“Mom, would it be OK if I moved back in for a year?” she asked. “My firm wants me to work in the LA office starting this fall. It would be too much of a hassle to find an apartment, so I thought I’d move back home.”
“You too?” Nick said. “I need to move back in for a year as well. I’m going to defer med school and go do some research at the VA, over by enemy territory.” This of course was his affectionate term for my alma mater.
“Jane. Nick. That’s fantastic news. Do you know that your brother and I are going to live here for a year as well?” I shared our great news. Nick of course knew we were living here, but Jane didn’t take it as happily as I thought she would.
“Why?” she asked. “I don’t know if I want to be living under the same roof as you two lovebirds. You’ll probably be worse than you are now. Eew!” To show her disgust, Jane stuck her index finger in her mouth and pretended to gag again.
Sandy turned to Bobby, who was taking a bite of his bacon, and exclaimed, “Bobby, let’s charge rent. We can make a fortune off of these three. Finally. No more freeloading.”
“Mom!” Jane and Nick complained loudly enough that Sandy backed down from her landlord-tenant idea.
I smiled, watching my new family talk, argue, and love each other. From the corner of my eyes I saw Jake watching me revel in his family’s banter. He reached over and squeezed my hand.
“Emily, what’s on the agenda for today? I am here to help with whatever you need.” Jane looked eager to start her day with me.
“I’ll help too,” Nick added.
I turned to Jake to see what his schedule would be like, hoping the four of us could hang out today. Jake read my mind before I spoke. “I have to go back in this morning but I should be done sometime in the afternoon. I’ll call and see where you three will be and join you.”
He then turned to me and continued our discussion about cooking school. “Have you thought some more about enrolling in the CIA this fall?”
Nick loved this idea.
“I think I’m going to continue teaching this year. I don’t want to go to school anymore. Even though it’s cooking school, I don’t want the pressure, and I’m sure the instructor and students won’t like it if I’m there just for the fun of it.”
Jake tried to convince me otherwise until I told him about my alternate plan.
“But, I think I’ll continue taking informal cooking classes. It’s more casual and I can pick and choose what I want to learn. Depending upon your schedule,” I said to Jake, “I’ll go and take evening courses. I will drive you and myself crazy if I’m home every night with nothing to do, but wait for you.”
All of a sudden, I had a fantastic idea.
“Nick, you want to take these classes with me? I’ll find classes over by the VA and you can join me after work. We can go eat at new restaurants before or after class.”
Nick loved this idea even more. “Cool! Will Jake be paying for all my classes?” He sniggered over to Jake.
“I will treat you, but I expect payback when you become a doctor, OK?” Nick heartily agreed to this deal and we finished our breakfast.
Jake got up to clear our dishes when Nick stopped him with a request.
“Hey, Jake?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you ever going to make up for that botched Masa meal?”
“What do you mean, ‘botched Masa meal’? What happened?”
“After you left Jake standing on a street corner in New York,” Nick started laughing at his brother, “he was in such a foul mood he canceled our dinner. He actually paid the entire cancellation fee instead of allowing us to go and have our meal.” Nick rolled his eyes at his brother and waited for an answer.
“I’ll call that Urasawa and see if they can seat us tonight. I doubt that he will have four seats at the bar on such short notice.” Jake walked into the next room to make his call.
Urasawa was one of LA’s premier Japanese restaurants. It had earned two Michelin stars, and was the closest thing to a Japanese kaiseki meal in America. Hiro trained under Masa and bought the restaurant from him years ago.
“Nick, you’re in luck. An entire group of eight canceled just now. I reserved all eight seats for us at 6:00 p.m. Don’t eat lunch today.” Nick’s face lit up. My face lit up. We gave each other a high-five. We were each other’s biggest food allies.
“Emi, have you been to Urasawa before?” Jake turned to ask me.
“No. We can’t afford meals like that on a teacher’s salary.” I joked. “Why did you reserve all eight seats? Mom and Dad are going to a dinner function tonight with Uncle Henry and Aunt Barbara.”
“I thought we’d take Sarah, Charlie, Peter and Max.”
I gave Jake an appreciative look and called Sarah immediately. We had plans to spend Saturday together, so she was more than happy when I told her about Urasawa. I then called Max’s apartment and Peter picked up the line.
“Hi, Peter. Are you still sleeping?” He sounded very groggy.
“Yeah. We got in a couple of hours ago.”
“Are you on the same schedule as Jake? He too got in this morning.”