W_L

@Seraph28 Yeah, it's hard to kill off characters, but natural progression within the story leads to a tragic ending for some people, who honestly don't deserve it. As for Dexter's cancer, you are correct, it's seldom portrayed in fiction, but recurrence rates are pretty high. Another sad point of realism that I feel needed to be portrayed. @andy cannon Yeah, Carnes did nothing wrong technically, except his visa lapsed, and the lottery for H2B's shrank (real-world issue, too). I left out an extra-long scene of Carnes and Josie debating about giving up their baby boy to Dex and Reese, it felt a little too maudlin and contrived. It's best to leave the unspoken and unseen struggle in-between the lines delivered by Dexter to the others. Knowing they tried to cross the border to see their son and died in the crossing was sad enough to convey their longing and desperation. @chris191070 It's a chapter full of healing and desolation, there's a lot of real life involved with what people do and what people must overcome both within themselves and beyond them. @Calvin Good meme as always @Modified Cub I tried to portray characters and plot as an evolving narrative; their struggles are framed with realistic concerns and contemporary problems. Cancer isn't like what you see on TV or movies, you can be in good shape until recurrence strikes, which isn't portrayed at the percentages that it happens to people with prior cancer diagnosis. (Getting rid of tumors doesn't get rid of the body chemistry that caused them). Carnes' immigration issue plotline was hinted at several chapters back, and I also mentioned his newborn baby boy early in the story as a throwaway comment. Giving up your child to other people is hard, there's bound to be regret and a desire for reunion. Sadly, in today's environment, reunions posed mortal risks for Carnes and his wife Josie.

Jasmine came back to herself slowly, layer by layer. Therapy helped—during Jasmine's absence and months after her return—quiet rooms with harder questions, all underwritten by Dexter without fanfare. She hated taking the help; she knew how much his own cancer treatments must cost. But he and Reese insisted. Reese joked to alleviate her distress that she was “a better long-term investment than any wine vintage for the restaurant.” Jasmine’s memories of the night returned in fragments—sounds

Life at Le Coq snapped back into tempo after Cloves’ botched robbery—pots rattling, tickets snapping, burners hissing—a deliberate, almost stubborn normalcy. Dexter set the pace. He floated between stations with a side towel over his shoulder, firing off a quick “behind” as he slid to sauté, tasting sauces for salt at the pass, then ducking to dish to help a rookie unload racks. Carnes tapped the rhythm on the stainless with his spoon, Clove’s old station covered by a quiet rotation of line cook

The next day, Dexter fired Cloves. The cook left spitting threats, which Dexter had expected. Dexter gathered the staff, spoke plainly about his decision without divulging anything about the case, and made it clear the kitchen would run as usual. Reese stood with the other staff; the emotional distance between him and Dexter was obvious enough to spark rumors—some said Reese opposed the firing, others that he forced Dexter’s hand. Before the whispers ended, Dexter had other news to share. H

Yeah, my dad was a Chinese line cook and then a chef for years before he retired. I grew up around kitchens and heard a lot of gossip from the waitresses in the front when I visited. @chris191070 can I get an order of tater tots and a PB&J?

@peter rietbergen Appreciate your interest, and it is a lot of things I'm covering for realist sake of restaurant issues. @chris191070 It is sad, but it is part of the characters' live. @andy cannon With pain we will have growth @Seraph28 The intensity is just starting to ramp up.

The days that followed moved slowly and burned hot. With Jasmine off the line, Reese slid into the kitchen whenever he could, trying to cover the gap. He was two semesters from finishing his associate's degree in Classical French and World Cuisine, but he managed with coverage from Sara, who was relieved from motherhood duties with the appearance of Colby as her babysitter. During the first evening, Colby arrived at Sara’s apartment with a snack-stuffed backpack and the swagger of an eighte

Hope you get better soon

Well, I got inspired yesterday, and I'm going to run it through grammar checks next. Is 10K words too much for a prompt? I blame it on being Saturday, and something I was watching. I had too many hours to write.

Thank you @Valkyrie

@chris191070 and @peter rietbergen Not going to spoil what Dexter's phantom pain is This was a hard chapter to write, trying to balance happiness, joy, and success with a sudden reversal of dread, pain, and foreboding. I wanted to create a realistic story. The conflicts in this story are very real and common.

Wonder what kind of story you'd write. Haven't written vampires or werewolves yet, either, but I've read plenty of MM romances with them, a little bloody at times and very spicy.

