Ally spends the night with Eric. The next morning, she sneaks out for a change of clothes in her own room. When she enters her room, she stands in the door, shocked at the scene in front of her. Her whole room has been ransacked. Ally quickly dashes to get other clothes on.She goes through her things that has been strewn over the room. She cannot really see what the person was looking for, until she gets to her desk where all her files and notes were stored. She looks up to find Eric standing in her open door.“What happened here?” he asks as he steps into the room.“I have no idea, but my recipes and notes are gone.” Ally says as she goes through the papers still left on her table.“Are you kidding me?” Eric asks as he comes to stand next to her. “How did they get through the locked door?”“I am not sure that I locked it.” Ally says, her tone unsure.Two other contestants walk past the room and take a quick look inside before walking away while giggling.“We have to go.” Eric tells
Eric is immediately livid with Ally. He specifically told her to stay away from this man and she also already saw how he could be. Eric contemplates ignoring his instructions from the organisers and just following the two of them to see where they would go. He checks his watch. There is not enough time and he will be damned if he falls out on purpose and let Rick stand a chance at winning.Eric took a quick nap when he got to his room and just woke before he saw Ally leaving with Rick. He knows that when he just wakes, he is not in the best of moods. Ally should know better. Eric is very sure, though, that Ally is not interested in Rick at all.Eric goes to his meeting with the organisers. He walks past the restaurant and almost start laughing out loud when he sees Ally and Rick sitting at a table. He is one hundred percent sure that Ally chose the table. They are seated at the largest two-seater table in the restaurant. Ally put as much distance between the two of them as she possibl
When Ally opens her door to walk into her room after dinner, she immediately notices that there is someone in the room. Ally switches on all the lights she can find and sees Rick sitting in a wingback chair in the corner of the room. Ally immediately pulls her door open again to see where Eric is, but he is already in his own room. Ally is more than willing to run to Eric’s room but before she can fully decide on doing so, Rick is already beside her, pressing her bedroom door closed.“This is unacceptable.” Ally tells Rick in a little too loud voice. She hopes that Eric somehow hears her. “You cannot just come into my room as you please. You need to leave, now!”Rick looks at Ally and smiles. The smile is not warm or friendly. It feels more like a threat.“You could not speak two intelligent words to me during dinner, which you did not eat. You could, however, have a very intelligent conversation with Eric over a dinner that you actually ate. I find that unacceptable and rude.” Rick h
The following few days of the competition goes as expected. Ally, Rick and Eric always end up in the top three. They become group leaders and the other chefs are divided between them. They prepare five course meals and are judged accordingly. Rick falls out with his team and, of course, blames everyone but himself. He hates ending up in elimination rounds where Ally and Eric watches how he has to battle it out against chefs that are way younger than he is.When it is time for everyone that is still in the competition to compete against each other again, Rick seems even more distant than usual. Ally cannot be bothered less with his attitude. She realised very early on that she doesn’t like him much.During their challenge she can see that Rick keeps a close eye on her. At first, she thinks it is to see what techniques she uses. She remembers all too well that her notes were stolen for a day. She finishes up with the delicate fish she has in her cast iron pan and moves to put the pan in
Ally sees Megan just as she walks out the balcony door. She shoots Eric a quick panicked look and he quickly shakes his head to indicate to her that she does not need to be worried. Ally forces a smile and faces the front of the kitchen again. Ally is not sure if Rick saw that they notice him talking to Megan.The judges and the organisers quickly handle the formalities. This time, though, the judges will judge the dishes in front of the last two remaining chefs. Ally and Eric take their dishes to the front and place them in front of the judge sitting in the middle.There are three clean plates on the table and the judge sitting in the middle, divide each dish in three and places a portion of each in each plate. The judges try the two dishes and compare them against each other. Ally stands next to Eric, behind his workstation. There is a worried look on her face, but Eric cannot be sure if it is because she saw Megan or if she is worried about the outcome of the competition.The judge
Eric stares at Ally. Things have been going really well. He cannot think that she is still repulsed by him. Ally quickly sits up in bed and turns to Eric. She flips the bed lamp on and looks at Eric with all seriousness.“Why do you want to get married again?” Ally asks Eric. She realises that her rejection of his question may have come across as a little harsh. She softens her voice to try and sooth the sting of it.“I just thought that you deserved a wedding where you got to choose your own dress and make your own arrangements. I wanted to give you whatever you dreamt of as a little girl.” Eric tells Ally as he rests his hand on her knee.“Those things do not matter to me. I am married to the man I love.” The moment Ally said the words she realised that she never told Eric that she loved him before. They just kind of knew they were important to each other. Eric smiles broadly before kissing Ally softly.“Those are the sweetest words I have ever heard.” He tells her between kisses. “
After sorting out any queries and problems Ally’s restaurant may have had, Eric returns back to Ally. She is still asleep but she somehow looks worse than before. Dark circles have formed under her eyes and she looks even more pale than before. Eric crawls in behind her and fall asleep.Ally wakes a few hours later. She takes a hot shower and gets dressed. There are many notes on her table informing her of everything that happened during the time she was not here. She works through one or two problems and then finish up her paperwork. She has a great team in her restaurant. She can trust them and she knows that they know how to do their work even when they are not being watched. There were not a lot of things she needed to handle when she came back.She finishes up just as the sun rises. Ally calmly sits back in her office chair and enjoys the view from her desk. She has never felt very romantic about sunrises and sunsets but when a person is in love, things like that suddenly holds y
Ally and Eric look at the footage together. It clearly shows Megan coming into the restaurant and walking straight to the far back, despite the efforts of the front staff to keep her from doing so. She gets as far as the security guard keeping the patrons from using the lift past the third floor. She gets extremely upset and then starts to walk back out, constantly looking over her shoulder and talking to whoever tries to stop her.When she gets to the front entrance, she walks into Rick who is holding a few papers in his one hand. He talks to Meg and seems to be upsetting her even further. She pulls a face and says something to him that looks as if only he was able to hear it because he was the only one reacting to her words. The staff members standing around them only kept trying to escort her out of the restaurant. Megan pulls her elbow free from one of the waiter’s grip and storms out of the restaurant. Rick looks at the others around them apologetically and then follows Megan to