United States of Love

‘This looks nice,’ she said, picking up her spoon and dipping it into the thick, orange liquid. ‘Tastes good too. Let me guess. Carrot and … mmm … not sure. There's definitely another flavour but I'm not sure what it is.’

‘Coriander.’

‘Ah yes, I recognise it now. It's lovely.’

‘Thank you.’

They ate together in silence for several minutes. A comfortable silence, with just the radio to fill the space between them.

‘So, in the interest of fairness and Anglo-American relations, I think I'll take you up on your offer,’ said Anna. Tex looked blankly at her. ‘Exchange of information. Background information. It's your turn,’ she smiled.

‘What do you wanna know?’

‘You tell me. If you were me, what would I want to know?’

Tex made an act of looking thoughtfully up to the ceiling, as if he were recalling any relevant information. ‘Where to begin,’ he mused.

‘Why the name Tex?’

‘That’s an easy one. Short for Texas, where I’m from. Brenham to be exact. When I went off to Europe, I was something of a novelty. You don’t get many cowboys from Texan ranches wanting to learn how to cook.’

She smiled. ‘Okay, what else?’

She’d seemed pretty unfazed by that, which was cool. ‘I am forty-five years old,’ he continued. ‘I have one daughter. Julie-Ann, she’s twenty-two. Lives in Paris.’

‘And Mrs Garcia?’

He was used to that sort of question. They all asked sooner or later. It was still difficult to say, nonetheless.

‘Estelle, Julie-Ann’s mother, my wife, she died six years ago.’ He watched the surprise flicker across Anna’s eyes, quickly followed by a look of concern. She went to speak, probably to offer her condolences, but he raised his hand slightly. She didn’t need to say anything, it wasn’t necessary.

‘She was ill for a short time,’ he continued. ‘Liver cancer. There was nothing they could do for her. Afterwards, I promised I would make a success of the restaurant, just as we had both planned, except I didn’t stay in Paris, I came to England. Jamie and Yvonne helped me a lot, both professionally and personally.’

‘And since then?’ Anna spoke gently.

Tex knew what she was asking, and in a strange way he found it refreshing. Most women avoided the question once they heard about Estelle.

‘And since then I haven’t had any meaningful or long relationship.’ He had answered honestly, and hoping to retrieve the light tone the lunch had started out with, said buoyantly, ‘I’ve been too busy opening the restaurant and working hard to get my first Michelin star at my Guildford restaurant.’

‘Do you always let work rule your personal life and stop relationships?’

‘Do you?’ responded Tex immediately, eager to steer the conversation away from Estelle.

Anna looked slightly startled by his response, then gave a little laugh. ‘Touché. I asked first.’

‘The truth is … ’ Tex hesitated, putting his spoon down and pushing the near empty bowl away. ‘The truth is, my work is my true love.’

‘And no one could ever mean as much as your work?’

‘No one has meant enough yet.’ He gave a small laugh to himself and shook his head as he leant back in his chair. ‘I have no idea why I'm telling you this. Any sane person would not want anything to do with me and here I am in danger of scaring you off.’ He paused and then spoke more softly. ‘Which is something I really don’t wanna do.’ The chase was well and truly on.

Anna, straight-faced, looked directly at him. ‘Why would you scare me off? Our relationship is purely business.’

‘So why do you let business get in the way of your personal life?’ Tex held her gaze until she looked away.

‘You really want to know?’ she asked, fiddling with her napkin.

Tex nodded but said nothing so Anna would continue.

‘Okay. When my son, Luke, went to school, I got a part-time job working in the offices at the football club Mark played for. Trouble was, after a while I started to hear rumours about what Mark was doing, what he was getting up to when he and the other lads were out. Naturally, I was upset, suspicious, and began questioning him, which caused quite a few arguments.’ Anna paused to have a sip of water.

Tex remained silent, his feeling that there was more was confirmed as Anna began to speak again.

‘As if that wasn’t enough, Mark was jealous if any man spoke to me too much, that included any member of management and any of his team mates. Needless to say, I handed my notice in after just three months, it was more trouble than it was worth. So that is why I don’t mix business with pleasure.’

‘And you think that every business and pleasure encounter will end the same?’

Anna shrugged in response.

Tex decided it was best to keep off the subject of their personal lives. Anna must have thought the same when she changed the subject by asking, ‘So how come you ended up here in England?’

‘Jamie and I were at catering college together but it didn’t take him long before he realised being in the kitchen wasn't for him. Instead, he put his organisational skills to good use and started working for a PR company arranging work placements in the UK for chefs from France and vice versa. This gradually expanded through word of mouth and soon Jamie was helping foreign nationals to settle in the UK. Such was the demand, he had the foresight to leave the PR company and set up his own relocation company.’

‘Good that you remained friends though.’

‘Yes. Through his help I was able to open my first restaurant. That was five years ago. I've been looking for premises in this area for a long time to open another and finally came across this place.’ He gestured in the air with his arms. ‘Next week I need to start looking for an apartment so I can keep a closer eye on the refurbishment. The Guildford restaurant runs itself mostly.’

Anna wasn't quite sure where the two hours went, but when she glanced at her watch she was shocked to see it was gone two o’clock.

‘I'd better go, otherwise I'm not sure what time I'll get back. I think there's a train in about half an hour. I'm supposed to ring Jamie when I get home. He'll think I've resigned before I've even started.’

Tex dropped his napkin to the table. ‘I'll take you home.’

‘Oh, you don't have to.’

‘I know.’ Tex paused as he pushed back his chair. ‘Or does it go against your no business with pleasure rule?’

‘Probably,’ said Anna, ‘but a lift would be nice all the same.’ She silently tutted at the desertion of her willpower. It was very difficult to say no to Tex Garcia.

Twenty minutes later Tex pulled his car to a halt outside Coach House Cottages. Anna noticed both Mrs Meekham's curtain twitching and her car parked in the resident's parking bay a little way up the road. Mark was obviously back.

‘Can I see you again?’ asked Tex, as he turned in his seat to face her.

‘You'd better check with Jamie. He said something about me going to Brighton next week to help a family who want to look at schools.’

‘Not business,’ smiled Tex.

Anna gulped and reminded herself to breathe. His voice was giving her all sorts of problems. ‘Pleasure?’ It was almost a whisper.