Sally's Secret

Chapter 12

Gordon set her Birkenstocks by the door and left the kitchen. Maria washed the meat off her hands and plugged in the dehydrator. She removed her watch from the sandal strap and put it on her wrist, then she split her Birkies up and placed a shoe in each apron pocket before heading up the stairs. Sally had said Maria was off duty but the older woman would still need to get up to her room and Maria had told her she was going to be cooking, so it wouldn't be right to just ignore her. She stopped in the lounge to check on her.

Brains was on his way out of the room. "G-Good night, Maria," he yawned and waved sleepily as they passed each other.

"Good night, Brains," Maria replied. He'd been so busy with the mission, she was reasonably sure he was one of the few people right now who was unaware of her recent venture into stupidity.

Only Virgil and Sally were still seated in the lounge. Of all her grandsons, it seemed Sally was closest to Virgil. He saw Maria and spoke first. "Did Gordon apologise?" Ah, so Gordon was coerced into that apology. Poor guy.

Maria nodded. "He did, but he really didn't do anything wrong. It wasn't a date and the shark was harmless."

Virgil's eyes bugged a little. "The shark?"

It was really nice that all these people cared enough to be alarmed, but she certainly wasn't going to let anyone blame Gordon. She chose to swim away because she felt stupid. She had no one else to blame for losing her contacts or messing up her dress.

"Basking shark," she said, emphasising the species name. "And he was beautiful. I'm really glad Gordon pointed him out. I might have missed him."

She saw Sally squeeze Virgil's hand and wondered if it meant anything. Maybe that was code for Maria may be dumb about a lot of things, but she actually knows something about sharks, so it's okay to stop grilling Gordon. Virgil stared with his mouth open. Just as Maria was about to speak, he managed to blurt out, "Well, okay then."

Maria focused her attention back on her boss. "I'm going upstairs to drop off my shoes. You need anything? Ready to turn in?"

"I'll help Grandma up the stairs tonight," Virgil said.

"I'm fine, dear," Sally confirmed. "You going to bed soon?"

Maria shook her head. She didn't want to admit to needing to burn off her angry energy because everyone thought it was anger at Gordon and he'd already been given too much blame. "I've got turkey jerky in the dehydrator and some cupcakes to decorate. I'm thinking about starting some pulled pork. Sixteen hours of slow cooking and it should be nice and tender by dinner tomorrow." Her normal cleaning routine would come after all the cooking and hopefully spend any balance of her self-reproving energy. Once she got all that negativity out of her system, she could sleep.

Sally gave her a sceptical look. Her voice was nearly a mutter: "I bet it would come out just fine in eight hours." At least her boss stopped short of outright telling her to quit cooking and just go to bed like a reasonable person.

Maria smiled and inclined her head. "I'll keep that in mind. I'll be in the kitchen if you need anything."

She left Virgil and Sally to their conversation, ran upstairs, and stashed her Birkenstocks in her room. Back in the kitchen, Maria slathered the pork shoulder in a dry rub, placed it into the crock pot attachment of the automated kitchen module, and surrounded it with barbecue sauce. A pressurised lid and the lowest setting and tomorrow's dinner was practically done. The dirty dishes from the cookies and the cupcake batter were next. A sweep and a quick cleanup of the counters followed. Slowly, her self-loathing drained away. Okay, so she'd been stupid. It wasn't the first time and probably wouldn't be the last, but she didn't lose her job or a limb or anything important. Time to get over yourself, Maria.