At that moment, Kate came in, her arms full of fresh flowers for the tables. She stopped dead and sniffed the air with deep suspicion.
'Phwoar, what is that smell?'
'Cheese, but it went in the cold room hours ago.'
'Its presence lingers, believe me. But that's a relief. I was wondering how to tell you that you really need to wash your socks. Back in a minute, but I really must put these in water.'
Louis pretended to look hurt. 'Your girlfriend, the lovely model? It seems she no longer recognises me.'
'See! I keep telling you that you need glasses, you old fool! How long before you start mistaking frozen mushrooms for truffles. This is a completely different woman,' snapped Maria.
'Frozen mushrooms! I have never used one in my restaurant ever!' said Louis, who had spotted Georgia two days ago, coming out of a restaurant with a man who certainly wasn't Jake. Ever since, Louis had been wondering what the hell was going on.
'Kate is my mistress – I mean waitress,' said Jake, choking on his wine. He really wasn't up to par if he was coming out with Freudian slips like that. He looked up and met two curious, but kind, stares. 'You can guess how busy I've been here. Georgia hates it, and frankly I don't blame her. I feel a bit like a juggler who's developed a squint. I'm keeping some of the plates in the air, but others are crashing down behind me.'
They nodded understandingly. Chefs' partners were often casualties of ambition and obsession.
'Well, it has been obvious for a long time that men can only use one part of their brain at a time and their women must supply the rest,' said Maria. From what she knew of Georgia, she doubted she could supply anyone with anything. It had also always seemed to her that Jake had taken her on as if she was a particularly difficult dish he was determined to master.
Louis must have been thinking along the same lines, because he asked now: 'Do you recall the first time you made poulet fermier aux escargots?'
Jake winced. 'You tasted it, pulled a horrible face, then threw it in the bin.'
Louis nodded. 'Sometimes you just have to ditch things and start again.'
'I can't dispose of Georgia like she's something nasty at the bottom of a saucepan,' said Jake, outraged.
'Of course not. You do not have it in you to be so ruthless. But you are not married and therefore you must ask yourself some difficult questions,' said Maria. 'A woman is not a dish you can keep trying to get right. If there is a good understanding between you it will work out anyway. A good relationship is not about two people being joined at the hip. But you must ask yourself, are you both travelling the same road together?'
Jake was silent. If he was honest with himself, he would have to say that he didn't even know which road Georgia was on.
'Maria is right, as usual,' said Louis. 'This is an important question. But Jake, I must ask others, possibly even more important. What in God's name are you going to serve this man from the Restaurant Club?' He looked round the kitchen, as if there might be spies hiding in the pan cupboard, and he lowered his voice. 'It is not a well-known fact, but I have it on very good authority that he is not partial to tuna.' He leaned back, satisfied, as if he had just passed on the meaning to Life, the Universe and Everything.
And maybe he had, thought Jake.
Chapter Twenty
Georgia wasn't at her mother's house. At this moment she was lying naked on Harry's king-size bed, admiring her reflection in the mirror he had put up on the ceiling.
'Naff, isn't it?' he said lazily. 'The thing is, we are both so astonishingly good-looking, the tackiness is redeemed, don't you think?'
'Yes, you're right,' she agreed. 'But how many women have you said that to?'
He leaned over on one elbow to look at her. There was still sweat on his brow. 'Plenty. But I only really meant it about you.'
She nodded, satisfied. He was right. Whenever she had glanced up during their very busy night, there they were, a tangle of limbs, muscular and soft skin perfectly complementing each other. It was like watching a living painting, thought Georgia. 'Jake would be in fits of laughter if he could see it,' she said. If there was a rule that you shouldn't talk about a previous love to your new love, Georgia certainly didn't know it. But Harry wasn't offended. He liked hearing about his rivals – it gave him more opportunity to put the boot in.
