The Love Goddess’ Cooking School

by Melissa Senate

  “Mmm, this smells so good and it’s raw,” Mia said, stirring in the garlic and watching the basil tumble in the bowl. “Daniel isn’t some freaky weirdo, he’s just a loner type and does his own thing. He doesn’t care what anyone thinks about him. Isn’t that awesome?”

  “It is awesome,” Holly said. “I’m beginning to see why you like this boy so much.”

  “He’s so cute too,” Mia said. “Today at school I almost crashed into the water fountain because I was staring at him. “That would have been embarrassing.”

  Tamara nodded. “I had a date last night, and the guy did just that while checking out another woman with huge boobs. Well, he didn’t crash into the water fountain, but into the wall on the way to the men’s room.”

  “I assume there’ll be no second date?” Simon asked.

  “Definitely not. And anyway, I don’t have time for second dates because I have a first date set up every night this week. I’ve decided to take back charge of my own love life. Not because my family makes me feel pressured and like a troll for being single—but because I want to find Mr. Right. And fine, there’s no way I’m showing up single to my younger sister’s wedding and having my relatives say, ‘Maybe if you straightened your hair or stopped being opinionated, your prince would come too.’” She pulled her iPhone out of her bag and touched the little screen. “Tonight, Mark, nine p.m., the bar at 555 in Portland. Tomorrow night, eight p.m., wine tasting at Gem’s wine bar. It goes on and on all week.”

  “Where are you getting all these dates?” Holly asked. “Fix-ups?”

  “Ugh, no way,” Tamara said. “Been there, done that. I’m engineering them myself online. At least I can decide—and usually wrongly—that I might be attracted to someone or have something in common with someone. My last blind date, my best friend Amy fixed me up with her boring accountant for two reasons only: he’s single and he makes a lot of money.”

  “Why would your best friend fix you up with someone boring?” Mia asked. “Just because he has money?”

  “I guess she’s just trying to help, since he’s a single guy and she’s happily married and wants me to find what she has.”

  Mia rolled a meatball, squashing her first attempt but scoring on her second. “Well, my maybe best friend, Madeline Windemere, has a cute, popular boyfriend and thinks I should like his friend, Seamus, but I can’t stand him. He’s always bragging about how great he is and I’ve heard him say really mean things about girls in our school. I hate that Madeline thinks the guy I’m madly crushing on is a loser. I can’t even talk about him with her because she’ll just roll her eyes and say ‘ew.’”

  “Don’t tell anyone I said this,” Tamara mock-whispered to Madeline, “But the Windemeres don’t get to decide who’s a loser and who’s not.”

  “That’s right,” Simon said. “My ex was a Windemere type and I think she’s turning my daughter into one. Apparently I was right about why she doesn’t want to stay over for our weekend. She told her mother that the room I made for her is all wrong and makes her feel like she’s sleeping in a hotel, even though it’s her dad’s apartment. I bought a pink blanket and put up a poster of Dora the Explorer, so I don’t know what else to do.”

  “Dora’s for three-year-olds,” Juliet said, pulling her long cardigan tighter around her slight figure.

  Once again, everyone was so surprised that Juliet had actually spoken that they all stopped what they were doing and stared at her.

  “My daughter loved Boots, Dora’s monkey best friend.” Juliet burst into tears, her hands covering her face, and just stood there and cried.

  Oh, no, Holly thought. No, no no.

  “Why are you crying over that?” Mia asked, rolling another meatball, her gaze darting to Holly’s.

  Juliet took a deep breath. “Do you know what I wish?” she said, taking the plate of meatballs from the island and carefully placing them one by one in the pan on the stove, the hot oil pinging up with each drop. “I wish my daughter didn’t die.” Holly rushed over and took the plate of meatballs just as Juliet burst into tears again. She didn’t run from the room; she just stood there by the stove, sobbing. “But I can wish all I want and it’ll never change.”

  “Oh, Juliet, I am so, so sorry,” Tamara said, taking her hand and rubbing it. Simon moved to the other side and took her other hand.

  Juliet sucked in a breath. “I wish I could go home and find her in her room, playing with her stuffed Boots and singing the ABC song. I wish she was still here.”

  Mia glanced at Holly, then said, “Um, Juliet, is it okay if I ask how she died?”

