The Worst Case Scenario Cookery Club

by Chrissie Manby

  ‘And like you said, you’ve always been lucky when it comes to getting second chances. Why should that luck run out now?’

  ‘Because not everyone is as understanding and open-minded as you are, John.’

  John helped Alex to clean and tidy the room at the community centre and listened to more of Alex’s story, but he declined the invitation to go on to the club and catch up with Alex’s other friends.

  ‘I’ve already stayed out way longer than I usually do.’

  ‘I’m really grateful to you for staying to help me get this place sorted out,’ Alex told him. ‘And for listening to me, as well. I don’t think I’ve changed my mind about asking Bella out yet but I do feel better for having talked to you. Every time someone like you – someone I respect – hears my story and doesn’t freak out, it helps me to believe that maybe one day I’ll be able to put it all behind me and just be known as Alex the chef, rather than Alex the chef who used to be a drug dealer.’

  ‘You’re getting there,’ John assured him.

  ‘So, I guess I’ll see you on Thursday night,’ said Alex.

  ‘Wouldn’t miss it for the world. What are we cooking?’

  ‘Ah. Next week’s recipe is just up your street.’

  Alex put his hand on the older man’s shoulder.

  ‘Thank you for not judging me,’ he said.

  John got into his car for the drive home. As he adjusted the rear-view mirror, he gave himself a start. It was as though someone was in the back seat, looking straight at him. Judging him somehow. Of course it was only his own reflection and the troubled expression was all his too.

  The conversation John had had with Alex was not one he had expected or could have imagined having before it actually happened. It was a brave move on the part of Alex, being so honest and candid about his past. He’d risked a great deal in telling John the truth about his time in prison. It wasn’t the sort of thing you mentioned lightly. Most people would have found it a shock and perhaps even felt slightly betrayed they hadn’t known sooner. However, John had found it easy to tell him the past didn’t matter. He’d done his time. He’d wiped the slate clean and he deserved the chance to build himself a bright new future. Alex didn’t have to drag his history with him. John meant it when he said that.

  ‘You’ve done your time. You’re officially rehabilitated. Isn’t that the word?’

  And yet John remembered a time when he’d argued just as hard that the stain of criminality was permanent. Giving people like that a second chance, a third chance, a tenth, eleventh, twelfth chance was just foolish. It was madness to keep doing the same thing, expecting a different result.

  ‘For Christ’s sake, John, have a heart!’

  That’s what Sonia had shouted at him before she went up to bed and he slept on the sofa for the first time in their marriage. He could hear her shouting it now.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  It was nearly three in the morning when Bella came back. She looked almost as tired as Liz felt.

  ‘Good news,’ she said. ‘The police caught up with the man who owns the Fiat 500 and he says he doesn’t want to press charges. I can’t say I blame him. I expect he just wanted to go back to bed.’

  ‘What does that mean?’ Liz asked.

  ‘It means you’re getting a caution and then you’re free to go, once we’ve filled in a few forms.’

  ‘But what about Brittney and the harassment claim?’

  ‘I don’t think you need to worry about that. Ultimately, it wasn’t her car you decorated. And I think your husband might have had a word.’

  ‘You spoke to him then?’

  ‘Yes. He’s staying at your place tonight, with your daughter and the dog.’

  ‘And her?’

  ‘You mean the blogger? I don’t think so. He didn’t say that she was.’

  ‘OK,’ said Liz.

  ‘Shall we get you out of here then?’

  ‘Yes, please. I can’t say when I woke up this morning that I had any idea the day would end with a jail break.’

  The caution was delivered and signed. Fifteen minutes later, the officer on the front desk returned Liz’s property and she was officially signed out.

  ‘How are you getting home?’ Bella asked.

  ‘I suppose I’ll get a taxi.’

  ‘Tell you what, I’ve finished my shift on call. I’ll drop you off if you like.’

  Liz was pathetically grateful. She hadn’t relished the idea of calling her local mini-cab firm and asking them to pick her up at the police station. That said, neither did she particularly relish the idea of going back home. Not if Ian was there, even if Brittney wasn’t. She was grateful that he’d stepped in to rescue Ted from a night alone but she didn’t want to have to discuss the events of that evening. Not now. Not while her head was still pounding and she was pretty sure she looked like a mess and smelled even worse.

