5.29.2009

My Interview with Jack

Jack has agreed to meet with me at his restaurant where he is busy trying out recipes for his opening. The parking lot is empty as I park around back and look for the entrance that he said would be unlocked. . .

“Hey Jack.” I said as I walked through the double doors of his restaurant and into his kitchen. He was standing at a metal counter in a white chef’s coat decorating some kind of yummy looking chocolate ball with an even yummier looking sauce.


“Try this.” He said pushing one of the balls towards me.

“I don’t know, I’m getting a sugar rush just looking at it, I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

“Don’t be a wuss,” he said, “it’s only chocolate.”

I bit into the chocolate glob and my senses were overloaded with different flavors, chocolate, mint, cream. “What is this?” I asked through a mouthful of wonderful.

“Crème de Mint Oreo Truffles.” He grinned. “What do you think?”

“I think I’m in love with your kitchen powers. Wanna move in with me?” I asked while licking my fingers clean.

“Aren’t you married?”

“Oh. Yeah.” I sighed. “Oh well, at least he can barbecue.”

“See? Every man has at least one redeeming quality.” He said. “Now if only I could get some other people to see that.”

Ah, the opening I’d been hoping for. “Yeah, about Carly.” I began.

“It wasn’t my idea to keep it on a first name basis.” He said with a little irritation and a whole lot of force. “I really like Carly. I want to know everything about her. She’s the one who was so insistent on playing games.”

“What kind of games were you playing Jack?” I asked quietly.

“Me?” he looked surprised. “I don’t play games. You know that.” He turned his back on me and walked the truffles over to the walk in refrigerator.

“You’re right. I know it’s true. And that’s great that I know, but we’ve already established that I’m only hot for your truffles. What are you going to do about Carly?”

“I don’t know.” he sighed. Walking over to the large mixer he began dumping ingredients into the giant bowl and flipped it on; then he looked over at me and grinned, “Maybe I should take her some truffles.”

“It certainly couldn’t hurt.” I laughed. “Of course, you could always just tell her the truth.”

He starred at his shoes for a minute and then glared up at me. His eyes were dark with anger and frustration. “You think I don’t want to do just that? Do you think I enjoy having her think I’m the biggest asshole on the planet?” he spit the words at me. “Erika, she doesn’t think I’m a good man. She doesn’t believe that I’m capable of honesty, faithfulness or worthy of her trust and it is killing me.” He said as he pound his fist in the center of his chest. “But I know that I am all of those things she thinks I’m not, and if I tell her the truth, if I break my promise, then it’s all for naught because she will have been right.” He let out a sigh and crossed his arms over the top of the mixer, resting his head. “This isn’t forever, this promise. Not that I’m in any hurry for Ellen to die, but that is what is going to happen. Why should she be burdened with this bullshit in her last days?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that you should compromise your principles.”

“I know you didn’t.” he said turning off the mixer and running both hands over his head. “I’m sorry I yelled at you. I’m just so aggravated. The only thing I’m guilty of is being too stupid to not divorce Trish years ago.” His cell phone rang and he reached into the front pocket of his jeans to answer it.

“Hello?” he said and paused. “Hey Norman.” A longer pause. “Okay, give me 10 minutes.” He flipped his phone shut and took off his chef’s coat leaving it on the table by the mixer. “I’m sorry, I gotta go.” And just like that our interview was over and he was gone. Damn.

20 comments:

  1. Great interview, Erika! Though I must say my favorite line is: He was standing at a mental counter

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  2. Great interview, Erika. I like him. He's a great guy and it makes me wonder what his story is. It's obvious he has feelings for Carly.
    A man with integrity *sighs*

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  3. Captain, oops. Damn spell check. Thanks for the catch, I'll grab it.

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  4. Kira, yeah, he's kinda dreamy.

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  5. Captain, BTW, you get up WAY TOO EARLY. Good gravy woman. ;)

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  6. Erika? WRITE!!!?! dammit! I want to read this whole story. Yesterday!

    Oh, and happy TGIF. That is all.

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  7. LOL Silver does have a way with words doesn't she?

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  8. Dang it Erika. Who is Ellen? Why is she dying? What's holding Jack back? I have work to do, and I'm wondering about Jack!

    Cool interview! Right off, Jack comes across as a bit more layered and complex than the average romance hero. I want to know his story!

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  9. Kira, yes she does. I especially love her *gigglesnort*

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  10. Hello Jen, it's good to see you. I'm glad my interview caught your attention. I think I have pink eye so I'll probably be homebound today. Maybe I'll get some more writing done.

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  11. AH-HA! Thank you Jen, your questions had me rolling questions and I finally had my AH-HA moment about what to do with the middle of my story! Thank you!

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  12. Jack sounds like a great guy and who doesn't love a man who can cook. And I mean the sexy kind of cooking. Not to be confused with the throw a bag of frozen fries in the oven, a pile of frozen peas in a pot and slap a few frozen burgers on a grill kind. (Not that I don't appreciate the effort.)

    Can't wait to hear more of your story. I'm glad you've found an approach to your sagging middle!

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  13. It's sometimes kind of surreal reading about your Jack because I have a real life Jack.

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  14. YES !!! you found your AH - HA moment ?!?! That is awesome !!! sorry about the pink eye though :( can't wait to read what you come up with !!! So happy for you, now, off to try and work on my own ...

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  15. Ya'll crack me up. Unfortunately, I come by that *gigglesnort* honestly. Remember Grace's laugh in "Miss Congeniality"? Uhm...yeah. When I get really tickled, I sound just like that. Just sayin'...

    And Erika, prop up that middle with some of those truffles, and get goin'!

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  16. I'm really late, sorry. But I've been looking forward to reading this all weekend. This is great and as I kept Carly's interview in mind, they seem to have enough conflict to carry the story.

    BTW - you had me at creme de minthe oreo truffles (is this Jack's concoction, or do you have a recipe for this?) Perhaps you need to do one of those books that has recipes included at the beginning of chapters (kind of themed with what Carly and Jack are dealing with at that time - the book Like Water For Chocolate come to mind)

    Great job, Erika - like everyone's said, get writing :)

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  17. HI JANET! I've missed you. I do have a recipe for Oreo Truffles, (no creme de minthe but I'm sure we can figure it out) I'll be happy to share it with everyone if you'd like. They're super yummy and a little bit addictive. Thanks for the support, I've gotten some writing done but I still have a lot of work to do. I'll be sharing with the BB's shortly though.

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  18. Like Water For Chocolate, grabs pen writes it down

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  19. WHO GAVE THESE PEOPLE PERMISSION TO ADVERTISE IN MY BLOG???????

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