Chapter 5
DREW
I’d planted the seed and now I had to leave it alone. Pushing her never worked, and it wasn’t like I was trying to pressure her into working with me. She’d either come around or she wouldn’t, and if I kept poking at it, she’d dig in just to prove a point.
I had only suggested she be my assistant because I thought it would be fun, but her reaction made me wonder if I had done something wrong.
I knew we worked well together. We’d proven it. And it would give us a chance to hang out during a really busy time in my life. Was it because I offered to pay her? How was that worse than asking her to do it for free?
I figured she was on a teacher’s salary, so a little extra money couldn’t hurt.
But maybe she thought it was charity, which it wasn’t, of course.
I never treated her any differently than any of my friends.
She wasn’t my poor friend or someone I felt sorry for.
She was a good friend and that was that.
Once I had the idea of bringing her on temporarily as my assistant on the Blackwell Summer project, I couldn’t think of any other person to fill the role.
I could eventually find someone, I assumed, but if she could step in and help out, we’d have some fun this summer. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be seeing each other for at least the next month. And I would have to start searching for someone else to help me out.
I smiled when another thought occurred. I could give Kensey that job. I trusted her judgment. She could find me someone I could trust and I would never have to do a single interview.
Stop trying to offer her jobs. I sighed and shook my head. All I could do was stand back and see what she said.
I pulled up to my brother Hollis’s place, a home in a gated community in Santa Monica. We all loved the beach. How could you not? My place was up the PCH in Malibu. Blackwells dotted the California coastline.
I could already smell something cooking when I pushed through the side gate. The back patio ran the full width of the house, a wide stretch of pale stone with a built-in grill at one end and a long teak table that could seat ten.
My brother Callum was already there, leaning against the railing with a beer in his hand.
Victoria, his wife, was beside him, her hair catching the breeze off the water, laughing at something Cleo had just said.
My sister Cleo was in a sundress and oversized sunglasses, perched on one of the outdoor barstools with a glass of white wine.
My brother Micah was chatting with her. Hollis was at the grill.
He had on an apron with celery on it, and he was cleaning the grill with an onion.
Callum raised his beer in greeting. “Finally.”
“You made it,” Cleo said, tilting her sunglasses down to look at me. “We were starting to think the store swallowed you whole.”
“Almost.” I grabbed a beer from the cooler by the door and twisted the cap off. “What are we looking at?” I nodded toward the grill.
Hollis’s back was to me, but his shoulders went up slightly.
“Hollis’s special burgers,” Victoria said, with the careful diplomatic tone of someone who had been briefed and was trying to stay neutral.
“They’re not just burgers,” Hollis said, without turning around. “They’re a culmination of eight months of development.”
“They’re fake meat,” Callum said.
“They are a plant-based protein blend,” Hollis said with exaggerated patience. “I have been developing them in collaboration with three world-renowned chefs to achieve a flavor and texture profile that rivals anything you’ve ever had before.”
“Beef,” Callum said. “Grass fed beef. There is no rivaling that.”
Hollis turned around and pointed the spatula at the group. “I need you all to come at this with an open mind.”
“My mind is completely open,” Cleo said pleasantly.
He snorted and turned back around. Plant-based. Hollis was always trying to live forever by eating clean and trying to get the rest of us to do so. Thank God he had normal beer. Did they make vegan beer? I didn’t want to know.
I pulled out the chair next to Victoria and sat down, stretching my legs out under the table.
The ocean stretched out in front of us. Calm and brilliant blue.
Not a cloud in the sky. The tension I’d been carrying around all day—Edith, the event, the conversation with Kensey in the car—loosened a notch.
I inhaled the salty air and let it work its magic.
Hollis would be the first to tell anyone the ocean had healing properties. On that, I believed him.
“He’s been working up to this for weeks,” Victoria murmured to me, leaning slightly sideways. “I’ve been told not to make comparisons to other plant-based products. This isn’t a field rolled into a patty.”
“Because they’re not comparable,” Hollis said from the grill.
“What I’ve developed is entirely different.
The blends on the market right now are fine for what they are, but they all have the same problem.
The texture is wrong and the flavor is more spice than protein.
It tastes like something trying to be beef.
Mine doesn’t try to be anything. It just is. ”
Callum took a slow sip of his beer. “Every plant burger I’ve ever eaten has tasted like I was being punished for something.”
“Same,” I said.
Hollis frowned at us over his shoulder. “That is exactly the attitude I expected and exactly the attitude you’re all going to have to abandon in approximately seven minutes when these are done.”
“Seven minutes,” Callum repeated, like he was filing that away.
“The timing is important. You can’t rush the sear.”
“You can’t rush the fake meat,” Micah said solemnly.
For a minute nobody said anything. It was just the sound of the ocean and the sizzle coming off the grates. Did fake meat sizzle? Apparently.
“How’s the store?” Callum asked, settling back in his chair and looking at me.
“Good,” I said. “Really good, actually. We had a strong week. The beach event is coming together.”
Callum nodded. “I knew you’d be good at it.”
“Thanks.”
“You walked the site today?” Callum asked.
“Yeah. We went out to the beach club in Malibu. Walked the whole thing. Menu tasting, layout, the works.” I took a long pull of my beer. “It’s going to be good. The space is perfect.”
“We?” Callum asked.
I paused. “Kensey came with me.”
