Yes Chef, No Chef - By Susan Willis Page 0,57
exactly guilty, but…”
Lisa stood up and tugged her skin-tight jeans into a more comfortable position. “Whoa! Just a minute there,” she exclaimed. “I think you deserve every extra penny for putting up with that drunk, arrogant, bastard for all those months and obviously that’s what his dad thinks too. Which is probably why he’s dipped further into his huge bank balance?”
Katie made a feeble protest in Tim’s defence. “He wasn’t always drunk,” she said quietly but her heart wasn’t quite in it and she figured the girls were right.
Sarah draped an arm along Katie’s shoulder while they made their way to the door and squeezed it reassuringly. “Lisa’s right, you deserve every penny, honey.”
The next two properties, one on Fitzjames Avenue, and the other on Cobbald Road were much better; so much so that Katie agreed she would be able to move in and simply unpack her cases but she did have doubts over the size and shape of the kitchens and knew they weren’t exactly what she wanted. But when they pulled up outside the last property on Grafton Road and she looked at the pretty building that housed the ground floor two bedroomed flat she felt a fluttering of excitement.
The door was opened by a good looking guy in his thirties wearing blue overalls and his dark brown eyes sparkled with amusement when he looked at them all. She couldn’t help but smile when she saw Lisa pull her shoulders back and tilt her chin provocatively in readiness to unleash her charm upon him.
“Come in,” he welcomed when they walked into the hall and Katie marvelled at the high ceilings and old cornices. She introduced herself, Lisa and Sarah, and he showed them around the bedrooms and small lounge. When they stood in the lounge he explained how it was his grandmother’s house and now that she’d gone into a nursing home his parents had asked him to get it ready to put onto the market. He’d managed to install a new bathroom, convert the kitchen, and re-wire the property but had now run out of cash.
“So, basically all it needs now is decoration and of course that will be reflected in the price. And because it’s vacant now a sale should go through pretty damn quickly,” he said grinning at Katie.
She hoped that it meant he would be open to doing a deal because although she hadn’t seen the kitchen yet she had a very good feel about this one.
While Lisa mounted her charm offensive on him Katie and Sarah continued down the hall to the back of the property and the kitchen. Turning the handle she silently prayed that the kitchen would be big enough. When she opened the door she gasped in delight at the newly built kitchen-diner, it was more than big enough she whispered to Sarah as they walked into the room. The room was a big square stripped bare and freshly plastered and led through into a longer shaped dining room and although she knew it would cost her around £7,000 to have a new kitchen installed it would be a blank canvas so she could design it any way she wanted.
“Sarah, this is fantastic,” she declared excitedly. “It’s massive and exactly what I need.”
Sarah walked ahead of her and admired the French windows from the dining room out into the garden. “Oh how lovely. I wonder if the garden belongs to the property?”
“Yes, it does,” the guy answered following Lisa into the kitchen. Turning to Katie he asked, “What do you think?”
Katie grinned with pleasure. “It’s exactly what I’m looking for,” she said enthusiastically.
Sarah asked sensible questions about the neighbours and gas and electric points and if they’d had any other interest while Katie stood in what she hoped would soon be the middle of her new kitchen and felt like dancing a jig.
Chapter Fourteen
Draining the blanched asparagus spears from the boiling pan of water, Tim put them aside to cool while he continued filling an inch of his round pastry flan with lightly flavoured cheese mousse. Jessie was hovering at his elbow while he stood each fat asparagus tip horizontally into the flan case until the cluster resembled the shape of a helmet.
“Aw, Tim, that’s brilliant,” she said admiringly and he beamed with pleasure.
Trotting alongside him back into the office to look for the camera, she said, “I think we should make it the centre piece when we get all the other main courses finished - it’ll look fabulous with