Burn (Heat #1)(4)

"Is that right?" Percy leans closer to me. "If I wanted to prepare this at home, could I use any gorgonzola?"

I wait for Tyler to reply but there's heavy silence. "You should save yourself the trouble and come to Nova. Chef Monroe has a full range of small plates. They're perfect for couples or groups of friends. Everyone can try a taste of several different dishes."

"Reservations are limited," Tyler finally speaks. "We're booking months in advance at this point."

"What are you doing now, Cadence?" I recognize the voice of the show's female co-host as she walks toward us. "You must have something I can help you with."

I turn to her just as I feel Tyler step in place behind me. His hand reaches out to catch her elbow. "How are you at cutting mushrooms, Pamela? I think we have time for me to give you a quick lesson."

She looks up and into his face. She's charmed, just the way most women are when they see him in person. I was too nervous yesterday to be anything but anxious. I turn back to the two burner cooktop in preparation for draining the gnocchi.

We finish the segment with me explaining the last steps in preparing the dish while Tyler circles the female co-host from behind. His hands hold hers as she cuts the mushrooms with a subtle thrust of her ass against his groin with each slice of the knife.

***

"He was seducing a woman on national television?" Sophia asks with an easy smile. "I was stuck in a meeting this morning so I haven't had a chance to watch it yet but I'm going to right now."

I laugh as she picks up her tablet from the coffee table. "I did really well, Soph. I'm not sure what the hell Tyler was doing, but that woman will probably have an orgasm the next time she cuts mushrooms."

"What exactly went on there?" She keys in the address of the network's home page. "Does food give him a hard-on?"

"It gives me one," I say playfully with a wink. "He was flirting with her. She was flirting with him. It worked out great for me."

"How so?" She presses pause on the video of the cooking segment just as it starts.

"He was so pre-occupied with her, that I stole the show," I say proudly as I brush her feet aside so I can settle on the couch next to her. "The producer came up to me after and told me that I was a natural. She was genuinely impressed."

"I knew you'd kill it." Her eyes fall to the screen as she starts the video. "You look beautiful, Cadence. I love the way they did your make-up."

I love it too. I love it so much that after the segment I went back to talk to the woman who had applied it. She gave me a few tips and wrote down a list of inexpensive products I can use to mimic the look she gave me.

"I was thinking that we could go out on Saturday night to celebrate the fact that I'm no longer a television cooking virgin."

"This is just the first step towards your own show." She closes the cover of her tablet when the video ends. "You were amazing."

"I was so nervous," I confess. "Once I was done, I finally took a breath."

"I'd never know that from watching it." She rests her tablet on her pajama covered knee. "You're the next face of the Food Network, Den. Mark my words."

I ignore the comment because the concept is too foreign. My long term aspirations don't reach beyond a year or two from now. I want to cook my way up the ranks at Nova. After that, I'll consider my options. Until then, it's work as usual under the watchful eye of Tyler and his executive staff.

"I'm game to go out on Saturday night. You're off work on Sunday, right?" She smiles and stands. It's near ten, which for her means time to crawl into her bed to work on new sketches of dress designs she'll eventually create with the help of the sewing machine she has set up in the corner of her room.

I heave a sigh as I nod. "Right and that means I have all day Sunday to recover from whatever, or whoever, I do on Saturday night."





CHAPTER 4


"We should have some sort of protocol in place in case one of us scores a big one." I stir the straw in my glass.

"A big what?" Sophia's brow furrows. "Like a cock? Is there a protocol for that? Does it start with trying to shove your hand down a guy's pants? I saw a girl trying to do that right behind you just now. I swear."

I turn quickly toward the crowded dance floor of the club before I look back at my best friend who is gingerly sipping her vodka and cranberry juice. "You misunderstood, Soph. I meant if one of us finds a guy to hook up with, we should talk about what the other one will do."

"I don't do threesomes, Cadence," she says with a half-smile.

"Hush," I scold her playfully. "You know I'm talking about whether you want me to hang out somewhere else if you take a guy home."

"Seeing how it's your apartment, and it's enormous, I think if we each agree to hide out in our own room if the other has a guest, we're totally good. Your bedroom is so far away from mine, I can't hear a thing that goes on in there." She picks her glass up from the bar before she places it back down without raising it to her lips. "I should slow down. I don't want to drink too much before I've had any fun."

She downed half her drink within minutes after we arrived here at Club Aeon in Times Square. I don't know if it had anything to do with the fact that we were both carded at the door. I'm twenty-four. Sophia's only six months younger than me. Neither of us looks like we're twenty-one. I took it as a compliment, Soph didn't.