The reaction was immediate. Cleo’s sunglasses came all the way off. Micah, who had just tipped his chair back on two legs and appeared to be half-asleep, opened one eye.
“Kensey Blake?” Cleo said.
“Do I know another Kensey?”
“She’s back?” Micah asked.
“Who’s Kensey?” Victoria asked.
“His girlfriend,” Callum teased.
“She is a girl and she is my best friend,” I clarified. “She showed up at the store this morning. Out of nowhere. Surprised me.” I kept my voice casual. “She’s home for the whole summer. Teacher’s schedule.”
Callum smiled. “How is she?”
“Good. Same. Better, actually.” I stopped before I said anything else along those lines and took another sip of my beer.
Cleo was watching me with an expression I didn’t particularly love. She could read us far too easily.
“She came with you to the site?” Cleo pressed.
“She was at the store when I had to leave, so I brought her along. She was helpful, actually.” I shifted in my chair. “Which brings me to something I’ve been thinking about. I asked her to come on as my assistant. Just for the summer promo. Temp situation. Six weeks, maybe.”
“What did she say?” Victoria asked.
“She said she’d sleep on it.”
Hollis pointed his spatula at the table. “Burgers are ready. Everybody up.”
There was the usual shuffle of people finding plates and moving toward the grill.
Hollis had set up a whole spread on the side table—brioche buns, a lineup of toppings that I hoped would mask the taste of fake burger.
Sliced tomato, arugula, pickled onions, two different kinds of cheese, three sauces.
For a fake burger, it had a very serious presentation.
“The toppings are all there to complement, not to cover,” Hollis said as if he read my mind. “I want you to taste the burger. Don’t bury it in sauce.”
“Bold request,” Callum said.
I built mine the way I always built a burger. I took a bite, bracing myself for the taste of alfalfa. And then I stopped chewing. Took another bite.
Hollis was watching me with the expression of a man who had been waiting a long time to be vindicated.
“Okay,” I said.
“Okay?” he repeated.
“Okay, it’s good.” I took another bite. “It’s really good, Hollis. I don’t know what’s in this but I don’t feel like a cottontail.”
He rolled his eyes. “Ha. Fucking. Ha.”
Callum was eating and nodding, which meant he was also surprised. He chewed slowly. His jaw stopped. He looked down at the burger in his hands like he needed to verify what he picked up.
“It’s good,” Callum said. “It’s genuinely good.”
Victoria didn’t bother hiding it. “Hollis, this is incredible.”
“Eight months of development,” Hollis said simply.
“We were wrong,” Micah said. “I’ll say it. I was wrong. This is legitimately good.”
Hollis sat down at the head of the table, picked up his own burger, and took a bite. He was already smiling because he knew he’d just created something big.
We talked a bit about summer plans. The latest Blackwell baby news from New York. Usual stuff.
“You seem like you’re in a good mood,” Victoria said. “I know I haven’t known you your whole life, but you seem a lot happier than I’ve seen you in the last six months.”
“I’m always happy,” I replied.
“You’ve been a little stretched lately. Every time Callum talks to you, you sound like you’ve got six things on fire at once.”
“I usually do.”
“Tonight you don’t,” she said. “You seem lighter.”
I considered that. She wasn’t wrong. I knew exactly why. I just wasn’t going to say it out loud at this table.
“Good day,” I said.
“Kensey,” Micah stated.
“What about her?”
“That’s why you’re in a good mood.” He said it with no doubts about his belief. “She showed up and now you’re a human being again.”
“I’m always a human being.”
“Debatable,” Cleo said. She set her glass down and looked at me. I knew that look. Our sister was inquisitive. Always with the questions. What are you feeling? How are you? Do you like her? “Drew, why have you never dated Kensey?”
I shrugged and shook my head. “Because she’s my best friend.”
“She’s also awesome,” Cleo said. “She’s smart and funny and she’s genuinely nice. She clearly thinks the world of you, which requires a certain kind of patience.”
“Thank you, Cleo,” I said. “Your personality is as sparkling as always.”
“I’m serious. Why not? She’s gorgeous. You guys get along so well. I always envied your relationship with her.” My sister met my gaze. “Why not give things with her a try?”
“Because I’m terrible at relationships. You know how I am.
I get bored. I get restless. I’m good for about three months and then I’m looking for the exit.
I’ve done it enough times to know it’s a pattern and not a coincidence.
” I turned my beer in my hands. “I would rather keep her as my best friend for the rest of my life than spend three months trying to be someone’s boyfriend and then blow it up.
It’s not worth the risk. And people always say they’ll still be friends, but they won’t.
There’s always bitterness. I don’t want to change what we have. ”
“Maybe it’s different with the right person,” Victoria said, looking at Callum. “This guy didn’t think he was good at relationships and I definitely didn’t want to be with some rich prick, but here I am.”
Callum laughed. “I don’t remember that line from our wedding vows.”
“I say it with love, obviously.” Victoria grinned and kissed him.
I spread my hands helplessly. “That’s a nice thought, but you and Callum got lucky. I’m not him, and Kensey is my friend. I’m not going to torch that. She’s too good for my bullshit. She deserves better than me.”
“Nobody’s telling you to torch anything,” Cleo said.
“That’s exactly what would happen.”
Micah shrugged. “Maybe none of your other relationships worked out because you already found the right girl.”