The holidays and my annual trip to the East Coast and Don's to Japan for skiing meant for a bit of a break before our next meeting. But as soon as we were both home, he was eager to get back together - as was I.
It was early February 2020.
When I arrived, he again greeted me outside by the fountain with a hug and peck on the cheek. As he escorted me in, he was full of updates about his travels.
I walked in the front door and followed him to the right past the formal living room, formal dining room and a epically large painting hanging on the wall. It looked like 1.0 of the expansive tree outline on his label. I inquired. One of his daughter's painted it and he loved it so much it became a symbol for his starting over.
We passed through into the kitchen and he already made some dinner preparations. Light charcuterie and cheeses were laid out. Raw salmon fillets, fennel, cherry tomatoes, and baby potatoes were staged on cutting boards on the counter. The Christmas Cactus that I had gifted him was there as well right by the kitchen sink. It brought a smile to my face that he kept it. The fire was roaring. The dusk and warmth in the air was comforting.
He moved passed the island and continued to tend to his cocktail set up. Juicer. Bombay Sapphire. Campari. Fresh oranges from the abundant tree in full bloom right outside the kitchen window.
I stood on the other side of him leaned against the counter, watching his work on the Negronis and listening to his tales. Don has a clever delivery to his stories. Many of his tales are as tall as Everest delivered deadpan. Recall the watering of the trees. It leaves someone like myself, 25 years his junior, wondering what the correct facial and audible response should be if I didn't quite understand a story about life growing up in the '60's and '70's. His stories are always self-approving with the biggest smile at the end as if he was saying "Ta-Da!" The content of his tales that evening have sailed out of my brain, but his warm, yet silly expressions will be happily burned into the back of my eyes forever.
The Negronis were finished and we then turned to contemplate dinner prep. He suggested his man meal version. I inserted a woman's touch.
Crispy skin salmon. Parboiled then fork smashed potatoes drizzled in olive oil made from the olive grove on his hillside property and roasted until crispy. Sautéed fennel and cherry tomatoes with thyme from his garden.
He had set a neat table, which was just on the other side of the kitchen island. Woven placemats. Water and wine glasses. Plates warming in the plate warming drawer.