Yes Chef, No Chef - By Susan Willis Page 0,14
time orders.
“Shit, man, heavy night?” Simon asked. “You look dog-rough.”
He couldn’t help but smile at him and nodded. Simon was tall, stick thin with a mass of ginger curly hair. He had the skinniest legs Tim had ever seen on a man and a face covered in freckles.
“Yeah, more of a whole day and night,” Tim answered morosely heading towards his small office adjoined to the kitchen.
“Need a coffee?” Jessie called, and thanking her over his shoulder he went into the office and booted up the lap top.
There were so many emails left unanswered from Saturday he didn’t know where to start. Sighing heavily he stared at the photograph on his desk of him and Kate and irrationally scowled at her. ‘You ran out on me just when I needed you most,’ he mumbled. Was that a line from a song he wondered as Jessie appeared in the doorway with a mug of coffee.
“Hey, do you want some paracetamol to go with this?” she asked beaming at him with her fresh young face. Without a scrap of make-up and her long black hair pulled back from her face into a ponytail she looked about sixteen although she was twenty-two.
He grinned sheepishly. “I’ve just taken some aspirin but maybe later…”
She placed the mug on his desk and hurried away obviously not wanting to linger and he tried to remember if he’d been unpleasant when everything had erupted on Saturday. If it was true what Kate and his father were accusing him of then he needed to be extra kind to Simon and Jessie because they were his only permanent employees, and without them on his side he really would be sunk. He’d never dreamt it would be so hard to find good staff in the city and it was a major factor on a long list of things that he wouldn’t have thought possible when starting the job. Not wanting to look into Kate’s eyes on the photograph he put it away in the top drawer of his desk. Thinking of her and Saturdays mess had to be pushed firmly out of his mind if he was to get through today’s work.
Chapter Four
Stay in control of the car, Katie willed herself on Sunday night as she drove across to Putney and pulled up outside Sarah’s house. Breathing a sigh of relief she saw the basement lights were on and silently prayed Sarah was at home. Turning off the ignition she finally gave in, put her forehead onto the steering wheel and let the torrent of tears fall down her cheeks. ‘Oh God, how could he have been so horrible?’ she cried and began to sob loudly.
Sarah lived in the first two floors in a Victorian house on Carmalt Road just off Putney High Street.
The sound of the passenger side door opening made Katie jerk her head up as Sarah stuck her face into the car. “OMG, what the hell’s going on?”
Wiping her jacket sleeve across her wet face Katie tried to speak, “H…he was just so foul,” she gabbled, “I…I couldn’t take any more…”
Sarah took charge of the situation and closed the passenger door. She walked around the car and opened the driver’s door. “OK. Come on, honey. Let’s get you inside,” she soothed, putting her arm along Katie’s shoulder.
Katie started to ramble again in between sobs, “Sorry, Sarah, I should have rung first but I just didn’t know where else to g…go?”
“Shush now, you’re going to be OK,” she said. “You came to just the right place.”
Gently but firmly she eased Katie out of the car, grabbed her holdall, locked the car door, and guided her down the steps into the basement flat.
“B…But, I…” Katie tried to stammer again but her teeth were chattering together like they’d done when she’d had an anaesthetic to have her appendix out. And although she didn’t particularly feel cold she just couldn’t seem to stop shivering.
Sarah eased her down onto the settee and whipping the throw from the back she draped it around Katie and across her chest. “Now, you just stay there,” she said. “I’m going to get you a cup of hot tea.”
The sobbing was easing now and she managed to steady her teeth while she watched Sarah go through into her kitchen-diner. A feeling of safety flooded through her and she didn’t want to let Sarah out of her sight.
Coming back into the lounge she set a tray down next to Katie. “Here, knock this back,” she said handing her a