Sarah got up and, bringing a peach melba with ice cream and raspberry coulis to the table she said, “Well, at the minute Mark’s still sending me I’m sorry texts and leaving messages on my mobile but I suppose that’ll stop when he gets used to being ignored. So, I’m back on the market again, guys.”
“You’ll get somebody soon,” Katie replied smiling encouragingly.
Lisa grinned, relaxing her shoulders in pleasure after swallowing a heaped spoonful of ice cream. “Talking of markets, it is great news that you got the knock-down offer accepted for the flat, Katie. They’re obviously desperate to sell and thankfully it’s a buyers’ market at the moment. You certainly got an excellent deal.”
Katie smiled and felt the little trickle of excitement she was getting used to every time she thought of her new flat. “I know, it’s so exciting and I can’t wish the next four weeks over soon enough. I’m dying to get in there and get cracking,” she gushed. “And another bit of good news is that when Susan in personnel worked out my leaving date it’s going to be sooner than I thought because I’ve got six days holiday to take.”
Lisa bubbled with enthusiasm for her. “Oooooh, that’s fantastic! So, if your completion date is around the same date you’ll have plenty time to move in and shop for furniture.”
Katie grinned. “I know, but I won’t have much cash to splash out on expensive pieces and I might have to pick a few second hand things up because I want to spend the bulk of the money on a first-rate kitchen. I’ve chosen the one I want and the company are ready to go straight in and start installing it all the on the day I get the keys.”
Lisa talked about some great vintage and used furniture places she knew and Katie bubbled along with her but Sarah, although not being dismissive about the ideas, seemed quiet and thoughtful.
You okay?” she asked Sarah. “You’re very quiet?”
Sarah swallowed the last of her fish. “Oh Katie, I know I’m a born worrier and must get on both of your nerves at times but it’s just that I am concerned. I mean, you seem to be taking such a lot on board and all at once…”
Lisa giggled. “You, a worrier?” she teased putting a friendly arm along her shoulder.
Sarah patted Lisa’s hand but stressed. “I know, Lisa, but I work for myself and know how hard it can be?” she argued. Lisa mumbled an apology and fell silent.
Katie tried to make Sarah feel more at ease. “But, Sarah, I’ve done my homework with all the facts and figures and listened to everyone’s advice and I do have Chrissie’s contact list to get me started?”
"Which is great,” she said fiddling with a napkin. “But it is such a big step to leave a permanent job and go freelance in this economic climate and of course, this is all on the rebound from leaving Tim?"
She hated seeing her friend looking worried because deep down inside her Katie had no doubts whatsoever that she was doing the right thing and tried again to reassure her. "Well, leaving Tim wasn’t all my own choice and no matter what had happened in that situation I would still have had to find a new place to live,” she said confidently. “And I do love you for being so concerned but please stop worrying. I’m going to make this work - you’ll see. By this time next year I’ll be director of my own successful company." She smiled tentatively at her as if to say please just be happy for me.
“I do hope so,” Sarah conceded, smiling back at Katie who promptly leant across the table and planted a big soppy kiss on her cheek.
Katie joked. “Hey, Sarah, don’t you ever change. You’re our touchstone, don’t you know that?”
Sarah grinned shaking her head in mock disapproval. “Touchstone? Christ, Katie don’t you start with the bloody American sayings,” she said to which they all burst out laughing.
Before she knew where she was it was her last day at work and while sitting alone in the staff restaurant with a mug of hot coffee she prayed for the umpteenth time the completion date on the flat purchase would go through without any hitches on the following Monday.
“Hey there, the guys tell me it’s your last day?” a familiar male voice said and she looked up to see Alexander Jennings standing in front of her table.
Oh no, what on earth was he doing here, she thought and felt the hairs on the back of her neck prickle with indignation. She couldn’t help but admire his expensively cut grey striped suit which even though he had one hand in his trouser pocket still hung flawlessly.
“Do you mind?” he asked, and before she could think of an excuse he slid onto the seat opposite her placing his mug of coffee down carefully onto the table.
Don’t let him get to you, she thought trying not to look into his eyes. When she spoke she looked past his shoulder towards the doorway. “Actually, I’m going shortly. In fact, I’ve got so many loose ends to tie-up I’d better take this coffee back up to my desk.”
He smirked the same all-knowing grin that he had on the night at the Savoy and she wondered if he’d known then that his uncle was going to give him the job and that was why she’d felt he’d been mocking her all along. Pulling the strap of her handbag onto her shoulder in readiness to get up she stared at him wondering what it was that irritated her so much - she’d worked with arrogant upstarts before and had always managed to get a handle on them so why couldn’t she with him. His long thin fingers curled around the mug of coffee and she noticed the meticulously manicured nails.
He stared intensely at her. “Yeah, it’s probably just as well you decided to leave, Katie, because I think we would have had a real problem working together?”
She loosened the grip of her bag and sat back in the chair. “We would? How do you make that out, then?” she asked raising an eyebrow in puzzlement.
He sipped his coffee and smiled cockily at her while she looked at him wishing he would spill the coffee down his marbled grey silk tie.
