cake but it needed to hold quite a bit of words on it in a need fashion.

Rosemary had already planned out the spacing and the font, all Nami had to do was make it happen, no big deal. So after fifteen minutes of hard work, Nami was able to write "Liv congrats on passing the bar exam – N" along with a drawing of blue notebook.

With the cake and décor finished, Nami was free for the rest of the day. She figured she might as well keep up her regular status and grab some food at Sum Coffee.

Mimi Saki, Sum Coffee

On her way out, Nami passed by a beautiful red haired woman walking hand-in-hand with a brown haired man who snuck in a kiss on the cheek as they walked past Nami. She wondered if the young couple was the one that would be feasting in the restaurant for the evening and she was pretty sure when she saw a blue notebook sticking out of his backpack.

According to Mimi, one of the waitresses, Nami was always in a trance whenever she arrived at the shop. Nami wouldn't blame her, every time she saw Mimi she had to wonder if she was Nozomi. Her trance was her wondering how she should ask. She couldn't just go, Hey I work with your mom and she told me about your backstory. I just want to let you know that she's changed and I think she would like to meet you again.

"... there?"

"Pardon?" Nami said.

"Trancey McGee are you there?" Mimi asked.

"Yeah sorry about that."

"What can I getcha?"

"The usual please."

N O T E 

So for you WPLI fans I guess you can rest happy knowing that Liv and Nickel did meet and clearly enjoy each other's company and for a while too. Their date meal is in the external link. They might make another cameo in a bonus chapter at the end of the novel, that is if I write said chapter.