Life at Le Coq accelerated over the next year. In the run-up to July 4th, Jasmine came on full-time. She and Dexter settled into an exacting rhythm. He executed with ruthless precision; she pitched ideas with fearless curiosity. True to his words, Dexter taught her techniques beyond his classical wheelhouse. He wasn’t an innovator by instinct, but a decade on the line had given him a deep command of ingredients and chemical reactions; he could translate Jasmine’s concepts into plates. Dexte

Hmm...sounds familiar And it kind of leads into what I am writing right now:

Just saw this post now, good question While I do agree to the notion that showing something can establish emotions, the limitations of first-person perspective make character 2's emotions unknown to the MC, unless you establish situations to give context. For example, say character 2 shows joy when he's walking his dog at a certain spot, everyday. MC investigates the reason behind it and realizes character 2 was looking at the spot where character 2 found his future dog, abandoned and injured on the street. This establishes character 2's characteristic of liking animals and creates an opening for MC to develop deeper ties with character 2. Another example, MC and character 2 are rivals from different cliques in high school. MC is misunderstood by character 2, so he snipes at MC from time to time. Put the two in a situation like a field trip or special event, where they must work together to accomplish a certain goal outside of their normal interactions. That will establish friendship and deeper relations if you desire.

@Seraph28 Thanks for the praise, I really enjoyed this chapter. It brought out all my inner foodie-ness, which I've never put into words. Plus, romance is one of those genres I've always wanted to write in. @peter rietbergen Soufflés are great, and there's a lot of different ways to get to the right consistency, if you have friends or family have dietary issues. I wanted to show off a little bit with Jasmine and Dexter both "chef-ing it", the culinary version of nerding out @chris191070 Dexter has come a long way, I wanted to drop those subtle hints in the conversations. Between Dexter and Sara, you can hear his alcohol consumption has gotten way down due to Reese playing lifeguard. It's imperfect, but Dexter tries. @Calvin Funny meme

A week after their fight, only one application had landed in Dexter’s inbox: Jasmine Teal. Dexter understood why no one else wanted to be his sous-chef. His reputation still clung to the place like the smoke over a stovetop after service. Still, Dexter warred with his doubts at hiring a new female chef, hearing old voices of mentors berate him for making a foolish mistake. But he also knew he couldn’t keep this pace alone. Experience and fear wrestled with his plain pragmatism. He scheduled

I've never written a zombie story before, I should take notes from our old friend, @Comicality, Gone but never forgotten Thanks for the list of horror stories

When writing Eldritch and ancient horror beings, it's very hard not to use descriptive language. Take a look at the classic H.P. Lovecraft stories, like "The Shadow over Innsmouth" and "The Call of Cthulhu". GA doesn't split the subgenres or add tags for this variant of horror, but folks familiar with the subgenre know this is normal. I usually don't write to this level of description for horror, you've probably seen in my other horror works, but it's part of this genre. I'm one of GA's few writers, who adapts to the genre that I write in. PS: The Eldritch beings should be very inhuman, so their perspectives on the humanity is usually off-putting. It's one reason why many enjoy these kinds of stories, alternate frame of reference is one reason why description has to be used.

@Inkognito @Zombie @Ron I guess I probably should tell you that I got the card before with a 150K point promo that paid for the membership benefits, including the lounge It made sense on paper, I didn't think of it as anything fancy. If the credit card companies weren't trying to reel in middle-income people, why start the spending to be $600 for a year to get free rewards? Raising new limits to $75K after they figured out folks like me were joining in without being big spenders, it's pretty bad. I just never realized that "lounges" were supposed to be for "wanna be" rich people, it never crossed my mind based on what was offered.

I was just watching this documentary on youtube, probably due to my algorithm giving me hits on travel-related items from searches for my upcoming Japan trip (All hail our mighty AI overlords, please do not smite me with an outage ) I didn't realize that my use of airport lounges was based on a false notion of "affordable affluence". Never considered it for the status symbol, just loved the idea of getting food, coffee, and a place to unwind on long international flights. Fascinating documentary, I agree that the crackdowns by credit cards like AMEX with recent increases to $75K spending a year for access to these lounges is sad as a consumer for what amounts to "faux luxury" services like a buffet, a fancy coffee machine, an open bar, and comfortable seats with wi-fi. Maybe that's the problem, folks like me who want a place to relax at an airport instead of at a food court or outside a gate aren't the target audience, but we somehow got roped in. Anyone else got airport lounge access for "affordable affluence" or were you like me and just wanted a nice place to rest/refresh at a long layover?

@Calvin Yep, it's a French dining-inspired story after all, those things can take forever to finish, but they're so good.

@chris191070 Reese is doing a great job, and he's very honest about his own capabilities. The argument over Jasmine was a necessary segway to introduce some things about the restaurant industry, it's not as easy as it seems on TV where representation is more even. @Seraph28 Glad you are enjoying the various tastes of life @peter rietbergen Realism is part of why I wrote this story. I do love GA authors for giving folks hope from despair, but my approach to modern stories is different.

If life were a fairy tale, Dexter’s vow would have solved everything. Reese would be happy, the restaurant would thrive, and the credits would roll. Reality isn’t a fairy tale. Dexter did try—earnestly at first, then awkwardly, then with a flash of anger when effort didn’t equal relief. He cycled through half a dozen approaches: a few AA meetings where he sat in the back and kept his coat on, a mindfulness app that he abandoned by day three, a pain-management consult that mapped a taper off

Read this story for a fluffy and upfront love story without any drama.