Page 101 of Advanced Chemistry

“Not to toot our own horn, but damn this food is good,” Anton said. “Why don’t we eat this good all the time?”

“Because then we’d have to spend the rest of our lives in the gym,” I reminded him. The mac and cheese alone had three different kinds of dairy. It was the first time I’d ever bought whole milk.

“What do you think, Chase?” I asked.

“Brilliant. This ranks in the top five meals I’ve ever had,” he said. That was a high compliment considering how thoroughly he tracked his eating experiences.

“Top five? That’s impressive! Higher than that time you had the chicken pot pie at the Cheesecake Factory?” Anton asked.

“Yes, you’ve leapfrogged ahead of all franchise establishments.”

“Did you hear that, Seb? We beat the Cheesecake Factory.”

Anton and I clinked glasses. Take that, chain restaurants.

“Although, we’ll have to see how your dessert compares to their titular cheesecake,” Chase said.

Uh oh. I looked at Anton. He looked at me. Did we forget to make dessert?

We did.

“Actually, since you love dessert so much, we thought we’d go out and get ice cream at Sundae Fun Day,” Anton said, in a brilliant cover. “Since it’s your favorite.”

“They still have their twinkie ice cream,” I said.

Chase lifted an eyebrow, intrigued. Anton and I breathed a sigh of relief. One of these days, with enough practice, we’d get everything right. Entree and dessert.

“So how does it feel to be Teacher of the Year?” I asked.

“It doesn’t feel any different. I didn’t change or modify my teaching habits. I’ve been teaching as I always have, and it’s merely a consequence of luck and timing that this award should come my way. But, it is pretty to look at.” He gazed at the plaque sitting on the table beside him.

Einstein hopped on the award to sniff it out, and both she and the award tipped over and fell. Only one of them landed on their feet. Einstein darted back to the living room embarrassed, the same skittering she did whenever I pushed her off my desk while I was working. She had the annoying habit of resting on my keyboard.

“Maybe next year you can make it two in a row,” Anton said as he refilled his plate. I doubted there would be leftovers. We had to carbo load for the gym in the morning, I told myself.

“I don’t see that happening,” Chase said. “I’ve decided to quit teaching.”

Anton and I dropped our forks at the same time, the clanging breaking the awkward quiet.

“What? Why?” I asked.

“There’s another place where I’d like to work, a start-up company with great energy.” A coy smile sat on his lips. “From what I’ve seen, Beverage Solutions is, as you like to say, blowing up. You’re expanding and can barely keep up with the work. I have a knack for being organized and efficient. I could help you establish business processes to ensure you can scale with minimal strife.” He circled his finger around his wine glass. “What do you say?”

Anton had the same breakthrough look as I did. Why hadn’t we thought of this before? Chase was super on top of things, and he would be awesome at handling all of the administrative stuff that trips us up. He was a very detail-oriented person.

“Are you sure about this? You love teaching,” I said, noting the award currently on the floor.

“I do. I can always go back to it, but I’d like to give this a try. It’s about time I took some risks in my life. Plus, if I can be perfectly honest, I’m a little tired of talking about chemistry all day. I do have other interests.”

“Too bad you can’t get a job putting together puzzles,” Anton said.

“Unfortunately, not.”

This felt like a momentous moment. Things were shifting, growing. Chase sparkled in the candlelight.

“Our first employee.”

“Employee? Partner.” Anton held up his glass. “We’ll make this a true family business.”

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