  Juliet pulled her sweater tighter against her and tucked her chin to her chest. “Something awful called bacterial meningitis. One day she was very sick and her little body couldn’t fight it. She was only three.”

  Simon rushed over to the rolltop desk and grabbed a box of tissues and handed it to Juliet, who clutched it against her.

  “That’s so, so sad,” Mia said, biting her lip. “I’m really sorry.”

  “We’re all sorry,” Holly said, taking Juliet’s hand. “Would you like a cup of tea?” she added, as though that could fix anything.

  Juliet stared out the window for a moment, at the huge oak with the trio of bird feeders. “I’d like a bottle of vodka. But I’ll settle for a glass of red wine, if you have.”

  Holly nodded and reached into the cabinet where her grandmother kept her bottles of wine. She chose a red and opened it, pouring a glass for the adults and some soda for Mia.“Why don’t we go into the living room and just sit and talk,” Holly whispered to Juliet, her heart breaking for her friend. Holly knew how much the loss of a loved one could hurt. But she couldn’t imagine the depth of the pain Juliet was in.

  Simon nodded. “Yeah, we can finish up and call you in when it’s time to try our masterpieces.”

  Juliet shook her head. “That’s all right. I want to be here. Right here in this kitchen. I’m glad I finally said it aloud.”

  “What was her name?” Mia asked.

  Juliet took a breath, her lips trembling. “Evie.”

  “Evie,” Mia repeated. “That’s pretty.”

  Juliet reached out and squeezed Mia’s hand, then took a sip of her wine. “So, what’s the next step?” she said, glancing at the spaghetti boiling on the stove. At that moment the timer went off, and Juliet laughed. “Well, who’s on strainer duty?”

  Tamara placed a large silver colander in the sink, then came over with two oven mitts to lift the heavy pot. Holly, Juliet, Simon, and Mia watched the steam rise before Tamara brought the spaghetti over to the center island and transferred it into a large bowl.

  “I propose a toast,” Juliet said, raising her glass of wine. “To this class. To cooking. To talking. To wishing and remembering, even when it’s very, very painful.”

  Holly wanted to hug Juliet, but she sensed her old friend needed a bit of space, needed to move from the subject of her dear daughter, at least publicly.

  All raised their glasses in the air.

  “Can I try the wine?” Mia asked.

  “I don’t think your dad would appreciate my giving an alcoholic beverage to his tweenage daughter,” Holly said.

  Twice that past week, Liam had come in for pasta and sauce. Alone. No pink woman. He’d been friendly, but nothing more, didn’t bring up their hour-long adventure of looking for Mia. Holly had thought there had been something in that final gesture of his outside her house, something in the way he held up his hand in an okay, you’re safe, I can go now wave, but reading into a man’s wave was ridiculous.

  “Speaking of dads,” Juliet said after a bracing sip of wine, “Simon, I think eight-year-olds are into Hannah Montana. A girlfriend of mine has a nine-year-old and she’s nuts about Hannah Montana.”

  Mia nodded. “I was too. I still am, well, not so much Hannah Montana, but I like Miley Cyrus.”

  Simon let the garlic press drop on the counter. “I just don’t know what I’m doing. I get the feeling tha
t even if I go buy a Hannah Montana poster and hang it up, she’ll walk in and look at it and then just sit on the bed and stare at the floor. It’s not the room, you know? But it kind of is. I think if I could just get that right, really right, she’d feel more comfortable or want to be in there and then maybe she’d open up a little. She hates me since the split, and I’m not the one who left. I think my wife—my almost ex-wife, I should say—wants me to fail at this, wants Cass to hate me.”

  “That’s sad,” Juliet said. “And wrong.”

  “We’ll help,” Tamara said. “One thing we all are is girls. I’m an interior decorator. Show us your space, and then we’ll descend on Target and whip you up a girly paradise bedroom on a budget.”

  “Really?” he said, clearly touched. “I do need help.”

  “Then you might want to never wear that shirt again,” Mia said, eyeing his loud, plaid button-down. “I mean, my eyes.”

  He laughed, and even Juliet smiled. And just like that, they had plans as a group to meet at Simon’s apartment the next night at six p.m., as though they were … friends. Holly liked that. A lot.

