Simon was sneaking a potato while Avian was looking at Christa. ‘Dessert? No thank you. Simon and I don’t do that.’
‘Hang on,’ said Simon, trying to swallow the potato whole so Avian couldn’t see his duplicitous act.
‘What is it?’ he asked.
‘Chocolate molten lava cake with raspberry coulis and Chantilly cream with a scoop of French vanilla ice cream I made today.’
‘Get out of town,’ exclaimed Paul. ‘I will have Simon’s if he can’t eat it.’
Avian stood up. ‘Thank you but no thank you. Simon?’
Reluctantly Simon stood.
‘Thanks for the kale and tofu,’ he said, glaring at Christa.
‘If you want yours later, I will leave it in the refrigerator. You can heat it up in the microwave.’
‘No, he won’t. It’s bad for you,’ Avian instructed. ‘I will come and see you after dinner,’ she said to the boys, who were looking from adult to adult like it was a tennis match.
‘Go and play, boys, and I’ll call you for dessert,’ said Marc.
Adam, Paul and Marc cleared the table, laughing in the kitchen about Avian and Simon.
‘He looks hungry,’ said Adam.
‘He is hungry,’ said Marc. ‘He looked at that chicken like he was about to propose to it.’
Christa laughed. ‘He is starving, I know he is. I’m betting that that molten lava cake will be gone in the morning.’
‘Avian will probably put a lock on the fridge,’ Paul said.
‘I feel a bit mean,’ admitted Christa. ‘But Avian’s approach to food is so damaging. I’m not sure the boys should be indoctrinated by her weird rules and phobias.’
‘What do you mean?’ Marc asked.
‘She calls food good and bad all the time. Food is morally neutral. You can’t eat like this all the time as it’s not healthy but you can have a meal like this and enjoy it and know it’s a sometime event.’
The men listened keenly as she spoke.
‘If you are given choices with every meal, you will find kids choose a balance. A plate of fruit with some good quality chocolate will be taken from equally. The children will take a strawberry and chocolate. A few berries, a little watermelon and so on and then maybe some chocolate again. If weighed in the balance it would be equal.’
She paused, choosing her words carefully so she didn’t upset Marc about the boys.
‘Being too rigid in anything can be damaging, is all I’m saying.’
Marc sat at the kitchen table.
‘Avian is rigid, that’s for sure.’
‘And Simon will rebel. It will start with the lava cake and then explode into something bigger. It’s only a matter of time,’ Christa said as she put the individual ramekins into the oven.
Adam and Paul left the kitchen to drink their wine in front of the fire.
Christa avoided looking at Marc as she set up the items for dressing the cakes when they were out of the oven.
‘Are you okay?’ Marc asked. ‘It must be really awful for you with them being here.’
Christa stirred the berry coulis. ‘It is what it is.’ She said but the truth was every moment around Simon was unbearable. Her anxiety was back, and she kept waking in the night in a sweat, and had started to twist her hair at the crown when she didn’t realise, only to stop when she felt some of it coming out in her hand. But she wouldn’t say that to Marc, he would think she was fragile and useless.
