Love and Food by K.L. Prince Page A

ways that people can enjoy the fruits of their labor and just relax.  Some of the best times I have had in my life have been while I have been surrounded by good food and good company.”
                  “Exactly.  Me too.  In fact, every good memory that I’ve had has been just that and I’m not saying that because I’m a chef.  Weddings, showers, graduations, different celebrations – food, friends and family have always been part of the equation.”
                  “We need to eat to survive.  We mine as well enjoy something that we can’t live without.”
                  “My thoughts exactly.”
                  They chitchat about the business for a while and the plans that still need to be completed, but she is sick of all the business talk.  She wants to know about the personal side of Ethan Saint.  She wants to know what sort of things he does in his spare time and if he has a significant other.  After she places the soufflé she prepared earlier in front of him and makes her self comfortable again, she decides to ask him the questions that she’s been wondering about.
                  “So, Ethan, are you seeing anyone at the moment?  If it’s too personal a question, you don’t have to answer.  I was just thinking that we’ve been spending quite a bit of time together and I don’t really know you that well, outside of our business relationship.”
                  “No, I don’t mind at all.  There is nothing that you could ask me that would be too personal.  I like to think of myself as an open book.  I like to be as transparent as I can be, most of the time.  To answer your question though, I am not seeing anyone at the moment.  I haven’t really been with anyone since Maggie.”
                  “Who is Maggie?” she asks, intrigued.  She can’t wrap her mind around why a handsome and successful man like Ethan would be single.  Why would this Maggie person let him go?
                  “Maggie and I were high school sweethearts.  When we met, everyone used to point out to us how young we were and how we couldn’t possibly know what love was.  Everyone was convinced that we were going to break up eventually, most likely right after graduation, but when I met Maggie, I just knew that she was the one.  I knew that I was going to marry her.  We both went to the same college and we remained inseparable.  The day that we both graduated from college, I got down on one knee and I proposed.  I had saved up every cent I could over the four years of college and bought her the biggest diamond I could afford.  When she said yes, it was the happiest day of my life.  We got married a year later.”
                  Ethan looks at her.  She can see sadness in his eyes.  She’s afraid to ask, but she asks anyway.  “So, what happened to Maggie?”
                  “We were about a year and a half into our marriage when Maggie started to get these headaches.  She just brushed them off at first.  She thought that they were just migraines and that she would be fine, but then her vision started to be affected.  Then, she had seizure.  She didn’t want to go, but I forced her to go see a doctor.  I think that she knew there was something serious going on with her, but she didn’t want to face it.  It didn’t take long before they diagnosed her with terminal brain cancer.”
                  “Oh, Ethan, I’m so sorry.”
                  “It’s okay.  It’s not your fault that she got cancer.”
                  “So, Maggie died?”
                  “She did.  They tried radiation and chemotherapy, but Maggie stopped taking the treatments because they were making her more sick than the actually cancer was.  We just keep her comfortable with different pain medications and eventually, she passed away in