He lay on his back, legs splayed. Then he took her hand almost casually and put it on his cock. 'He's got a weird sense of humour. I'm sure he wouldn't have been able to understand half the things we got up to last night.'
'No. He simply does not get why I cannot have carbs for dinner. Oh – I see what you mean.'
He reached over and pulled her on top of him so he could stroke her arse and look at it in the mirror at the same time. He was already more than satisfied and not at all put off by her dimness. Only one of them needed the brains, after all.
Jake was on the phone, trying to talk to Tess. He had asked for her three times already, in increasing desperation, but Angelica was determined to take him through a step-by-step account of her day at school.
'Mrs Parkinson wears big, round shiny earrings.'
'Does she? Is that the name of your teacher? Is she nice?'
'I tried to pull one off and she told me to sit in the Quiet Corner.'
'Well, anyway –'
'I had rice pudding for my lunch and Emily fell over and hurt her knee.'
'Oh dear. Is Emily your friend?'
'I don't know yet,' said Angelica, thoughtfully. 'Kevin Brady is my friend.'
'That's nice. Now –'
'I drew a picture of him in the kitchen with you. Do you know Kevin has a tiny willy all of his own?'
'Er, no. Well, yes, but –'
'I want one. Have you got one?'
'Please, Angelica, get your mummy!'
'Round and round the garden, like a teddy bear –'
'That's enough, Angel. Now give me the phone. Hi, Jake, what did you want?'
'I haven't the faintest idea now. I mean, I did, when I rang you, but then everything went a bit surreal. Is it normal for small girls to have a fixation with willies?'
'Yes. They usually grow out of it, though.'
'Oh hell – there's someone at the door. I'll get back to you.'
He was expecting three boxes of vegetables so he was a bit taken aback to find Georgia on the doorstep, looking distraught and pale, eyes hidden by enormous dark glasses even though the day was overcast. Although he didn't know it, she was wearing her full complement of make-up, but it was cunningly muted to give the impression she wasn't. A tiny touch of blusher round the eyes would make it look as if she had been crying.
'Goodness, I'm sorry, I didn't know you were due back today. Why didn't you ring me? I would have met you at the station.'
'You didn't answer any of my messages,' she said reproachfully. She hadn't actually sent any but she was correctly assuming he had been too busy to check his phone. She was right. Jake immediately looked guilt stricken, which was how she had planned to set the tone of the ensuing conversation.
'Jake, we have to talk.'
He instantly felt a jolting moment of déjà vu.
'Oh hell, Georgy. I can't begin to tell you how much I hate that phrase.'
Having got him feeling slightly sick with apprehension, she then made it even worse by having him wait while they went upstairs, where she disappeared into the bathroom for what seemed like ages.
It was like waiting for his head to be lopped off while the executioner picked his nose and polished his sword. Jake wasn't very good at waiting for anything.
'For fuck's sake, what are you doing? Come out at once,' he shouted, banging on the door, driven beyond endurance.
When Georgia emerged, she was holding a tissue to her nose, delicately. 'I've just had the worst two days of my life,' she announced.
'What happened? Have you been binge-eating on half a chocolate biscuit again?'
She looked at him sadly. 'Let's sit down.'
; 'Only if you take those ridiculous glasses off and stop acting as if this is a scene out of a second-rate film noir.'
As soon as he sat down, she got up and began pacing up and down the room. Unfortunately, she automatically adopted the strutting and silly catwalk stride, which always made Jake want to laugh. He bit his lip and tried to focus.
'What happened to me in the last two days was a crisis. I really think I've had some sort of emotional breakdown.'
'Well, I'm sure your mother is used to coping.'
'I wasn't at home. I wasn't with mother.' She stared at him and he just looked back her, uncomprehending. 'Oh, for goodness' sake, don't be so dim, Jake! Our relationship would have worked so much better if you'd been a bit more jealous, like other men!'
'Would it?' he said quietly. 'I thought one of the reasons you loved me was because I trusted you.'
