I smiled and wiped away a tear that managed to leak out before I could stop it. “Thank you. I’m going to miss all of you.”
“Don’t start getting all emotional yet,” the chef said. “We have a whole dinner planned for you, and if you’re blubbering your way through it, you’re not going to be able to taste it properly.”
By the end of the night, stories and laughter at my going away dinner piled up with sadness and even a little bit of fear to create a difficult mix of emotions. I was glad I decided to take a week of rest before getting started with Derek. I didn’t think I would be able to handle all this compounded with going into full-time at the vineyard.
Plus, as a bonus, I wasn’t going to be home alone throughout my week of rest. Instead, I was going to it spend the week with my parents. It had been a good long while since I’d been home. We talked on the phone frequently, but there was a difference between having a phone call with your parents and actually being able to see them.
I was lucky to say my parents and I really got along. I adored them, even though I was nothing like either one of them. Both my parents were very studious professors, and somehow, I managed to emerge as a brash, wannabe chef.
But they loved me and tried to show me support and encouragement. My favorite times were when they weren’t doing either and I just got to relax with them. It was calming and reassuring. Considering the amount of work that needed to be done still if there was any chance for the vineyard and restaurant to open on schedule, the chances of me being able to come back and spend any time with my parents for a good while were slim. I needed to enjoy it now while I had the chance.
When the small goodbye dinner came to a close, Holly and I walked out of the restaurant. We stood between our respective cars, carrying on small talk that didn’t mean much of anything. But we kept it going because it would make the night last a little bit longer. At least for those few moments, we didn’t have to think about anything being different or the challenges ahead.
Finally, there was nothing more we could come up with to say, and I needed to get home to finish getting ready for my trip. I pulled Holly in for a close hug.
“I promise I’ll call when I get back from my parents’ house. I’m not planning on staying there all the way through my starting day. I’ll get back a little bit before then. We’ll hang out before I start the new job,” I said.
Holly nodded, sucking back tears then trying to look brave. “We will. I’ll see you when you get back.”
“It’s going to be okay, Holly,” I said. “We’re still going to see each other all the time. Besides, you’re the one who travels. Why don’t you ever get so emotional when you’re going to be leaving?”
“Because I know I’ll be coming back, and you’ll be there. But you won’t be there anymore,” she said.
“I’ll be right at the vineyard. It’s not far. And who knows? Maybe one of these days you will also jump ship and come work with me again.”
We hadn’t talked about any sort of timeline for when there would need to be more staff in the restaurant, but that day would come. I was determined to be optimistic and look ahead to a time when everybody wanted to snag a coveted dinner reservation or host their wedding or reunion at the vineyard.
“Don’t say that too loud. I think Antony might have a heart attack if he thought both of us were leaving at the same time,” she said.
We laughed, hugged once more, and I got in my car to head to my parents’ house.
7
Noah
“We cool?”
I held up the neck of the bottle of beer toward my brother and waited. He sighed, placing his hand around his own bottle and tipping it toward mine, clinking them together. Then, like reflections in a mirror, we tipped back our beers and downed them in one go. Both of us raised a finger to the bartender in the exact same motion, and we stopped, looking at each other, then laughed.
It felt good to laugh with Derek. For a while I was worried we would never get to that point. We were at each other’s throats for the whole week, constantly bickering back and forth and blowing up on each other on a regular basis. As the bartender grabbed us two more beers and cracked them open, we clinked them together again, but this time didn’t guzzle them.
“Sorry if I’ve been on edge lately,” Derek said.