  ‘If you like,’ said Bella, reading Liz’s mind, ‘you could stop in my spare room until the morning.’

  ‘Won’t that be a nuisance?’

  ‘Not at all. It’ll give you a chance to put yourself back together a bit before you face the next round of questioning.’

  ‘That would be so helpful,’ said Liz. ‘I don’t suppose Ian is going to be half as kind to me as those policemen were. Or you.’

  ‘You’ll have to excuse the mess,’ said Bella as she let Liz into the passenger side of her car. ‘I’m afraid I use my car as a travelling office.’

  Indeed, Liz had to move a pile of files off the seat before she could sit down.

  ‘And kitchen and dining room,’ Bella added, as Liz gingerly picked up a pasty by one corner and put it into the footwell. ‘I’m sorry. I always seem to be working. I keep promising myself I’m going to take the car to that valet car wash down by Tesco’s but I never seem to have the time.’

  ‘My car’s not much better,’ Liz admitted. ‘Life’s too short to worry about whether or not your car’s clean enough to eat your dinner off.’

  Bella chuckled.

  ‘It wasn’t that funny,’ Liz said.

  ‘I was just thinking about what you did with all that Italian sausage, Liz. It really was the most creative piece of revenge.’

  ‘If only I’d chosen the right car.’

  ‘Probably a good job you didn’t.’

  Bella lived in the west of the town. As they drove back past The Majestic, Liz sank low in her seat even though the lights were out and the guests at her nephew Eric’s birthday party had long since gone home.

  ‘You made that party for most of them,’ Bella commented when Liz reiterated how ashamed she was to have humiliated herself in front of her in-laws.

  ‘Yeah. It will go down in history as the night I finally cracked. Most of them already hated me anyway.’

  ‘So who cares what they think? There’s no point worrying about the opinions of anyone who doesn’t actually like you, is there? Or you them?’

  ‘Good point.’

  ‘Here we are,’ said Bella, pulling up outside a modern block of flats.

  ‘This is nice,’ said Liz.

  ‘I bought it almost five years ago. As you’ll see, it’s still a work in progress. I just never seem able to find the time to get round to doing any decorating. Or even putting up proper curtains,’ she added, as she ushered Liz into the sitting room. A bedsheet was tacked over the window.

  ‘The neighbours must think I’m a total skank.’

  ‘Who cares what the neighbours think?’

  ‘You’re right.’

  ‘Are you sure it’s OK for me to stay here?’

  ‘If you don’t mind sleeping on a futon. I just thought you should be properly sober and rested before you face your family. I know how tricky families can be.’

  ‘You’re very wise,’ said Liz.

  As Bella and Liz drank herbal tea to help them sleep, they got to know each other a little better. Bella had taken off her make-up. Without it, she looked very young and incredibly pre
tty, thought Liz with a slight pang. And she was so kind. It was no wonder that Alex had fallen in love with her. Liz wondered if Bella even knew what effect she had on him.

  ‘When did you know you wanted to become a solicitor?’ Liz asked.

  ‘I don’t know if I’ve got there yet!’ Bella replied. ‘I mean, I don’t think there was ever a moment when I said to myself, this is it. This is the job I was made for. I just seemed to get on the path. My mum was quite keen on it. A law degree. Law school. Police Station and Magistrates Court Qualifications. And now here I am. The successful career woman. Who doesn’t even have time to put up proper curtains.’

  ‘Curtains aren’t all they’re cracked up to be,’ said Liz.

  ‘It’d still be nice to have some with actual curtain rails. I’m forever having to stick those sheets back up with drawing pins. I could probably have handwoven some curtains and whittled the curtain rails in the time I’ve spent on my temporary fix.’

  ‘But you must be earning enough to get someone to come and sort it out for you?’ Liz suggested.

  ‘I suppose I am. But I’d still have to track them down and arrange for a day when I could be here to let them in.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Liz sighed. ‘It sucks not having a man about the house for that sort of stuff.’