'Yes, well; there can be too much trust.' She was cross now and couldn't remember which bit came next. 'Anyway I suddenly realised how much you have changed. There are three of us in this relationship now and one of them is this stupid restaurant. I went to some very dark places, Jake –'
'I keep telling you not to wear your sunglasses indoors,' he muttered before he could stop himself. She glared at him.
'But I finally came to the conclusion, after a great deal of suffering, that our dreams are no longer the same. This is very painful for me, but I know I have to set you free.' As she said this, Georgia really believed it and started to cry in earnest.
'I don't think I've changed that much,' he said slowly, 'well, not in that way. Work is an important part of my life, but it always has been.'
'But it's taken you over, Jake! You think about food all day; you dream about it at night, and even when we make love you compare me to food. That is seriously weird and kinky, especially when you know how I feel about food, Jake!' Her voice rose hysterically.
Jake felt better at once. He had been sure she had realised he had fallen for Kate. But this was just Georgia having one of her episodes. She was needy and insecure, and he had probably been neglecting her. She lived in such a fragile little world. Something petty had sparked this off – an unflattering photo of her, perhaps, or a bitchy comment in the press, which he hadn't read because he never had time to read crap like that. But these things were important to her and who was he to judge? He too depended upon the kindness of others.
He looked at her tenderly with affection. Then his eyes narrowed. There was something different about her today. As he looked closer he saw that she radiated a sort of guilty energy. Having experienced it himself, he recognised it instantly for what it was and, belatedly, the penny dropped.
'You've been seeing someone else, haven't you?'
She was furious. How typical of Jake to describe thus her life-changing affair. Also, she wanted to be the one to drop the bombshell. This was her show and she had planned some really good stuff still to come, mostly variations on how much she had been suffering. Now she would have to fast-forward a whole range of feelings that were designed to illustrate how none of this was her fault.
'I have met someone else. We have known each other for a while now and our feelings for each other have deepened. For a long time we really fought this – it's been terrible, you can't imagine the stress I've been under. We had this instant connection from almost the first time we met. He really understands me,' she continued and although she tried to look sorrowful, she just ended up looking smug.
Jake wasn't listening. It was glaringly obvious to him that neither of them had been honest with the other. OK, Georgia had slept with this bloke, whoever he was – that wasn't important. How guilty was he for thinking the same things about Kate? OK, thinking wasn't the same thing as doing, but the principle was the same, he reasoned, being hard on himself, but somehow that felt better than blaming Georgia. He probably had been neglecting her a little.
'I'm sorry,' he said humbly. 'Maybe you need more from me than I can ever give. At the end of the day I'm always going to be a scruffy workaholic with no money and big dreams. We were happy together once and I take some of the responsibility for the fact that we aren't now. But I hope we can always be friends?'
Georgia stopped pacing in irritation. This wasn't what she wanted at all. OK, it looked like parting was going to be painless, but surely he should care a lot more? He really wasn't as broken up about this as he bloody should be. It was all rather galling. She was easily the most beautiful thing he had ever had in his life. Did he not know just what he was losing? Apparently not, because he just carried on sitting opposite her, smiling sadly but not even fraying slightly round the edges.
'I hope you will be happy,' he said.
'I'm sure we will. And we will take every care to stay out of your way.'
'Oh, I don't think that will be a problem,' said Jake easily. Whoever he was, he was probably based in London and part of her fashion world. He doubted their paths would ever cross. It was probably someone he had never heard of, a rival rendered insignificant by the fact that he was an unknown.
'Well, I am glad you can say that. We were both worried that you were going to find this very difficult,' said Georgia importantly. Actually, what Harry had said was: 'He is going to be mad with rage, hopefully. I shall probably have to hire bodyguards.'
'You don't know who I am talking about, do you?'
'Well, of course I don't. I'm not a mind-reader. I don't know half the people you hang around with at work, do I?' said Jake, tetchily.
