There's hardly anything Thierry Fauber doesn't know about food. When an opportunity presents itself, the talented chef risks it all by leaving Paris and moving overseas to open his restaurant.
A series of fateful events and encounters accompany him...
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Sunlight streamed through my office window, raising the temperature at least a couple of degrees. I hit the speaker button, rested my phone on the table, and shrugged off my jacket.
“Are you okay with it?” the voice of the person who made me smile filled the room.
“The weather’s too perfect for staying at home. Dinner on a terrace downtown sounds great. I’ll be done by six.”
“I don’t have patients in the afternoon, but I need to do the paperwork I neglected. Is six-thirty okay?” Sylvie asked.
“More than. Text me the name of the restaurant once you’ve chosen one.”
“Deal. I love you.”
“Love you too.”
I waited for Sylvie to hang up, a smile still playing on my lips. I didn’t expect to say those words to anyone other than my son, but here I was, a living proof that love — and happiness — could find you at any age.
I didn’t even have to go far to find mine — Sylvie was my new neighbor. Late-night conversations turned into dates and a relationship that made me feel twenty years younger.
I sifted through the papers I needed for our morning meeting. Darren, Ollie, and Aiden would return to the office from the cafe any minute now. I forced them to go have breakfast because they’d been at the office since seven a.m., getting the contract ready.
A knock on my door rattled the silence. “Come in,” I said.
Aiden stepped over the threshold and shifted his weight. “Victor.”
“Everyone’s back? So soon?”
“Only me,” he said. “The guys are still there, but I was having coffee and saw this.”
Aiden handed me today’s newspaper. “I wasn’t sure if you’ve already seen it, but I brought the paper just in case.”
The rays of the sun felt scorching on my back. They burned me through my shirt, and the words I read blazed into me with the same intensity.
My eyes skimmed through the article over and over. It was what my son and I feared but also expected. Only that it happened at the worst possible time. Just when Thierry managed to move on, his past resurfaced in the shape of the three victims who came forward.
“It’s not my place to tell you this,” Aiden said, leaning against the door, hands tucked into the pockets of his dress slacks, “but I think Thierry should know if he doesn’t already.”
“It’s still too early there. I don’t think he knows, but I wasn’t going to keep it from him. Thank you, Aiden.”
“Not at all.” Aiden gripped the door handle but then halted, facing me. “I think it’ll give him the closure he needs,” he said. “He’ll probably want to come here.”
