Purley Passion
"Personal chef Adaeze cooks for Purley's elite families. When divorcee Marcus hires her to teach him basics, she shows him that the kitchen isn't the only room where heat matters."
Post-divorce, Marcus's diet was delivery apps and despair. His kids' disappointment when he couldn't even make pasta broke something. He needed help.
Adaeze was recommended by everyone—personal chef turned cooking teacher, bringing skills to Purley's hopeless cases.
She was Nigerian-British, thick curves that made her chef's coat look couture, and she assessed his kitchen with professional horror.
"This is worse than I expected. We're starting from zero."
"Is that possible?"
"Anything is possible. If you're willing to learn."
Lessons happened weekly. She taught him basics—knife skills, heat control, flavor building. But she taught him other things too—patience, attention, care.
"Cooking is love made tangible," she said one evening. "When you cook for someone, you're saying you care enough to feed them properly."
"Who do you cook for?"
"No one anymore. Not personally." Her voice was sad. "I gave all my love to clients. Kept none for myself."
"That's backwards."
"I know."
The lesson that night ended differently—her showing him how to make his kids' favorite meal, both of them ending up crying over the stove.
"I'm sorry," she said. "This is unprofessional."
"This is human." He took her hands—still holding a wooden spoon. "Maybe we both need someone to cook for."
She kissed him, tasting of the sauce they'd made together.
They made love in his kitchen—the one she'd transformed from disaster to possibility. Her thick body pressed against the counter, then the kitchen island, then the floor.
"Yes... there... this is the other kind of heat..."
She came crying out, and he followed, both of them surrounded by the evidence of what they'd created together.
"Next lesson," she said afterward, "we make something more complex."
"In the kitchen?"
"Everywhere." She curled against him. "I want to teach you everything. And learn some things myself."
His Purley passion had started with cooking lessons. It became nourishment for everything he'd been missing.