  When Holly arrived at the Gellers’ the next night to pick up Mia, her eyes were almost blinded by the shiny white Prius, with a Maine license plate reading JODIE, parked next to Liam’s navy-blue SUV. Mia couldn’t be happy about providing her father and the bobblehead—Jodie, Holly corrected herself—privacy for a couple of hours by having plans. And Holly had to admit her own heart had sunk at the sight of the name with its extra e. Everything about Jodie was extra.

  Holly took a deep breath and rang the bell, three baroque chimes, and Liam answered the door, looking gorgeous in a dark green long-sleeved T-shirt and jeans. “Hey, Holly,” he said. “Mia, it’s time for your field trip,” he called toward the stairs. He smiled at Holly, and for a moment all thought went out of her head except for an urge to kiss him. Full on the lips.

  Until she heard a certain girly voice. “Now Mia, honey, are you sure you don’t want me to write down my suggestions? Pink, pink, and more pink. Glitter too. My eight-year-old niece has a princess bedroom that’s even been photographed for a local magazine, and I helped decorate it.”

  At the sight of Jodie coming around the corner with Mia, Holly felt a little gray cloud pass overhead.

  Mia glanced at Holly and surreptitiously rolled her eyes. “Uh, thanks, but Simon said his daughter isn’t really princessy. She’s—Holly, what’s that word?”

  “Eclectic,” Holly said, smiling at Mia. She turned to Jodie, as casually dressed as Liam, in tight, low-slung jeans that Holly knew would show the teensiet bit of thong in the back, and a tight pink mohair cardigan with a pink lacy cami peeking out. She hated to think what would go on in this wonderful little house by the bay after she and Mia left.

  “Yeah, eclectic,” Mia said. “She likes girl stuff, but she’s also really into the planets and science.”

  “Well, isn’t that nice,” Jodie said with her too-bright smile, linking her arm with Liam’s.

  Mia slipped on a thick hoodie and wrinkled up her nose. “Bye.”

  “I’ll have her back no later than eight, is that all right?” Holly asked Liam as she and Mia walked to the door.

  “That is just fine,” Jodie said before Liam could open his mouth. “Have fun!” she added, opening the door and practically pushing Mia and Holly out. As they headed up the path to the driveway, Holly could have sworn she heard a “Now where were we?” in Jodie’s girlie voice.

  I don’t care, she told herself. I don’t care. I don’t like him. I shouldn’t like him.

  Mia stuck her finger in her mouth and mock gagged. “I almost wanted to cancel on tonight and fake a barf attack so he’d have to cancel on Jokie,” she said, getting into Holly’s car. “What I don’t get is how he can stand her. She’s so fake! I think her teeth were even bleached brighter white than the last time she was over, which was like the other day.”

  Fake, but pretty. And sexy. And probably a lot of other things, like good in bed.

  “Well, that’s the amazing thing about chemistry,” Holly said, starting the car. “You can’t help who you like, who you’re drawn to. That’s what’s so mysterious and amazing about the human heart.”

  “Yeah, like if I were remotely attracted to Seamus, my life would be a lot easier. But lately all I can think about is Daniel.”

  Holly smiled. She remembered her first crush as a twelve-year-old. The boy’s name was Ethan Walsh. Holly had liked him so much that she’d actually let her friend ask Ethan if he liked Holly back, and he’d said no, not at all, but she’s good at Spanish, and nothing had gotten Holly to smile for two weeks.

  “But now I have this huge problem,” Mia said as they made a right turn onto Blue Crab Boulevard. Simon lived on the other side of the island, away from the water, in a new condo development that half the islanders had tried to prevent.

  “What?” Holly asked, glancing at her.

  “Well, the first part of my problem is great. But the second part is the problem. Here’s the great part.” She turned to face Holly, a big happy grin on her pretty face. “Guess who asked me to the Fall Ball today?”

  “Daniel?”

  “Yes!” she squealed. “After history, he asked if he could talk to me privately for a minute, and I thought he was going to ask if he could borrow my notes from yesterday, since we’re having a quiz tomorrow, and I rock at every test in history, but he took my hand, took my hand,” she repeated, closing her eyes and sighing, “and led me over to this little space between the locker banks, and asked if I was going to the Fall Ball, and I said, ‘Well, I want to, and he said, ‘Well, would you like to go with me?’ and I said, ‘I would so like that,’ and he smiled this smile I will never forget for the rest of my life.”

