Yes Chef, No Chef - By Susan Willis Page 0,104

looking forlornly at Katie for sympathy.

"And that was it?" she asked staring with irritation at his miserable face.

"Not quite. She insisted we should find a chemist for some antihistamine cream and when we walked back across the field to the car she told me she had met a guy last week and although it was early days she had high hopes for them.”

He changed his voice now exaggerating and mimicking Julie’s voice and saying, “Because this new guy was sooooo gorgeous."

Katie’s mind was racing now; it had to be more than a week since Sarah saw her kissing Tim. It couldn't be Tim, could it?

John wore an exaggerated prissy look on his face and continued, "Then she opened her mobile and showed me a photo of him. His name is Adam and he's this huge, black guy, with chest and arm muscles like Garth, and has a fabulous apartment over near Pimlico! And just when I’d been wondering how the hell I’d compete with a guy like that I’d trod smack bang into a cow pat and my new Italian leather loafers were covered in stinking cows shit!"

The relief that flooded through Katie was immense. It wasn't her Tim, and she burst out laughing at the image of his shoe stuck in the cows muck. But when she saw the dejected hurt look on his face she stopped suddenly and felt awful for feeling so happy. "Sorry, John, it wasn't funny and I shouldn't be laughing."

Her mind pieced the information together quickly and she wondered if it could be the same guy Lisa was seeing. It must be - there couldn't be two black guy's living in Pimlico who looked like a body builder, called Adam, could there?

"It’s OK, I’ll probably be able to laugh about it myself one day,” John said draining the coffee out of his cup. “So, do you think it's a no-brainer with Julie, then?"

Katie smiled reassuringly. "John, she's only known him for a week. It might not come to anything. And, from a woman’s point of view, I'd say don't give up; just keep trying."

He got up to leave, thanked her again for the hamper and handed her the cheque. She sailed happily behind him to the front door and after she'd waved to him, and closed the door she leant back against it grinning with the secure knowledge that size eight Julie wasn't with her Tim. And that, she decided heading back to the kitchen was the easy bit - now how the hell was she going to tell Lisa.

Chapter Twenty Six

Katie was outside in her garden hanging wet jeans onto the aerial drier when she spotted her next door neighbour across the small wall between their gardens.

“Hi there,” he called to her. “When are you going to come over to the plot to order some vegetables? I’ve got some fantastic courgettes at the moment – how about later this afternoon?"

Courgettes would be great for her seafood buffet she thought wandering over to accept his invite. Sam, she guessed was in his early forties, had peppered grey hair, sparkly blue eyes and a cheeky-chappy smile that reached from ear to ear, and when Lisa had bumped into him getting out of her car one day she'd said he could give George Clooney a run for his money any day.

“Courgettes? They might be just what I’m looking for,” she said.

He grinned at her while staring at her legs. “Yeah, and the tomatoes are fab at the moment as well…”

Smiling she took his business card and pushed it down into the back pocket of her skimpy denim shorts. “Sounds good,” she said. “Around three o’clock?”

Katie hadn't noticed any women going in or out of his flat so presumed there wasn't a ‘Mrs Sam’ anywhere in the vicinity which did seem a little strange because he was a gorgeous looking guy. Surely he must at least have a girlfriend she mused returning to the kitchen to plan the menu for the following night’s seafood buffet. She was making the buffet for a friend of Lisa's called Andrew who was having a divorce party on board a privately hired boat on the Thames.

When Lisa had rung last week to ask if she wanted the buffet booking she’d been delighted and had burst out laughing when Lisa told her the only way she’d accepted Andrews invite was if it included Katie and Sarah too.

“Just think of all those gorgeous guys on board that boat,” she’d said longingly.

“Wow! Thanks, Lisa.