Free The Secret Ingredient by Stewart Lewis

AM radio. I can’t stop thinking about Rose, and Kurt, and her mother, and about where the key might lead me. Finding my mother seems like this impossible thing in the distance, like seeing a castle from a plane. But maybe it’s getting closer. It might even be as simple as going to the bank. But for some reason, I don’t want to go until I see Theo again, and it’s only when I think of him that I can finally get to sleep.

CHAPTER 10
    When I come downstairs in the morning, Bell has just gotten back from running. He’s sitting at the small kitchen table, panting a little too hard. I get some juice and start cutting up a mango I got at the street market. He watches my technique like he’s fascinated, but I think he just needs a distraction. I decide to further distract him by telling him about work and reconnecting with Theo.
    “He’s a good egg,” Bell says. “I’m glad.”
    “It’s weird, though—he’s on this acting path now. I never pictured myself dating an actor.”
    “I thought he was into cycling?”
    “That mostly, but he also wants to be repped by Janice.”
    “Which would technically mean you’d be romantically involved with one of your clients.”
    As if on cue, Enrique walks in and says, “We all know how that one goes.”
    The story is slightly different depending on who tells it, but when Bell first met Enrique, Bell was running a catering company and Enrique’s dance company had hired it for their tenth anniversary. Apparently, Bell got the menu wrong because of a miscommunication. Bell says it was because of Enrique’s accent, which was much thicker at the time, but Enrique says it was because Bell had two martinis during their initial meeting. They ended up having a very heated argument in front of all the guests, before taking it into the stairway of the reception hall to be private, and that’s where it gets murky. From what I know, Enrique started to cry, and Bell held him in the stairway while the party raged on inside. Eventually they came back and danced together, to everyone’s raised eyebrows.
    Now Bell raises his eyebrows and heads upstairs to shower. Enrique grabs a couple pieces of my mango and sighs, sitting down where Bell just was. I tell him about Jeremy’s ice cream truck, and how we both plan to save the restaurant.
    “That is sweet, Ollie, but it’s a lost cause.”
    I stop chewing the mango and give him a serious look. “What do you mean, Papá?”
    Before he can answer, the phone rings. I can tell by his serious tone it’s going to be a long call, but I wait, anxious. It’s so like Enrique to drop a bomb and not think about the destruction. When he finally hangs up, I say, “Lost cause?”
    He looks at me with what some might say is condescension, but then I can tell he wants to take it back.
    “Sorry, Ollie, I’m not myself today. It will be fine. I’m glad you guys want to help out.”
    I don’t really have the energy to inquire further, so I try my best to believe him.
    “Can I give you a hypothetical?”
    He nods. This is how he used to start a lot of conversations with me, and now it’s my turn.
    “Say my birth mother didn’t remain nameless. Would you not want me to contact her?”
    He looks at me deeply, as if I’m changing before his eyes, which I suppose I am. “Ollie, we can’t really stop you from doing anything. We can only advise you and protect you as best we can.”
    “It’s cool, I was just wondering.”
    The next week seems to fly by. I don’t hear from Theo, but I know he had to go back to Oregon to get the rest of his stuff. Once in a while I get panicky and impatient that I haven’t heard from him, but I know he has a lot to deal with up there, and before he left, he promised to call the day he gets back. So most of the time, I just float around in a happy haze and think about seeing him again.
    At J. Tucker Casting, the mood is brighter. Janice is allsmiles, and she’s humming a lot. Apparently she was hired to cast a big