CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER THREE
“Sis, you’re slurring so bad, I could’ve sworn you just said Otis is gay.”
“I did,” Ali hiccupped into her cell phone. She took another glug of champagne. She’d almost drained the entire thing.
“GAY,” she said again, resting her forehead on the kitchen table. “G. A. Double Y.”
On the other end of the line, her brother Teddy was completely silent. Finally, he let out a high-pitched exclamation.
“You know, he never set my gaydar off once. But I totally see it now you mention it. He has a swagger in his hips. And he’s always with that Colton guy, who’s as gay as pink lemonade. Oh…”
“Yeah,” Ali said glumly. “Oh.”
Teddy was always Ali’s go-to when she needed support. You’d think it would be Hannah but ever since she’d become a hard, corporate type, trying to connect with her on an emotional level was like trying to get blood from a stone. Hannah had always been serious, even before their parents divorced. Their mom, Georgia, liked to joke that Hannah was born in a business suit, but Hannah didn’t find it funny because Hannah didn’t find anything funny.
Teddy, on the other hand, was a gregarious laugher, a free spirit, a fun seeker, the life and soul of every party. He was, quite simply, Ali’s favorite human being on the planet.
“I’m so sorry, Ali-cat,” he said, using the affectionate nickname he’d given her as a kid after she’d become obsessed with cats, which she still was to this day. “What are you going to do?”
“Well, Teddy-bear,” Ali replied, using
his
pet name, whose origins were altogether more obvious. “I’m going to finish drinking this bottle of expensive champagne and then I’m going to give Otis’s computer a bath.” She let out a wry snort.
“Sounds like a solid plan,” Teddy joked. “And after that? Is he moving out? Are you staying in the apartment? Are you going to keep living there? I mean, I know you can afford it on your own…”
He used a pointed tone. Teddy had always been particularly unimpressed with the way Otis loafed off of her, especially since Teddy was an aspiring actor himself and he’d worked every menial job under the sun to pay his way.
With the topic turning to work, Ali gasped. She’d been so sidetracked by Otis’s bombshell, she’d completely forgotten about the other life-changing event she’d gone through that day.
She placed the champagne bottle down on the table clumsily, and it landed with a heavy-handed thud.
“That’s the other thing,” she said, feeling distinctly more sober. “I don’t have a job anymore.”
Teddy gasped. “What? Why? What happened?”
“The inevitable. I made the crème brûlée that broke the camel’s back.”
Teddy fell silent. “Hon. Is this the beginning of a spiral? I’m in Venice Beach at the moment but I can catch a cab if you need me.”
“Oh please,” Ali scoffed. “I’m not Hannah. I know it’s unhealthy to suppress emotions. I don’t spiral.”
For all her successes in life, Hannah’s emotional well-being left a lot to be desired. Their marathon-running, junk-food-abstaining, vitamin-popping sister could not be convinced that an hour a week with a therapist would do as much good for her health as the other three. More, probably, considering just how tightly wound she was.
“Then enlighten me,” Teddy said. “Why has my absurdly talented little sister just quit a steady, handsomely paying job she’d trained hard for years to get? Training that used up her inheritance, as well, if I recall correctly.”
When he put it that way, Ali did start to see how rash she’d been.
“Let me clarify,” Ali began, finding her poise. “I got fired.”
“That’s worse!” Teddy exclaimed. “It’ll look terrible on your CV! You’ll never get another job as a pastry chef now.”
“I don’t want another job as a pastry chef,” Ali told him, firmly. “I don’t want to make crème brûlées every damn hour of every damn day. You said it yourself, I’m talented. I trained hard. I spent a ton of money. I’m more than just a crème brûlée girl!”
“I wish I was recording this,” Teddy murmured. “Tell me. What are you?”
“I’m… I’m a pâtissier! I’m Milo Baptiste’s protégé. I’m… I’m… unemployed.”
The reality hit her just like that. She no longer had a job. Or an income. A wave of panic started rising through her.
“You’re also single,” Teddy added.
“Teddy!” Ali wailed. “Why would you say that?”
“Because it’s true, and you’re going to have to process it. You said yourself, you’re no Hannah. In which case, you’d better let it all out.”
