Fiction - short story - Bon Appetit - Part VI

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Here is Part VI, the final instalment of a comic short story which I'm entering for a competition. Click on any of the green boxes at the top of the post and you'll get taken to the other parts. Bon Appetit We did have one rather unfortunate incident. Quentin made a cassoulet in my lovely locally-hand-made pottery dish. It was a large dish and not one I could usually afford to buy. However the potter was closing his business and I was able to buy this beautiful dish for a very reasonable sum. However after being in the oven for a while, the gas ran out so Quentin thought he'd finish it off in the gas barbecue not realising that sitting the dish on the red-hot bars of the grill wasn't going to be a good idea. My lovely bowl cracked across the bottom and I was quite devastated. Quentin had to clean up after himself that night. We had to buy a few new pots and a new frying pan. Getting Quentin past a kitchenware shop involved a great deal of cunning. A buxom beauty on the other side of the street was handy on such occasions but they weren't always available. Quentin is a dab hand now and we have some lovely dinner parties. I was supposed to start a data base of who we invited when and what we gave them but there are some things even I draw the line at. I didn't retire just to manipulate Excel spreadsheets after every dinner party we have. I still cook from time to time. He loves my Chow Mein Mince but I’m always careful to get rid of the ‘Casserole Base’ packet before he spots it. Then I can say, off-handedly, “Oh, it’s just my secret ingredient”. So the French cookbook eventually led to a highly satisfactory outcome. I rarely cook a meal now although I enjoy some wonderful dishes. And we’re both living happily ever after. © Judy Evans