“Now, Katie, don’t play coy with me,” he said, reaching across the table and suddenly grabbing her free hand. “I know you can feel the attraction between us and I’ve watched you trying to ignore me. It’s probably your way of fighting against it, babe. But, you know it would only be a matter of time before we’d have to surrender to it…”
Jesus, she fumed, this guy was something else and quickly snatched her hand away spilling some of the coffee from her mug. His fingers had felt cruel and rough and she trembled with outrage and hatred for this creep - not only was he taking her job he actually had the audacity to try and hit on her at the same time. Who the hell did he think he was?
“You’re taking the piss, right?” she hissed across the table at him. “You know, Alex, I can cheerfully and honestly say you’d be the last man on earth I could ever feel attracted to.”
He grinned patronisingly at her. “Oh, you probably just feel like that now because you’ve split up from your boyfriend the chef but you’ll soon be up for it again and just so you know, I’ll be here ready and waiting, babe.”
Katie’s temper rose to boiling point especially at the mention of her Tim and taking a deep breath she stood up and pulled the strap of her bag firmly up onto her shoulder. “Firstly, Alex, I’m not your babe,” she scathed. “And secondly, what makes you think any woman in her right mind could possibly be turned-on by a pathetic creep like you? I mean, you can’t even get a job on your own merit without having to run to your uncle!”
“Aah,” he breathed. “So that’s it. You’re jealous?”
“Jealous!” she shouted and knew everyone in the restaurant was turning to look at them but she was past caring. “Me - jealous of you? Christ, you’ve got to be joking…”
She quickly turned away from him and strode out of the restaurant. Her heart was racing in anger as she flew up the stairs and into the toilets where she stood gripping the edge of the wash basin breathing slowly and deeply trying to calm down. What on earth was she getting herself so agitated about, this time tomorrow she’d be finished, with a whole new way of life ahead of her and the likes of Alexander Jennings wouldn’t even figure on her radar?
Smiling at herself in the mirror she lifted her chin and confidently pulled her shoulders back. It would take a lot more than his sarcastic remarks to spoil her day she thought, applying her new burnt orange lipstick which matched her orange blouse to perfection.
Completely back to her previous good mood and fully in control she sauntered back to the office and saw Frances at her desk with Harry and Alice sitting next to her and February’s issues of Delicious, BBC Good Food, and Hot Restaurant magazines spread out. Frances was explaining the procedure of writing recipes correctly and Katie smiled listening to her broad Somerset accent explaining the importance of listing ingredients with correct weights. Walking up to them she smiled fondly and knew she would miss her little team.
She put her arm along Frances’s shoulder who looked up and moaned, “Aah, Katie, what am I going to do without you? I still can’t believe you’re going - it’ll probably not sink in until you don’t come back on Monday morning and I’m sitting here looking at your empty desk…”
“Oh, you’ll be fine,” she said reassuring her. “You’ve done the job on your own before and it won’t be long until they find my replacement.”
Harry and Alice left the desk as it was obvious the teaching session was over and Frances stood up linking Katie’s arm in hers. “I didn’t mean the bloody work. I meant what am I going to do without you? I’m really going to miss you…” she said as they all set off to walk along to the meeting room for what Katie thought was a final product meeting.
While promising Frances she’d definitely keep in touch she opened the door and walked into the room. Suddenly the lights went on and all her friends jumped out shouting surprise. Katie’s heart began to pound with the shock and then grinned at them all.
“I wondered why the office was empty. I thought you must have all gone for lunch early,” she cried. The table was filled with a beautiful buffet lunch, bottles of champagne, and a large decorated cake sat in the middle of the spread with ‘Good Luck’ in pink icing. The usual dull cheerless room was decorated with good-bye balloons, best of luck banners and pink bunting was pinned across the walls.
David stood at the end of the table and welcomed her to her official leaving-do at which everyone laughed at his attempt to be humorous. He read out a little speech about how sorry they all were to see her go and described the enormous contribution she’d made to the company during the last eight years. There were little anecdotes from funny incidents over the years, and the mention of some old colleagues, and how the business team had changed since she first started.
He wished her, on behalf of all her friends, the very best of luck with her new venture and handed her a big card that had been signed by everyone with another envelope containing vouchers for the local Cook-shop. “We thought these would come in handy for your new kitchen equipment,” he said proudly.
She opened the envelope and gasped at the amount of money that had been spent. “Oh my God, thank you all so much,” she said as Harry entered struggling with a huge bouquet of fresh flowers. She looked around the room at her friends, the people she’d worked alongside for years and felt a lump of emotion gather in the back of her throat while Harry awkwardly presented her with the flowers. Peeping over the top of the bouquet and hoping the tears stinging the back of her eyes weren’t going to escape she took a deep breath but was speechless and then started to gabble her thanks in a shaky voice.
Frances came to the rescue. “Come on everyone, tuck in. Katie can mingle around everyone when she gets her breath back.”
After a lovely lunch and feeling a little lightheaded with champagne she managed to say goodbye to everyone and took most of their business cards for catering bookings.
