Part 35 – Janne, Precious & Karen

In the meantime, Janne and Marcel went on a dinner date to Chez Llama, a very fancy new restaurant in Willow Creek.

“This place seems awfully posh” Janne says to Marcel, feeling a little bit uncomfortable in such posh surroundings.

“Ah, just have fun with it” Marcel tells her “pretend you are rich and fancy. What would my darling like to order?” he asks in a posh voice. Janne giggles and tells him what she wants in an equally posh voice “glazed heirloom bamboo roll please darling”.

 

Marcel places their order with the waitress in his poshest voice “and a glass of white wine for the lady and a red for myself thank you”

The waitress has a bit of a giggle to herself at his posh voice…she’s seen it all before.

 

Their meals get delivered to the table and both Janne and Marcel are quite impressed by what they see before them.

“It looks so fancy” says Janne

“Hopefully, it tastes just as good” Marcel replies.

 

Janne takes a sip of her wine and Marcel swirls his around his glass, and takes a big long smell of the aroma. “Mmmm, fruity” he says before taking a sip.

 

Janne looks at her glazed heirloom bamboo roll and wonders where she should start. It looks like a piece of art, not food to eat. Marcel enjoys watching her as he contemplates the taste of his Rustic Pate Drizzled in Aged Jus.

 

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Precious meanwhile approached the bank with a business proposal. She wanted to buy the new local restaurant and make it her own. The current owners were finding that it wasn’t making as much money as they had hoped and Precious felt she could do better.

The bank manager agreed to lend her the money, plus a bit extra to redecorate. New carpets, new walls, a new bar with a great led display piece behind it.

 

The place already looks 10 times better and with new staff, Precious is sure she can make this work.

 

They open the doors for their first lunch time sitting and already the customers are piling in. Nastassya is there to help her Mum and to keep an eye on the staff and customers. They greet everyone personally and welcome them to the “Precious Pearl Restaurant”.

 

“So far, so good” Precious says to Nasta after the lunchtime rush. “Let’s sit and have a drink and something to eat before the dinner rush”.

“Sounds great Mum” says Nasta “I can’t believe you own this place and you can finally have your dream come true” she gushes.

“I know. Isn’t it amazing” Precious beams with pride and joy.

 

During the dinner time sitting, Precious’s good friends Linda and Franco come in with their son Ørjan. Precious shows them extra special attention of course and makes sure their dining experience is the best.

“So what do you think?” Precious asks them

They all agree “4 stars” and they haven’t even tasted the food yet.

 

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Karen was sick for a few days before going to see her Doctor. He had a feeling he knew straight away what it was and deep down so did Karen.

“Congratulations Mrs Kinnaman you’re pregnant” he told her after a few tests.

Karen could have sworn she put on weight as soon as he told her the news, she started showing quite early. Of course she had told Joel straight away and he was thrilled but it was getting hard to hide from her friends now.

 

She decided it was time to tell her friends the good news. She started with Precious when they both had a day off work.

“I have some exciting news to tell you” she said to Precious while they tidied the girls bedroom. “I’m pregnant”

“What? No way! Really?” Precious was so excited she didn’t know what to say.

 

“Woohoo” Precious yelled as she fist pumped the air. “That’s awesome news. How exciting!” she said.

Karen looked a little apprehensive “I’m a bit scared” she admitted to Precious.

 

“Aww bless you” Precious says “come sit down with me and let’s talk. I’ve been through it a few times now and really it’s the best thing in the world” Precious assures her.

 

The girls talk for a while and Precious tries to reassure her friend without telling her all about the scary and painful parts.

“Just enjoy it while you can. Nothing beats the feeling of that baby growing inside you and wait until it starts kicking. It’s the BEST feeling in the world. You will be such a wonderful Mum. You’ll see”.

 

Karen feels a whole lot better after their chat and thanks her friend for the chat. She excuses herself as she needs to go to the bathroom for about the 8th time that morning…”one of the joys of carrying a baby” laughs Precious.

Karen washes her hands in the bathroom and accidentally pulls the handle off the tap and water starts gushing everywhere. “Oh no” Karen thinks to herself “what have I done?”

 

She finds a wrench under the sink and tries to fix it. She’s panicking wondering how she will tell Precious if she can’t fix it.

 

Precious hears the noise coming from inside the bathroom. “Are you ok in there” she asks through the door. Karen opens the door red faced and embarrassed as she admits she broke the tap.

“I’m so sorry” she apologizes.

Precious laughs “don’t worry, it does that all the time. I’ve been asking Karim to fix it for months now” she says. “here let me do it” she says as she takes the wrench and fixes it in a jiffy. “I’ve done that about a hundred times already” she tells Karen.