  ‘I don’t know. At least I get free rein on the colour scheme.’

  ‘And you like your job,’ Liz went back to that.

  ‘Yes. I want to help people. That part of my job is the best. There’s real satisfaction to be had in knowing that you’ve made someone’s life a little better.’

  ‘Like you did mine tonight.’

  ‘It was my pleasure. You’re far easier than a lot of my clients. But …’

  ‘I wondered if there was a but,’ said Liz.

  Bella frowned. ‘I’m sure there must be other ways I could be contributing that aren’t quite so time-consuming and occasionally soul-sapping. Being a solicitor pays the bills but I feel like there’s more to me I need to express.’

  ‘How do you mean?’

  ‘It’s like there’s a creative streak inside me that’s determined to come out. It’s why I signed up for the cookery course. I used to love cooking when I was small.’

  ‘Where did your dad cook?’

  ‘We had a café near the train station.’

  ‘You mean Bella’s?’

  ‘That’s the one. It was named after me.’

  ‘I used to go there all the time. The food was amazing. Best in Newbay,’ said Liz.

  Bella smiled sadly.

  ‘But it didn’t work out.’

  Bella told Liz the full story of Bella’s, the train station café.

  ‘After the café failed, Dad just seemed to lose interest in life. I could see that the light had gone out of him. But I didn’t really understand why. I listened to the way Mum talked about the whole thing and ended up agreeing with her. Dad had been silly to think he could go it alone. If he’d done what she asked and worked for someone else all along, he wouldn’t have ended up so unhappy. I didn’t realise that it wasn’t that he’d failed that bothered him, it was the way the rest of us looked at him when he did.

  ‘Mum’s view on life was always that you had to do whatever it took to stay safe. To make sure you had a roof over your head and the bailiffs were never knocking on the door. Being secure to Mum was everything. But the older I get, the more I wonder if that really is everything. If you never take any risks, where does that leave you? What’s it like to look back over a whole life of taking the easy, safe option? To look back over a life where every day was pretty much the same. Every week. Every year.’

  ‘I think I know what you mean. It’s playing on your mind.’

  ‘It is. I can’t help feeling I let Dad down.’

  ‘You didn’t, Bella. You were a kid.’

  ‘But all those things he taught me. The way he saw the world. I turned my back on the things he tried to show me. And food for him really was about love. No wonder he felt so abandoned.

  ‘I need to make some serious decisions about the way my life is going to be. I’ve got to find a balance and right now I’m just about as far off balance as I could possibly be. I need to find my passion. I want to feel about my job the way Alex so obviously feels about his.’

  ‘He’s doing what he loves,’ Liz agreed.

  ‘My dad would have loved Alex,’ Bella said. ‘The way he talks about food. They could have had such great conversations. In fact, he reminds me of the way Dad was, before the café failed.’

  ‘He’s a good man,’ said Liz. ‘A kind heart and generous.’

  ‘He’s one of those people who lives life in full colour,’ Bella said, her face softening as she thought of him. Her frown fading into a smile.

  ‘You could do that too,’ Liz assured her. ‘Live in full colour.’

  ‘I’m not sure I’ve got the guts.’

  ‘You spend your life fraternising with Newbay’s most notorious criminals.’

  ‘Like you?’

  ‘Exactly. I’m sure you’ve got the guts for anything.’

  ‘Alex makes me feel as though it might be possible.’

  Liz wondered whether now was the moment to tell Bella about Alex’s feelings.

  ‘But what about you, Liz?’ Bella changed the focus. ‘What are you going to do next? I can give you the names of some great counsellors if you want to talk to a professional about how your divorce is making you feel.’

  ‘Just having you look after me tonight has been as valuable as years of counselling,’ Liz said.

  ‘You don’t have to do it all alone.’

  ‘Thanks. Neither do you.’

  Liz glanced at the clock. It was almost four in the morning.

  ‘We’d better get some sleep.’

  ‘Good idea.’

  The two women embraced.

  ‘The best thing about our cookery course is the people on it,’ said Liz.

