Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 128211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
I didn’t know how to sit still for longer than what was absolutely necessary to get a decent amount of sleep to keep going.
And when it came to hard work, not only was I not afraid of it — I craved it. Nothing lit me up like kicking my own ass for days and hearing an atta girl at the end of it all.
It was how my father raised me to be. Nothing in life comes easy, he always told me. You have to work hard for what you want. With him, there was never a consolation prize. You were either the best or you had better keep trying. That was just one of the reasons I wanted to excel in this first season as chief stew. This was the highest position of the interior on a boat this size. That meant to be chief, you had to be the best. This was my chance to prove to him that what I did mattered, that it was a hard job with reward and recognition you had to earn.
What I lacked in affection for my father, I made up for with respect.
The man had always provided for me. He may not have been there when I had my heart broken or when I was crying in bed after a hard day, but he was a constant reminder that life kept going, that the effort I put into it was the one thing I could control.
And control I did.
In that moment of my life, standing in the crew quarters of a new boat at the start of a new season, I felt a monumental shift.
On camera, all a viewer would see was me on the phone with the provisioner barking out a list of everything we needed for the first charter. They’d see my golden hair pulled up into a loose ponytail, one hand scribbling in my notebook while the other checked items off on the laptop. They’d see a young, smiling, ambitious girl eager to start in a new role.
But on the inside, a storm brewed.
Lightning sizzled in every nerve, thunder crackling down my spine with every checkmark I made. I catalogued those sensations as excitement, as opportunity, as a new beginning. In my heart of hearts, I believed it was one of those moments that tattooed itself onto your very soul when it happened, the kind you always knew you’d reflect on as that time when everything changed.
Now, looking back, I know better.
I know it had nothing to do with the season or the cameras or my new role at all.
It was just my body reacting before my brain could at the proximity of him — like it always had.
“Well now… would you look who it is.”
The voice splintered my joy like a bolt of lightning to a frail, unsteady tree. I stopped mid-sentence where I was planning the schedules for my stews, pen hovering above the page in a hand that felt foreign, a hand that was already shaking.
I swallowed, looking up even when it took all my effort to do so, my heart kicking back to life from where it had halted in my chest.
And there he was.
Finn Fucking Pearson.
“Hello, Firefly.”
PRE-PRODUCTION CONFESSIONAL
CLOSE QUARTERS
SEASON 4
FINN PEARSON: HEAD CHEF
PRODUCER
Tell us a little about yourself.
FINN
I’m Finn Pearson. I’m twenty-eight years old from Dublin, Ireland, and I’m a chef.
PRODUCER
Can you expand on that? Tell us a little about your experience.
FINN
Ever since I was a kid, cooking has been my love language. In fact, I don’t think there’s a better way to show you love someone than by cooking for them. When I graduated secondary school, I boarded the first flight to the Netherlands to enroll in a culinary arts program. From there, I found myself in Switzerland, Italy, France… I was just traveling and soaking up every bit of knowledge I could from some of the best chefs in the world. One day, I got a job offer for a yacht in the Mediterranean. It’s damn hard being a yacht chef. You’re the only one in the kitchen, for starters, which means you do it all — the planning, the food prep, the cooking, and most of the cleanup, too. But feck, it’s fun — can I curse?
PRODUCER
It will be censored, but yes.
FINN
It’s fecking fun, being on a boat in an exotic corner of the world. The hours are long, but the money is deadly. I was hooked from the first charter.
PRODUCER
You’ve taken a break from yachting for a couple of years, is that correct? This will be your first season in a while?
Finn drinks water, adjusts in seat.
FINN
That’s correct.
PRODUCER
What were you doing in the time you took off?
Finn laughs.
FINN
Doing what every idiotic, dream-delusional chef does, of course — trying to open me own restaurant.
PRODUCER
What made you come back to yachting?
Long pause. Finn cracks his neck, smiles.