Yes Chef, No Chef - By Susan Willis Page 0,110

harder they fall. He could definitely learn a lesson from Sam about how to accept divorce, she mused. And when he started bragging about his Range Rover and other three cars she decided she would have to get away from him.

Waiting for him to take a gulp of his champagne she butted in. “I’m going to head through and eat because I’m starving, and this champagne is going straight to my head. Do you like seafood?”

“Yes, I love it. That’s why I asked you to do mainly seafood for the party,” he said. “The best lobster I’ve ever tasted was at a party over at Elton John's place…”

"Oh right," she said, obviously unimpressed and started to walk towards the lower deck hoping he'd just let her go and stay where he was but these hopes were dashed when he strode along beside her.

When they entered the small room she tapped some of the black & white balloons and decorations hanging from the ceiling and admired the bunting strategically draped around the buffet table which proclaimed Andrew was just divorced and free and single again. The staff had done a great job of displaying her buffet - it looked fantastic and she breathed a sigh of relief whilst congratulating herself with a job well done.

The seafood looked fresh with ice crystals scattered around it, the vegetables and salad were crisp and colourful, and she hoped Andrew would be impressed with her selection of pristine, white calamari rings, shells of oysters and mahogany clams, huge crabs and claws, blue mussels, scallops, and every sized prawn and shrimp they'd had in the fish market. In the centre were cooked 8oz Cornish lobsters, bowls of avocado sauce, risotto and long baguettes of crusty bread.

Andrew whistled through his teeth. "This looks superb, Katie," he declared. "Shall we start with an appetiser of shrimp and prawn?"

Glumly, she realised he intended eating with her and wished she could spot Lisa or Sarah but they seemed to have disappeared. Filling their plates he ushered her to a table near the piano in the corner of the room and she followed him to the seats. The fresh smell from the prawns was divine and her mouth watered in anticipation.

“These prawns are delicious, so succulent and sweet,” he said excitedly.

Agreeing with him between mouthfuls she explained how she’d bought them fresh from Billingsgate fish market that morning and then decided she did feel a little sorry for him. It wasn’t easy coping when you were left on your own as she knew only too well, and although he was a prat and obviously full of fanciful stories his manners were impeccable and he was trying to be kind to her. Therefore, in an effort to steer the conversation away from him and his business she started to tell him about her passion for food and cooking. They returned to the buffet and she let him select a lobster while she filled bowls with salad, avocado sauce, risotto, and collected bread in a basket.

The bright red lobster sat in front of them on the table and she eyed it warily.

“I need to own up here, Andrew; I’m not quite sure how to tackle this?”

“Allow me,” he said gently twisting the claws from it. “Most of the meat in a lobster is in the tail and two front claws so we’ll try to get as much out as we can.”

She was amazed at his skill and expertise and thanked him gratefully while he broke off the tips of the claws with a nutcracker to reveal the succulent meat. He selected the best chunks for her and placed them onto her plate while she cut French bread for him and put salad into his bowl. They worked amicably in silence and after their first mouthfuls of lobster they both agreed the creamy, white meat was fabulous.

“It’s so fresh, it actually smells like seaweed. You’d think we were clambering over rock pools,” she said.

"Yeah, it reminds me of our honeymoon..." he said miserably. His voice softened and he lost the arrogant drawl while he talked about his ex-wife and how he hadn’t seen the break-up coming, and how at the end of their last argument she'd screamed her hatred for him. He told Katie he was horrified to think that anyone could actually hate him and Katie thought his loneliness seemed almost palpable.

Pouring the last of the champagne into their glasses she smiled compassionately at him. Maybe, she thought he’d taken her smile as