In the bathroom, my legs were jelly. I leaned over the sink to splash water on my face. The water was shockingly cold as it hit my skin, but I still felt flushed all over. My heart raced beneath my chef coat. I took deep breaths to calm myself.

Nia came to me in a panic over a mistake with a customer’s steak. I rushed out to the dining room to apologize, not even considering that the customer might be the most handsome man I had ever seen in my life.

Thinking about how I might have looked out there, I cringed. Had I been noticeably sweaty? Was my hair in place? Did he notice the look on my face when I saw his?

The customer, Alex, was ruggedly handsome with gorgeous brown eyes and dark brown hair. When he talked to me, I could swear his eyes sparkled like brown tourmaline gemstones. And his smile - That million-dollar smile and striking square jaw. I could tell he was lean and muscular from how his dress shirt fit around his shoulders. Ryan Gosling had nothing on this guy. Even Ryan Reynolds needed to have a seat.

Patting a paper towel over my face, I looked at my reflection, wincing at how disheveled I looked. “Oh, God, I’m a mess.”

Nia walked into the bathroom. “Jasmine, I’m so so sorry!”

Pulling myself together, I threw the paper towel in the waste bin. “Don’t worry about it,” I assured her.

Nia was my cousin and basically lived the life I’d always wanted. She was tall, thin, gorgeous, and blonde. She could have been a model, but she had her heart set on being a doctor. Growing up, I always felt inadequate when standing next to her.

My cousin’s pretty face was twisted in worry. “But I just cost the restaurant a lot of money because of my mistake.”

“Just do me a favor and become a doctor, ok? You already have the handwriting of one,” I joked to ease her anxiety.

Nia gave me a smile. “What about Uncle Jose?”

I waved her off. “Don’t worry about my dad.”

Glancing back at my reflection, I realized that Alex was just being nice. He only flashed me that swoon-worthy smile because he was polite. There was no way he’d go for me if someone like my cousin was around. Nia was so sweet too. Beautiful, leggy, and sweet natured. She was a triple threat.

I wanted to get one more glance at Alex though, so I cut through the dining room to get back to the kitchen. He was beautiful and probably not someone I’d ever see again unless he came back to the restaurant. Quickly, I walked by his table, trying my best to act nonchalant when I was grabbed by my arm.

His fingers clutched around my wrist were electric. “Jasmine, are you free any night this week?”

Am I dreaming?

I looked down at my wrist enveloped in his hand, stunned. Alex must have thought I was offended because he swiftly released me. Then tripped over his words, “Maybe, um, you’d like to go to, uh a movie?” He swallowed hard then coolness took over his expression, turning him back into the suave man he’d been before. “Your choice. And dinner? At a place, you know, where you don’t work?”

My cheeks felt hot again. All I wanted to do was jump up and down and scream, ‘Yes!’

Before I could answer, my father called me over from the kitchen. “Jasmine!” his voiced bellowed.

I looked at Alex’s beautiful brown eyes and magnanimous smile. “I’ll be right back. I’ve got to talk to my dad and ask when I can have a night off.”

Back in the kitchen, my dad’s eyes were on fire. The kitchen staff tried to look busy, but I knew they were listening to our every word. “I just saw what happened out there. What was that man doing holding your hand?”

“He wasn’t holding my hand, Dad. He was asking me out on a date.” I could see the flames of my dad’s building anger in his face. I assured him, “Dad, he’s a nice guy. He’s a student at the University of Florida.”

He jabbed a finger at me. “In my office. Now.”

I followed my dad to what he called his office but was really the building he had behind the restaurant where he hung his meat. My father had the building designed to resemble the interior of a cave: stone walls and low sloped ceilings. The lighting in the cave was always low since my father believed his buey needed a restful environment to mature.

Surrounded by slabs of hanging meat, my dad laid into me. “Jasmine, you have no time for boys especially a boy from that school. College boys are only going to use you, and then leave for something or someone better when their schooling is over.”

Crossing my arms, I sighed heavily. I’d heard this speech before from my father. When my brother and I were little, my mother was a stay at home mom. After she earned her degree at the University of Florida, she left us to pursue her Ph.D. and quite possibly to escape my father, who was on the controlling side.

“Dad, it’s just a date!” I protested.

“That’s how it begins,” my dad said, turning away from me.

“Dad! You can’t…” I began.

But, he interrupted me as he spun around. “Go back to the kitchen now!” His voice was loud and seething and he turned to leave. I quieted, staring at the back of my father’s head. “I’ll turn that boy down for you,” he said quietly. “Go back to work.”

I wanted to scream at him, but I knew it would do no good.

For the rest of the dinner shift, I zoned out, trying to focus on my tasks and to stop thinking about Alex and my father. At the end of the night, in the walk-in, when most of the kitchen staff had gone home for the night, my brother, Joseph, asked me, “You okay?”

I stopped taking inventory, dropping my hand to my side. “Joseph, what am I doing here?”

Joseph stepped behind me and looked over my shoulder. “Inventorying the butter?”

“No, I mean, I turned twenty-one in April. And Dad still treats me like a teenager. I thought things would change, but they haven’t.” I sat down on a crate, tossing my clipboard down on the floor.

Joseph picked it up. He turned around to continue where I had left off. That was just like my little brother, always eager to help me out.

“You know, UF just started an interdisciplinary program in Food Science and Culinary Arts. You should start doing things you’ve always dreamt of, Jas. I think you should apply.”

Tapping my foot against a bin full of potatoes, I asked, “How would I be able to do that without Dad finding out?”

Joseph turned around, sliding his pen behind his ear. “We both work the day and evening shifts together. I’ll cover for you. Besides, Dad spends most of his time on the farm with his oxen and doesn’t show up to the restaurant until right before the dinner rush. You would be free to take classes all day.”

“I don’t know, Joseph,” I said glumly.

“Being a prep cook for Dad’s restaurant will never be enough for you. Didn’t you say, you always wanted to find a way to bring Dad’s extraordinary meat to the rest of the world?”

“Ya, but Dad won’t go for it. He doesn’t trust the internet,” I groaned, lamenting my father's old-fashioned ways.

Joseph was persistent. “If you had a Food Science degree, he might. I want you to be happy, Jas.”

I loved my family and the business, the farm and restaurant; my father had built. He’d accomplished the amazing task of raising rare breeds of oxen and a bereft son and daughter who missed their mother. My father was strict with a short fuse, but he’d been heartbroken from my mother’s absence just as much, if not even more than we were. He’d pushed that heartbreak aside to raise us. I owed him.

I took the clipboard back from Joseph. “Thanks. Finish up your closing work. I don’t want to be here all night,” I said jokingly.

He nodded. “Just think about it. Don’t let this be all you ever are, Jas. You have a lot more to offer. You should know that.”

Before he stepped out of the walk-in, I asked, “You really think I can do it?”

Joseph nodded thoughtfully. “Jas, you can do anything.”

Can I?