365

007 - Analogue [romantic fiction]

Charlie laughed because the thought of her attending a cooking class was honestly pretty funny. She had never been one for stereotypes but whether she was bad at womanly tasks or a natural contrarian, she was about to find out.

Charlie held out the ticket in front of her and read it again. "Chef Gonzales invites you to become a pro!" it boldly claimed. "Join him at 356 Spalding Avenue as he guides you and your class through a culinary adventure!" Below that, outside of the pre-printed area was the handwritten date and time. Chef Gonzales, bushy moustache and all, grinned at her.

Stuffing the ticket back in her pocket, Charlie took a deep breath and stood up as her train arrived at its station. She took the stairs to the surface two at a time until she reached the fresh air.

Her enjoyment of the air did not last long, its biting cold forcing her to pull on her scarf. Within a few minutes she arrived at 365 Spalding, an old brownstone, and ducked inside. What thoughts she had off abandoning the experiment were put on hold when he nose encountered the wonderful, fruity smells inside.

Looking around she took in the class, there looked to be about a dozen students along with Chef Gonzales himself. There was a striking division in the class between young Millennials such as herself, and greying Boomers. Generation X shafted again, she thought.

Chef Gonzales waved to her, "Please, come and join us." His moustache, although quite impressive, must have been photoshopped on the ticket, for it lacked the fullness she had been led to believe it possessed. Could she trust a man who lied about his moustache to teach her the magic of cooking?

"Charlotte!" Roland exclaimed, leaving the group and heading her way. "What are you doing here?"

"Uh, well I won that draw at work... so I am here for the class," she replied, confused to see her coworker. "What about you?"

"Oh, me too," he said, arriving before her with a smile.

Charlie cocked an eyebrow at him; there had only been one ticket, as far as she was aware.

Roland, realizing her suspicion, hastily added, "I mean, I got the idea from the contest. I bought a ticket on my own."

"Right," Charlie said, cautiously removing her scarf and hat; this experiment was perhaps already going sideways.

Roland checked his watch. "The class is just about to begin. Come on!"

Charlie sighed. She was far too invested now, what having taken off both her scarf and her hat. Besides, she reasoned, it was freezing outside.

She did not know that Roland was up to, and he was not her type, but he was very easy on the eyes so she joined him at Chef Gonzales table.

"Welcome everyone! Shall we get started? You all have your tickets, I presume? Excellent! Tonight I will be teaching you about cooking analogues! That is, appropriate replacements in recipes either as a challenge or novelty, or as a necessity in a pinch. Let us begin!"

* * *

"Wow, that Chef Gonzales is really something, eh?" Roland said, pulling on his jacket.

The class was actually a lot of fun and the food was pretty good. Now, whether or not Charlie would have any luck at all replicating the good chef's lessons at home was a different matter entirely.

"Yeah, but I dunno if anything will stick. I am a terrible cook; that ticket was wasted on me."

Roland feigned great offence, "Hey now, I'm not that terrible of company, am I?"

Charlie laughed as she put her scarf on, "No, no, I was glad to have you as a partner." And that was the truth, she had judged Roland too quickly. The two of them had had a lot of fun making a mess over the past 3 hours.

"So Charlotte... how about drinks then?"

She sighed, "I suppose... but only on one condition."

"And that is?" Roland asked, helping her put on her jacket.

"Call me Charlie."