Yes Chef, No Chef - By Susan Willis Page 0,38
he was a townie at heart. City noise was what he was used to - it was all he’d ever known.
When he crawled into the spare bed later that night he decided he felt better than he had done for weeks and, with or without his Kate, he was definitely on the up again and nothing or nobody was going to drag him back down.
Chapter Nine
After collecting the keys for the flat from Frances, Katie drove over to the other side of Putney onto Egliston Road and when she pulled up outside the house Lisa commented upon the nice tree lined street. Sarah got out of her car behind them and the three girls looked around deciding it looked quiet, well-kept and definitely a good area.
“Here we go then,” Katie said a little nervously and approached the front door with three outside name tags. “It looks like Claire’s is on the top floor.”
“Oh well, that’s good. I always like to be above people,” Lisa commented helpfully. “If you’re on the ground floor and have noisy neighbours it can be hell.”
Sarah touched Katie’s arm when they mounted the stairs. “Now, Katie if we get inside and it’s a dump or you don’t like it you can always come straight back to mine. I don’t want you to be unhappy or miserable staying here.”
Thanking her, Katie opened the door to a large lounge overlooking the street with a big square bay window and Lisa walked across to pull the curtains back. It was a pleasant room Katie decided which was decorated with an African theme in dark wood furniture, a brown and orange vibrant mat on the wood floor and some very strange African paintings hanging on the walls. Two huge carved elephants stood in one corner and numerous other animals were scattered around the room but it was spotlessly clean and Katie thought it had a nice homely feel.
“Well, you can see how much she loves Africa. But you could always stack the animals away in a cupboard somewhere,” Lisa said positively.
“Yeah, I like it,” Katie said. “It’ll certainly do for a couple of months until I get sorted out.”
Sarah had wandered into the kitchen and called through that it was clean and well stocked with white goods, fridge, freezer, and washing machine, and Katie liked the small bedroom which had clean white sheets on the double bed.
“All in all,” Lisa said. “It’s very good for a rental property. Will you be OK here?”
Katie nodded slowly but decisively. “Definitely. Right, let’s get started with the cases and bags.”
After numerous trips to the car and with the animals stacked carefully in a kitchen cupboard out of sight she was soon feeling more settled. Lisa hung her clothes in the wardrobe having brought her extra hangers and Sarah produced a bag of provisions containing bread, milk, coffee and eggs. Katie placed her framed family photographs on the window ledge and toiletries in the bathroom cabinet forcing herself to block out the memories from the apartment the day before.
With the last bag in her hand she went into the bedroom and unwrapped her old wood jewellery box placing it on top of the chest of drawers. Tim had wanted to buy her a new one for her birthday last year but she’d told him it would be a waste because she’d never use any other but this one. It was her only prized possession, not because of its monetary value, but because it was the last thing her father had bought for her before he died and she would always treasure it.
With the box in place and a photograph of her father next to it she gently stroked the glass over the side of his cheek. ‘I’m up and running again, Dad,’ she whispered and feeling more positive than she had done all week she headed back into the lounge where Lisa handed her a mug of coffee and they all plonked down onto the settee sighing with a job well done. Looking around at her familiar bits and pieces she felt reassured and much more able to cope with the upheaval of the last week and told the girls exactly that.
“Great,” Sarah said. “Now, how about we all go back to mine for some early supper and I’ll tell you all about Mark last night and Lisa can tell us about her gorgeous guy, Adam?”
“I only want the X-rated bits,” Katie cried as they clattered and laughed their way back down the stairs