He spoke in a soothing tone, but if he’d been physically present, Ali still would’ve smacked him.
“Get it all out of your system,” he continued, sounding like a self-help guru.
Her emotions got the better of her. Tears spilled down her cheeks. She let out a stifled, hiccupping sob.
“There,” Teddy said. “Don’t you feel better for having gotten that out of your system?”
Ali sniffed. “A little.”
“Good. Now tomorrow you can wake up as the fierce tigress you are and take on the world.”
“You think I’m fierce?”
“The fiercest,” Teddy told her.
“Thanks,” she mumbled.
“What are you?” Teddy prompted.
“A tigress,” she murmured.
“That’s right. You’re going to land on your feet. Now what’s your goddamn plan, woman!”
“I don’t have one yet.”
“Do you have any savings?”
“No. But I’ll get by. You do.”
“I signed up for instability,” he told her, sternly. “I’m built for it. You’re not. That’s why you studied hard and got a sensible job.”
“Hey, didn’t you have an audition today?” Ali asked, diverting the conversation for a much needed moment of respite.
“Ugh. Don’t even. It was lousy,” he said. “I definitely didn’t get the part. According to the very straight director, in his pale jeans and backwards baseball cap, I didn’t read gay enough. Me!” He let out a rueful laugh. “As if he was expecting a certain level of innate flamboyance. You know, because my actually being a gay man doesn’t make me qualified enough to accurately portray one!”
“Maybe you should audition for Otis’s gay sitcom in New York,” Ali said, glumly.
Teddy paused. “Gay sitcom? In New York?” He gasped theatrically. “Don’t tell me he landed a role on
Kweenz.
”
“I don’t know what it’s called.”
“Oh, hon. If he did, he is going to be a star and mark my words. You’re a couple of months away from being the poor straight ex-lover of a gay superstar actor. He’s going to talk about you in interviews.
‘I loved her so much, but I couldn’t keep living a lie,’
blah blah blah.”
“Great,” Ali said glumly. “I have that to look forward to.”
“Now listen,” Teddy said, suddenly sounding all business. “You have got to use this to your advantage. Sort your stuff out right this instant. Find your next step, your next path, and take this moment to shine. Quick fire. Don’t think, just answer. What do you want to be? Go.”
“A pâtissier.”
He made the noise of an incorrect buzzer on a gameshow. “Wrong answer. You already blew that. Try again. Think bigger.”
“Bigger? I mean, I guess I did always picture myself running my own bakery. Baking all the things I wanted to. Wearing pearls like Julia Child. Using my creativity like Milo taught me to. I could fill the menu with exquisite French pastries and I’d never have to make another crème brûlée!”
Teddy clapped. “There you go! Now hold on to that dream, sis. Hold on to it. Visualize it. We need to put it out into the universe.”
The universe,
Ali thought ruefully.
But she did as she was commanded. She closed her eyes and pictured herself as a business owner, standing proudly outside the doors of a gorgeous high-end bakery. The warm California sun shining down on her, an ocean breeze rippling through her blond braid. No, not braid. Her loose blond hair, with a perfect wave. She was her own manager. There was no Russell barking demands at her. No Otis taking her earnings. There was the dog she’d always wanted at her feet, and a hanging basket of pretty pink flowers, and a gorgeous hunky man with his top off…
“Can you see it?” came Teddy’s voice in her ear.
“I can see it,” she said dreamily.
“Wanna know how you make it happen?”
“Yes,” she said, licking her lips at the sun-kissed golden skin of her dream heartthrob.
“Come to Willow Bay with me tomorrow.”
Ali frowned. She opened her eyes. The gorgeous beach hunk of her dreams disappeared as she was transported back to her lonely apartment.
“Where?” she asked.
“Willow Bay. It’s near Venice. There’s this boardwalk I’ve never been to, full of new stores. Food stores. They’re having a food festival tomorrow. You could do some networking. Ask for some advice.”
“Networking?” Ali said with a grimace. “That sounds a bit
actorish
.”
“Say you’ll come. Step one of your new life. Please?”
Ali hesitated. It wasn’t like she had anything better going on. No job. No boyfriend. May as well eat her way through her woes. That was step one to healing a broken heart, after all.
“Fine,” she said. “What’s the worst that could happen?”