Love and Candy Canes

1

Savannah Echols

July 29th, 2019

Finally! My two-week vacation starts right now and the first thing I decided to do is hit the beach. All I have to do is walk out of my condo and right onto the sand. Ahh, it’s good to be back. In fact, I’ve lived here in Atlantic City my entire life. My parents still live in the house I grew up over on Lighthouse Court in the Uptown District. Now that I’m in a fantastic condo that is right on the beach, I have freedom, but I am still within five minutes of my parents. It’s really nice to have them nearby. My sister, Paris, still lives at home since she is only seventeen. We can have our space but if I need anything or vice versa, we are literally seconds away from each other. I love it here. It may just be hometown pride, but I love my city. I love the beach, the boardwalk, the casinos, and the giant outlet mall nearby. I love absolutely everything about it.

As a chef on TV, I am always traveling here, there, and everywhere. Most recently, I was in Niagara Falls in order to judge a cooking competition that focused on surf and turf. My latest show, Supper with Savannah is on the American Food Club channel Wednesday nights at eight. The studio is in New York and I film several episodes a week. Do you know how challenging it is to come up with several unique recipes a week? I do and it sucks. I’m emotionally and physically exhausted, but my career is going places and I have to be able to keep up with it. Being too tired to think won’t cut it. Delicious Eats, my last show, was a better premise. It consisted of me showing up at fancy restaurants all over the country while they showcase their own recipes. It was a cushy job and it happened to be fun. I got to eat all the food and be on camera. I should never have pushed for more. I think I’m burnt out, to be honest. I have been working in kitchens since I was thirteen. I worked my way up from the bottom. I went to culinary school while still in high school finishing a couple of months after I graduated. I’m twenty-four now. It’s been six years of working non-stop toward my dream.

I just don’t know my dreams are about these days. I’ve given up trying to decipher them. I figure eventually it’ll work it out.

Lucky for me, I’m still young enough to get it right.

My down to earth cooking style and ten-minute healthy meals are super popular with women who are between the ages of eighteen to forty-five and I take my job seriously. Throughout the course of my career, I’ve participated in many illustrious competitions and won several of them. Last year, I was in a popular dance competition tv show and came in second. That was extremely fun. I have a Michelin star-rated restaurant in Manhattan and people recognize me wherever I go. Even with all that, I am still lonely. So lonely. I mean I have my family, but it’s not the same. I want what my parents have. Is that too much to ask for?

I am reading the latest Nora Roberts novel while sitting in one of the lounge chairs sitting out here. The sun is all I need to recharge my batteries. I don’t have a lot of time to decompress on most days. Despite being on vacation, I have a prior commitment to be at Good Morning, AC in three days for a spot on the morning show, which I don’t necessarily want to do, but my agent says I have to for the book deal she has in the works for me. Well a cookbook really, but a book is a book according to Wendy. So, I am trying to cram as much fun and relaxation as I can into these two days, because I know once I turn up to that morning show, Wendy is going to have a million other things that I need to do.

Getting back into the book is easy, but once I finish the chapter, I’m on, I get up and walk out to the water’s edge to take a quick swim. I feel like I am boiling in this heat and the cool water feels amazing on my skin, though my white suit seems like a mistake now.

As I get out of the water, I can see straight through the material to my hard nipples. Shit. That was not my intention. Embarrassed, I rush back to my chair and pull my cover-up back on. Hopefully, no one saw me. Despite being on TV, in my personal life, I am shy as hell. I get ready to walk back home. I am tentatively supposed to meet my sister for pizza and a movie, but she hasn’t called me yet. I double check my phone to be sure. It’s already six.