Chapter 4

Jason had bags under his eyes. Even now, he wished he’d gone to bed hours ago. He’d spent several sleepless nights crafting the ultimate meal. All for Michelle.

He cackled like a madman. Such were the actions of a sleep-deprived man. He’d finally get to test the fruits of his labour. Test his magnum opus. Test his secret recipe.

He went about his day, waiting for Michelle to head out for her qualifier match. Jason was slightly nervous, not about the match, but about his recipe. What if it didn’t work? What if it was a flop?

He pushed these thoughts out of his head the moment she left, as he began to work on his secret recipe. A delicious curry.

The smell of the spices, the richness of the coconut cream, and the perfect balance of vegetables and protein. Tenderly prepared over a low flame to let the ingredients marinate as long as possible. Several hours later, it was ready, along with a starving tennis player.

“Wow! That smells good,” Michelle commented, tossing her sports gear aside in a way that would make a sponsor cry.

“I’ll serve you up a bowl now.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” she replied, pulling up a seat and drooling slightly.

“How’d your match go by the way?”

Michelle blinked a few times. Jason knew she’d already forgotten about the match.

“Oh, I won that easily.”

“I had no doubt you would,” he replied with a smile. “So what does that mean now?”

“Well, I’ll be playing in the grand slam in a few weeks,” she replied nonchalantly, lounging on the island bench.

“That’s pretty good, isn’t it?”

“I guess so. I didn’t really think much about it.” Jason set a bowl in front of Michelle, and she stared suspiciously at it.

“Are you just gonna stare or are you gonna eat it?” Jason asked, and he could feel his heartbeat begin to rise.

Michelle’s eyes narrowed as she leaned closer to the curry.

“What is in this?”

“Many ingredients,” he responded, avoiding making eye contact. He just hoped Michelle was too big an airhead to realise his poor ability to lie.

“I want a list,” she demanded. Her overly expressive outburst almost caused the chair she was in to fall over.

“Calm down.” Jason tried to lower the temperature. Also, he had a splitting headache from sleep deprivation. “How about a game where you tell me what’s in it?”

“Tch, tch, tch.” She wagged her finger. “You can’t trick me. I want to know what I am eating.”

Jason sighed.

“Fine, there are several spices. Do you want a list of all of them?”

“No spices are fine,” she clarified, still eyeing the dish suspiciously.

“Well, there are some beef, carrots, potatoes, brown onions, and…” he lowered his voice to be barely audible. “Broccoli.”

His efforts to be subtle were futile.

“Broccoli! I knew it! You tried to poison me with broccoli!” She pushed the bowl away and turned her head, annoyed that Jason tried to deceive her.

“It won’t harm you!” Jason pushed the dish back towards her.

“Broccoli killed my parents!” she replied, her voice rising and tears in her eyes.

“Your parents are in Switzerland!” he snapped back. “They sent me a photo this morning!”

She looked shocked at this revelation. “They never sent me a photo.”

Jason, having finally remembered what her outburst was about, let out a heavy sigh.

“It’s just a vegetable. Why are you making it such a big deal?” He didn’t understand why she was so upset. It was just broccoli. She needed to grow up; she couldn’t be playing these childish games. Even if he found them adorable.

“Then why did you try to hide it?!” she shouted, looking like she was about to cry. She turned her head away from Jason to hide the pain in her eyes.

She was genuinely hurt. She didn’t like him keeping secrets. Not from her. It felt as if he didn’t trust her. Most of all, she feared it signalled that he didn’t feel the same way she felt about him.

“Are you seeing other tennis players?” she asked accusatorily, her voice almost breaking.

“Huh?” Jason was lost before, but now he was extremely confused. He couldn’t follow Michelle's logic in the slightest.

'What other reason could there be for him to hide things?'  Michelle thought to herself, doubling down on her misconception.

Jason sighed. This was getting far too out of hand. He thought he'd better come clean. “I was going to tell you afterwards,” he confessed, thoughts solely on the hidden broccoli.

Michelle’s heart ached further, misconstruing his comments to be about cheating on her as her personal chef. The feelings she had been holding back came bursting out.

“Why would you do this to me?” she said through sobs.

Seeing Michelle burst into tears over a hidden broccoli stung Jason. This was the opposite of what he wanted to achieve with this dish.

“I’m so sorry.” He lowered his head. “I was trialling different ways to cook broccoli. Your diet requires you to eat it, so I wanted to find a way that you enjoyed.”

'Huh?' she thought briefly, before abruptly stopping her crying. Her face turned red.

“So you weren’t cooking for another tennis player?”

“Of course not!” Jason shouted without any hesitation, wondering how she managed to make such a leap before reminding himself that it was Michelle. He quickly composed himself before adding. “I’d never do anything to deliberately upset you. I wanted to try and make food you liked even more.”

She lowered her head. “Sorry for accusing you.”

“No! It was all my fault.”

She raised her head and smiled warmly.

“Thank you for thinking about me.”

Jason’s heart began to pound so hard that it felt as if it were about to burst from his chest.

She took a fork and shovelled it into her mouth. She expected the vile taste to fill her mouth, but instead, her mouth filled with warm spice.

For a moment, she didn’t say anything. Jason worried about what this meant.

“That was yummy.”

“Really?”

She nodded. “If you can cook broccoli that way, I might be more willing to eat it from now on.”

She finished eating all the curry. But something wasn’t sitting right with her.

“Surely you are hiding something from me. There is no way you can make broccoli taste that good with those ingredients alone.” She paused, took a deep breath, and then pointed her finger directly at him. “Was that the full list of ingredients?”

Jason hoped she wouldn’t ask this. He was so nervous that she would, he had already prepared an answer for it.

“Well, I did make it using one last thing.”

“What is it?” Her eyes were bulging by this point.

Jason brought his index finger to his lips. “The final ingredient is a secret.”

She puffed out her cheeks and began stomping on the ground. “What is it?”

“If I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret.”

He knew he could never truly tell her what the secret ingredient was. It was love after all. Any dish he made for her contained his love. But admitting it out loud would be far too embarrassing.

Michelle, on the other hand, believed the secret ingredient was blitzed cauliflower. Her new sworn archnemesis.

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End of Chapter 4