  ‘Yes,’ said Bella. But Liz knew Bella was thinking about one person in particular.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  At ten o’clock on Sunday morning, Liz showered and dressed in a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt borrowed from Bella and took a taxi back to her own home. Ian’s car was still in the driveway when she got there.

  ‘Where exactly have you been all night?’ he asked.

  ‘With a friend,’ Liz said.

  ‘Which friend?’

  ‘I don’t have to tell you.’

  ‘A man?’

  ‘Maybe.’

  ‘Are they going to charge you?’

  ‘The police? No. Just a caution.’

  ‘Good.’

  ‘Look,’ said Liz. ‘Do you mind if I come in? To my own house? I don’t particularly want to have this conversation on the doorstep.’

  Saskia was at the top of the stairs listening. When she saw her mother, she exclaimed her distress and flounced straight back into her bedroom. It seemed that only Ted was really pleased to see Liz. He threw himself at her legs and sniffed at the unfamiliar jeans she was wearing with great curiosity.

  ‘You made a complete fool of yourself last night,’ said Ian.

  ‘I know,’ said Liz.

  ‘You embarrassed me in front of my whole family.’

  ‘Mm-hmm.’

  ‘You were more drunk than I have ever seen you.’

  ‘I was.’

  ‘Where did you go to get that drunk? Who were you with? Why didn’t he make sure you got home safely after letting you get that hammered? Were you roofied, Liz? Is that what happened? Did someone slip you some Rohypnol? Did the police give you a blood test?’

  ‘I wasn’t roofied,’ said Liz. ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’

  ‘How do you know? Where did you pick up your date? On Tinder?’

  ‘I wasn’t on a date,’ Liz admitted at last.

  ‘Oh.’ Liz was sure she saw relief in Ian’s eyes at that. ‘Then where were you?’

  ‘At a party. For the guy who runs my coo
king class. I had a bit too much to drink and I was walking home past The Majestic and couldn’t help feeling a bit sad at the thought that my nephew and godson was turning eighteen without me.’

  ‘It wasn’t much of a party,’ said Ian. ‘Eric and all his mates just sat around in corners with their iPhones.’

  ‘I expect Saskia loved it then,’ said Liz.

  Ian agreed.

  ‘The band you picked was good,’ he added. ‘Though Brittney said they didn’t play anything she could dance to. Not even Take That was good enough for her. She thinks nineties’ music is for old people. Like us.’

  Liz couldn’t help smiling at that.

  ‘Put the kettle on, Ian,’ she said. ‘You know where it is.’

  Ian moved to the counter where the kettle lived. Ted followed him, hoping for a titbit.

  ‘Get lost, you fat mutt.’ Ian brushed him away before checking his trousers were unsullied by Ted’s paws. Ted returned to sit by Liz. She fondled his velvety ears as she watched her soon-to-be-ex looking for a teapot. Liz hadn’t really moved anything around since Ian left. It was just that he’d never really spent much time on food or drink preparation while they were together. Not enough to make tea with his eyes shut, as Liz might have done.

  ‘How do you have your tea?’ Ian asked.

  ‘Same way I always had it,’ said Liz.

  He returned to the kitchen table with two mugs and put the milk alongside, still in the bottle. He was hedging.

  ‘I was worried about you in the cells,’ said Ian. ‘I didn’t like the thought of you being there on your own.’

  ‘It was OK,’ said Liz.

  ‘It was horrible not knowing what was going on. I couldn’t sleep until I heard you’d been let go. I’d have come to pick you up but I didn’t want to leave Saskia on her own.’

  Liz nodded. ‘That was the right thing to do.’

  ‘Look, Liz,’ Ian sighed, ‘I had no idea you still felt so strongly about Brittney. About me leaving. I thought you were over trying to upset her. I suppose I thought you were over us.’

  ‘I am,’ Liz assured him.

  Something flickered in Ian’s eyes again. Doubt? Disappointment?

  ‘Ian, I really don’t know what came over me. It just seemed like a laugh. I had the antipasti … there was the car … I’m allowed to have my opinion on your girlfriend, aren’t I? Even if she did me a big favour by taking you off my hands.’ Liz winked.