  Holly grinned. “That’s great, Mia! I’m so happy for you!”

  “I can’t even believe it. Do you think it’s because I wished it into the meatballs?”

  Holly laughed. “Maybe so. Wishing can work. But I’ll bet it’s because Daniel likes you.”

  “Yeah, and that’s the problem,” Mia said as Holly pulled her car into the Blueberry Ledge Condominiums, double-checking the address Simon had scribbled down. “My friend Madeline said again that Daniel Dressler is not in our league and if I’m going to drool over weird guys who think they’re cool when they’re so not, I’ll need to find new friends.”

  Good Lord. This crap never changed. “She said that?”

  Mia gnawed her lower lip. “Yup. And the other Ms backed her up. And then Madeline said, ‘Everyone knows the girl code is that your friends are supposed to come before some guy.’ And that she hoped I knew that too or I wasn’t M material.”

  Wow, the mini Windemere was tricky stuff. “Mia, there really isn’t a girl code, but if there was one, it would be about friends supporting each other. If you like a boy, and your friends don’t get it, they should still be excited for you. Especially if he asked you to an important school dance and you’re so happy about that.”

  “So I don’t have to tell Daniel I can’t go with him?”

  “Nope.”

  “Oh, good! Because I like him so much!” Her shoulders slumped. “But then I won’t have any friends. Madeline and her clique are really popular. If they kick me out, I’ll be like an outcast. And then what if Daniel dumps me for being a total loser?”

  “First of all, you’ll very likely find new friends. Friends without conditions. Friends that will back you up. Friends who are excited for you when you’re happy and there for you when you’re sad. And from how you’ve described Daniel, he doesn’t make decisions based on what other people think.”

  Mia brightened. “And maybe there’s a chance Madeline doesn’t really mean it.”

  Holly would love to know what Jodie would say to all this. Court the popular friend and forget the downer boy most likely. Mia could just hear her use the twisted girl code to say: Mia, sweetie, boys come and go, but friends are forever.

  �
��What do you think I should do?” Mia asked as Holly turned at the drive marked Condo Group B 1–12, pulling into a spot marked GUEST PARKING. They headed up the path to building B-6. The two-story white condos were identical, each with a little balcony and a black front door. A closed up pool dominated the grassy area in front of the building marked ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT, and a group of people, all of whom seemed to be holding Starbucks cups, stood in a long dog run, five or six dogs chasing happily after each other.

  “I think you should do what feels right to you. And I sense that’s saying yes to Daniel.”

  Mia’s face lit up. “It is. Do you want to know a secret?” She leaned closer. “I don’t even really like Madeline or her friends all that much.”

  You’re gonna be okay, Mia girl, Holly thought as Mia rang the bell and Simon welcomed them in.

  Despite the fact that Simon was a research scientist full of quirky personality, the apartment was devoid of character altogether and had just enough furniture that was required for basic comfort: a small sofa, a coffee table, and a wall unit holding the TV. Those vinyl miniblinds on the wall. No rug. The kitchen, with its fake wood cabinets, held a square table and four chairs. Simon’s bedroom was equally boring, with bed-in-a-bag green-and-white striped bedding and a beat-up dresser with a picture of him and his daughter on it. Cass looked just like her cute dad, with her doe eyes and sandy blond hair. In the photo they were cheek to cheek, happier days, Holly figured, and likely the only happy cheek-to-cheek current photograph Simon had of himself and his daughter.

  And then there was Cass’s room. Just as devoid of personality, let alone girl or childhood, as the rest of the place. There was a twin bed jutting out under the window with a pink comforter and one pink pillow, upon which lay a stuffed rabbit with long floppy ears. More vinyl miniblinds on the windows. A wood dresser and matching desk and a small pink and tan round rug rounded out the rest of the furnishings. The only personal items were a wall calendar of the planets above the desk, two books about the solar system, and the entire hardback Harry Potter series. The closet door was open and Holly could see a bunch of light blue clothes. The room was perfectly okay, if a little standard and boring and unwelcoming. Especially for a little girl whose home life had just been upended and needed to feel like going to her dad’s new apartment was just as much her home as her main one had been.