Yes Chef, No Chef - By Susan Willis Page 0,51
set up her own business catering for small parties. Here’s her number but she could easily have moved on by now…”
She handed Katie the slip of paper and Katie smiled. “Hey, that’s great, thanks. I’ll give her a call later.”
Later that morning David gathered all the teams together in the board room to make an announcement and amidst whisperings of curiosity from everyone he said, “I just wanted to take this opportunity to introduce our new project manager to everyone,” he said looking towards the door as it opened slowly.
Everyone stared towards the door as though Doctor Who was going to magically appear and Frances squeezed Katie’s arm excitedly.
Katie felt her stomach crash to the floor when Alexander Jennings walked into the room.
“Oh my God,” Alice whispered quietly to Katie and Frances. “He’s gorgeous…”
Katie couldn’t believe it; they were actually giving what should have been her job to the chief exec’s creep of a nephew. Were they crazy, she fumed, and were they honestly going to risk the success of the department on a young idiot like him? But then again she thought, while he slickly made his way around everyone shaking their hands, it wasn’t her department anymore so she shouldn’t care. She breathed out long and slow knowing that if ever she needed more confirmation that she was doing the right thing by leaving then this was it. Watching him suck up to young Alice and slap Harry good humouredly on the shoulder she felt resolute - there was no way she’d be able to work for him - she could hardly bear to look at him let alone be civil.
Frances looked sympathetically at Katie who patted her arm reassuringly. “I’m fine, Frances,” she said. “All I can say is God help you all if this toss-pot is going to run the department.”
“Well, maybe he’s better in work than at parties?” Frances replied optimistically and then stood forward because it was her turn to shake Alex’s hand and make polite chit-chat. Katie turned away from them all and slowly walked back to her desk shaking her head at the unfairness of it all.
When she left work at one o’clock it was a typical cold February afternoon and shivering, she decided to treat herself to a hot snack in a small café near the car park before driving over to Putney. While waiting for her order she tapped Chrissie’s number into her mobile and took a deep breath.
The number was obviously a city landline and when an elderly man answered her spirits flagged. She must have moved on, but ten years was a long time for anyone to live in one place, especially in London. But after talking to the old man she discovered he was her grandfather and Chrissie had moved out seven years ago when she got married. He gave her the new address and mobile number for Chrissie and after eating a bowl of hot tomato soup Katie tried again.
The call was answered by a girl’s voice that sounded as if she’d been running and was breathless. “Hello?” she said. “Oh sorry, just a minute,” then followed a tirade of shouting which Katie presumed was at a small child
“That’s better,” she said. “Who is it?”
Katie told her who she was and where she worked and that Susan in personnel had given her the contact.
“Crikey, is she still there?” she said giggling. “And Frances as well?”
Katie assured her they were and hadn’t changed a bit. “I just wanted to ask if you were still running your catering business because I’m thinking of starting one and well…”
Chrissie interrupted her. “God, no. I’ve got three kids now,” she said. “I had to give it up. But when I did it was a great little earner.”
“Really?” Katie said, and then another child’s loud wail broke into the conversation.
“Look it’s a bad time for me at the minute and it’s not easy on the mobile. But if you want to call around for a coffee I can fence the little blighter in the play-pen?” she said laughing at her own joke.
Katie liked her instantly and agreed to call round in an hour. Quickly she wrote the address down on the back of the café’s menu card and slipped it into her bag.
The door was opened by a girl about her own age and there were no signs of the early harassment Katie had heard on the telephone. “Hiya, you must be Katie?”
Katie smiled. “Yes, is it a better time for you?”