the celebrity chef • pedro pascal

crumbly pancakes

july, 2015

"Well, if I'm gonna be honest here," Barbara incessantly mixed the pancake batter while I sat on a kitchen stool with Mads on my lap, our jobs suddenly reversed. "I'm a little bit upset."

"I mean," the bowl was finally placed aside as she went on, placing her hands on her hips and squinting her bright blue eyes at me. "How come I've never been flashed? I've been working here for a whole year and this guy gets flashed on his first time over?"

"Oh my god, can you please take this seriously?" I cried out and the one-year-old on my lap tried to shove one of his little hands into my mouth, ignoring my distress just like his nanny did.

"Jo, come on" She sighed, leaning into the counter to get closer to me. "It's not that big of a deal! It wasn't even your fault!"

She was right, it really hadn't been my fault. But turns out it hadn't been his, either.

###

The guest rooms on the left side of the house were connected to the same balcony, and that fact was totally unknown to me because I had never even tried to open those sliding doors before that moment. According to Pedro, he had stepped out from his guest room and into the balcony to have a smoke and then, coincidentally, just as he decided to take a seat on one of the lounge chairs placed right on my corner of the balcony, he was startled by my slamming door.

"I just turned around because of the noise and you started- you know, undressing, before I could even leave" He concluded his defense, the lit cigarette long forgotten between the fingers of his left hand while the other one was too busy running through his hair. "I wasn't being a creep, I promise!"

I was speechless for a few seconds, because his story was pretty convincing and he seemed genuinely sorry about the whole thing. Now, apart from being embarrassed about being seen in my bra, I was also embarrassed about being rude to him. I guess I really needed to get this over with before it became even worse.

"Just... forget about it, okay?" I sighed and his strained countenance quickly transitioned into a relaxed one. "I'm sorry for yelling at you and calling you a creepy dickhead."

"And I'm sorry for being a creepy dickhead, even if it wasn't my intention at all." He gave me an amused smile that I couldn't help but reciprocate. "I'm Pedro, by the way."

###

"Will you please drop the drama and tell me why the hell my pancakes are falling apart?" Barbara squealed, dropping yet another disintegrating pancake into a pile of crumbly fried batter.

"I think that might have something to do with the fact that you spent a whole hour mixing that batter, Barb" I rolled my eyes before extending my arm to grab a loose piece of pancake from the plate, regretting my actions just as I placed it into my mouth. "Maybe you should start over?"

"Why don't you just do it? You're already here, Jo, just feed me!" She groaned, throwing what was left of the batter into the kitchen trashcan.

"It's my day off, and I was actually on my way to the door when you handed me a child!" I lifted little Mads to prove my point and almost dropped the poor baby when a certain someone entered the kitchen.

"Morning, ladies" He walked right past us and straight to the coffee machine on the counter. We replied in unison, in an almost robotic way - me because I just didn't know how to react and Barbara probably because she was just too busy raising her eyebrows suggestively at me behind Pedro's back.

After filling a mug with plain black coffee and introducing himself to Barbara, Pedro made his way to me. My stomach churned for about a second before I realized his eyes were focused on Mads and not on me - and honestly, I couldn't identify if what I was feeling was relief or disappointment.

"Hey little guy, I haven't seen you in forever!" He bent down a bit to talk to the child and then decided to look up at me with the most enthralling brown eyes I had ever seen. "Can I pick him up?"

"Yeah, of course" I passed Mads to him and got up from my seat, trying to block out the fact that I would probably give him anything he asked me for while giving me those eyes.

"Oh, so this is where everyone's hiding!" It was now Oscar's turn to enter the kitchen, he was wearing gym clothes and holding onto a bottle of water that he probably picked up from the kitchen upstairs. "Why aren't you guys upstairs?"

"Well, I was wondering the same thing, Oscar" I picked up my bag from the counter where I had abandoned it earlier and started making my way to the door, eager to escape that sudden Saturday morning get-together. "Will you please kick them out of my kitchen for me? I'll see you on Monday!"

And I was out of the door before Oscar could even formulate an answer.