She popped a chocolate truffle into her mouth and swooned with the hit of chocolate letting it melt on her tongue without swallowing and then felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Terry and she swung around to face him.
“Hi, Terry,” she said, “are you still looking for someone to cook dinner for you?”
He grinned. “You took the words right out of my mouth.”
“Well, if my kitchen installation goes to plan in a couple of weeks I’ll be ready-steady-cook?” she said laughing at her own joke. “But you might have found someone else by then?”
He vigorously shook her hand. “Oh no, Katie,” he said. “I’d much rather wait for you. I’m thinking of asking Jessica to marry me so you could maybe do me a special engagement meal and I’ll surprise her with the ring?”
“Aah thanks, Terry,” she said grinning with pleasure at the thought of her first booking.
Chapter Sixteen
“Wow!” Tim said looking at the moulds on the table. “Simon, they’re fantastic.” Simon glowed with pleasure. “Yeah, when I told my mum we were doing food from the Victorian times she rang my old aunt who used to work as a maid in a stately house when she was young. And hey presto, she sent them over,” he said picking up the largest mould in the shape of a graceful swan with a very long neck.
“How about white champagne sorbet in the swan and we decorate the plate with coloured sugar paste flowers, green buds, and foliage?” Tim asked, “What do you think?”
Simon looked delighted to be included in the project and beamed with Tim’s newly found confidence in him. “Oh yeah, it’ll be amazing!”
“Well, if you’re not rushing off this afternoon we could play around with it together?” Tim suggested and was pleased to see his happy response.
Leaving Simon he headed back to the office thinking of the valuable lessons he’d learnt in dealing with people and utilising their best skills, and the thought of how uptight and fussy he’d been on his arrival to the business made him feel ashamed. But, the restaurant was busy and running much more smoothly, his two new chefs were good workers, and now that they were taking over some of the actual cooking duties he had more time to spend on actually managing the kitchen. Even Jack wasn’t on his back as much which he knew was mainly due to his new successful dishes and the rise in profits. If only he could have done all this when he was with Kate, he thought objectively, he could have boasted proudly to her about his achievements and with more staff he wouldn’t have had to let her down so much.
Jessie gave him her hero-worship smile when he walked through the office door and holding the telephone receiver in her hand she told him it was his dad on the line. After the heart-to-heart with his mum he’d lain in bed thinking through everything she’d said to him and reluctantly he knew she was right. It was time he stopped blaming him, accepted responsibility for his own actions, and basically started to behave like the man he wanted to become.
Taking a deep breath he was determined to be pleasant. “Hey, Dad. How you doing?”
He could hear the surprise in his dad’s voice at the friendly greeting and he told Tim the settlement figure on the cheque he’d sent to Katie. “I think she deserves it for all the hard work she put into the apartment, don’t you?”
Tim smiled at his dad’s kindness and knew he’d liked her as much as his mum had. “Ah, Dad, that’s great. I’m sure she’ll be over the moon. And I’m going to start looking for a smaller place for myself. I mean, I can still just afford the monthly rent on the apartment with my salary but it doesn’t leave much for anything else. So…”
“But you don’t need to do that if you’d rather stay in the apartment,” Graham said quickly, “I can pick the short fall up for a while?”
“No, I’ll be much better with somewhere smaller,” he said knowing it was time he stood on his own two feet. “But, thanks for the offer, Dad.”
Graham cleared his throat with a familiar little grunting sound which Tim knew he had something emotional to say. “Er, Katie sent your mum a lovely thank you card and told her she was leaving her job to start a freelance catering business. She’s said the money would be great because she was looking for a flat with a big kitchen to run the business from.”
“Really?” Tim asked wondering what had happened to make her want to le
ave the retailers. “I wonder why she’s doing that?”
Silence prevailed down the telephone line and Tim waited for his father to start telling him what to do.
But he didn’t. “No idea but make sure you keep in touch with us and you know you can come home at any time,” he said.
The line went dead and he actually felt disappointed at the end of the conversation. He slumped down at his desk wondering why he had always felt he was living in his dad’s shadow. Academically, he’d never shone at school or university always just scraping through exams and knew he’d never been a great achiever, not until he’d discovered his flair for cooking of course, whereas his father had excelled in everything he’d touched from an early age.
But when and why had he decided he was living in his shadow, none of the family had ever said that to him, therefore it must have been something he’d conjured up over the years. Beginning to recognise how much of an injustice he’d levelled against his father, a creeping feeling of guilt curled its way around his gut. And yes, although it was true his father had never been around much when he was little his mum was right- he had no idea of what it was like to be short of money. He’d never wanted for anything and had always been cosseted with the secure feeling of a safety net underneath him, namely his father.
He looked at Kate in the photograph which was standing up on the desk again, ‘and that was more than you’ve ever had’, he thought lovingly and touched her face with his thumb. He knew Kate had had to fight her way through university on a grant and work hard because her father was dead and her mum only had her pension. Slowly he shook his head feeling as though he’d been plodding through a mire in the dark for the last month and all of a sudden he was aware of a great shining light ahead - his shoulders slumped in shame realising he’d behaved like a spoilt brat and blamed everyone else for his own mistakes.
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