The Tragic Life

Chapter 4

WARNING: CHAPTERS 32 - 36 OF THIS BOOK CAN ONLY BE READ ON INKITT! LINK IN MY BIO ♥️
...

I'll be surprised if anyone is talking to me this morning. After a night of Emily screaming the house down, she finally nodded off to sleep around four, leaving me an exhausted mess. It got so bad at one point, that I almost took her outside to give the others a break, but then realised that it'd wake the neighbours too.

So, as an apology, I'm cooking breakfast. It's poached eggs with smoked salmon and a homemade Béarnaise sauce. Yasmin stocks her cupboards well, so I managed to make it all from scratch, switching a few ingredients in the sauce to try copy my Gran's recipe.

I set the table out all fancy with place mats, gold cutlery and tall tumblers, arranging the smoked salmon on a pale pink plate so every one can help themselves. I kind of set myself up for failure with the poached eggs as it's always hard to know when you've cooked them for too long.

Jamie comes into the room with his bare feet dragging against the floor. "I thought something smelt good."

I start to smile until I notice the water boiling over the edges of the pan. My feet skid as I race over to the hob to switch off the gas. "Oh, no, that wasn't supposed to happen."

Jamie grabs a bottle of water from the fridge. "Can I help with anything?"

Using the spoon with holes to take out the poached eggs, I put them in a silver heating tray, well, I assume it's a heating tray because it looks like the ones you get when you order room service.

"Nope, I'm all sorted now. Sit down and eat if you're hungry," I reply, loading the dishwasher so it's nice and clean for Yasmin and Matt coming down.

Jamie pulls out a chair. "I'm starving, actually."

I wait for him to serve himself before getting my own food, telling him to stop what he's doing as he slices into the runny egg. "I forgot the sauce. You have to try it. It's my Grandma's recipe."

He lowers his fork to the plate. "What sauce is that?"

I take over the tiny jug. "It's called a béarnaise. It goes fantastically with fish and egg."

"I'm usually a bowl of cereal guy, so this is quite the treat," he says, pouring more sauce onto his plate.

"I am too to be honest, but it's nice to be adventurous sometimes."

Jamie nods his head. "I agree. So, you like to cook?"

Not necessarily. It's a passion I learnt to love a few months ago. "I got sick of living off beans on toast. And I figured I needed to be smarter with my meals for Emily. How about you?"

"I make a mean beef stir-fry," he replies, giving me his soft smile.

This sauce really is the bomb. "Asian food is my absolute favourite."

Jamie swallows his mouthful of food. "Same here. I learnt different ways of seasoning the meat when I visited Krabi."

Thailand is big on my list of places I want to go before I die. Yasmin and Matt have been twice and always come back with stories of such peace and tranquillity. I'd love to be able to travel with Emily when she gets a little older.

"Oh, that sounds like my kind of heaven. I'm guessing that you went travelling?" I say, thinking how easy it is to speak with him.

He stops to think for a second. "Hmm, well," he says, tipping his hand in the air. "It was for my honeymoon."

"GOOD MORNING, BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE!"

Both Jamie and I jump out of our skins as our friends enter the kitchen with Yasmin's voice hurting our eardrums. Matt is piggy-paging her in here, his blonde hair all over the place.