God, he was stupid, she thought crossly. 'Jake, I know you are not going to want to hear this, but . . . the person I have fallen in love with is Harry Hunter.'
Chapter Twenty-one
'You stupid woman,' he said.
This didn't go down well at all. Georgia wouldn't have particularly minded being called a heartless bitch, or something dramatic like that, but no one likes to be called stupid, especially when they are.
Jake stood up and looked down at her coldly. 'I have never wanted to say this before but you really are a complete fool. Have you listened to nothing I have told you about this man? He is a complete bastard and he is just using you to get at me. He really is that pathetic. When he thinks he's scored enough points – because that's how sad he is – he'll dump you.'
'Why are you smiling? None of this is funny,' she cried.
'No, you are right – it's not,' he said, and thought wryly to himself: he nearly had me there. I was eighty per cent sure he wanted to bury the hatchet.
'This is not about you! This is about me and my needs. Anyway, you're wrong about Harry. He has told me the whole story and it sounds very different the way he says it.'
'I don't doubt that for a minute,' snarled Jake. 'He's made a career out of thinking of ways to twist the truth. He's got so many faces he probably has to keep checking the mirror to see which one he has got on.'
'He said you would react like this. He knows you've always been insanely jealous of him –'
'I have not!'
'He says he seriously thinks there's something wrong with your personality because you've never been able to accept competition. He says it's not his fault that he's so talented and that things have happened more easily for him than for you. He says you might even do better when you stop blaming him for things that are really your own responsibility. You've got to face the facts, he –'
'Oh, spare me any more of the garbage thoughts of Chairman Harry!'
'And he's an absolutely brilliant lover, Jake. He could teach you a thing or two!'
'I really couldn't give a shit!'
'And his restaurant's so full he's had to turn people away, and he was kind enough to send them up to you, which I think is really nice of him, considering the way you always talk about him.'
Now that hurt. Jake had instantly dismissed the sex jibe because it wasn't about acrobatics; it was about communicating love, and he no longer had any for Georgia. But recently he had been feeling more and more confident that the Harry threat was fadin
g. He thought they could talk to each other civilly. He thought he could just get on with his own life. But now he could feel Harry's malevolence coiling around him like one of those giant snakes that squashes you before eating you. Jake had a sudden hideous vision of Harry squeezing tighter and tighter until he was just a pile of dust. He shook his head to clear it. That way, madness lay.
'Just go, Georgia. Take yourself and your stupid fantasies, but don't think you can come crawling back when he drops you.'
'Oh, he won't do that. I wasn't going to tell you this, but you'll have to know soon. We're engaged. I might as well wear this now.' Out of her bag she took a ring covered with enough diamonds to pay all of Jake's bills until he was an old, old man.
As she clattered down the stairs, he thought, well, this really is the last time I'll ever have to listen to that. He sat down and put his head in his hands, but when he looked up, the room was still dark. Outside, as well as in here, the clouds had been gathering, and just as he heard the door slam shut it started to rain. She'll get soaked, he thought with satisfaction and then chided himself for being mean. She hadn't broken his heart – to be truthful, it wasn't even dented – but once he'd cleared that up in his head he found he had to face the thing that was really gnawing away at him. It was pathetic to be so disturbed by the spiteful things she had said about him but he couldn't seem to shake them off, he thought, looking out of the window and watching the tourists clearing the street to find shelter from the rain, which was turning into one of those downpours that the Lake District in the summer so enjoyed.
He would find his own refuge in the kitchen, he decided. Work was the only way to stop his mind dwelling pointlessly on stupid things. Halfway down, he stopped. But what if they were true? Rubbish. Who cared how people found their way to his restaurant? Once they were there he made damn sure they had an unforgettable experience. And there was nothing wrong with his personality that a really nasty prep list for Godfrey wouldn't cure.
By stages, his staff arrived for work, all soaking wet, even if, like Kate, they just had to make a quick sprint from car to door.
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