Chapter 8

Ally is shocked when she wakes up the next morning to find that Meg is gone. She didn’t take all of her things either. She just left with the most important things. She left things like old clothes and her work wear. Ally takes out her phone to message Meg.

MEG

PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHERE YOU ARE. I WOULD LIKE TO COME VISIT YOU SOMETIME.

ALLY

Ally stares at her phone for a moment. Usually, Meg would reply within seconds. Ally’s heart sinks when she realises that Meg is not going to reply at all.  She puts her phone away and gets ready for work. She will need to replace Meg soon.

The day is busy. It helps to keep Ally’s mind off everything that happened in the last few weeks. She keeps her focus on the restaurant and makes sure she is exhausted when she leaves for home. At home she takes a quick shower and falls asleep almost immediately.

She does this every night and it seems to work well for the first week.

Late one night when she opened her door, she found an envelope on the floor. She picks it up slowly and stares at her name written in the most beautiful writing on the envelope. Ally walks into the apartment and puts her things down on the counter. She opens the envelope and pulls out the invitation to Meg’s wedding.

The paper of the invitation feels like velvet. Ally is sure that this is the most expensive paper she ever held in her hands. She reads the invitation and her heart twists painfully in her chest.

Her eyes linger on Eric’s name. She cannot remember Meg mentioning his name even once. Ally puts the invitation down on the counter and walks to the shower in a daze. She opens the water and lets it run until it reaches the right heat. She strips down and gets into the hot stream of water before letter herself cry. She cries for everything that happened in the last weeks. The wonderful times she spent with Eric, the horrible man that gave her the disapproving looks, the day Eric showed up in her apartment and forbid her to go to his restaurant again. The horrible way Meg left her life and now this invitation. She feels betrayed. Meg knew how fond she was of Eric.

Ally sinks to the floor of the shower and sobs.

**********

It is almost noon when Ally wakes to her phone ringing.

She grabs it and answers as quickly as she can, forcing herself to sound more awake than she actually is.

She closes her eyes and swears under her breath when she sees what time it is. If the restaurant didn’t call her, she would probably still be asleep. She rushes to work to find Ralph waiting for her at the kitchen back door. As she sheds her extra layers of clothing, Ralph brings her up to date on what happened this morning. Nothing seems too serious except for the restaurant owner looking for her specifically. Ally takes in a deep breath and lets it out in a rush.

“Thank you, Ralph. I will go to see him now.” Ally says with a fake smile before walking through the kitchen. She cannot remember being late to work, ever. This is honestly the first time she came in late. It would be terrible if she was in trouble for it.

She reaches Mr Doubell’s office. He sees her and beckons her to come in while speaking on the phone. Ally takes a seat in front of his desk and waits patiently for him to finish his call. When he ends the call, he looks at her excitedly. Ally gathers that she just may not be in trouble at all.

“Good afternoon, Chef. Are you well?” he asks her politely.

“Good afternoon, Mr Doubell. I am well, thank you.” Ally reciprocates his politeness.

Ally has no idea why she has this very formal relationship with the owner of the restaurant. He seems to be much more relaxed with all the other staff.

“It has come to my attention that ‘Taste’ is closing down.” He informs her. It is clear that he is trying to keep the excitement from his voice. Taste, is their biggest competition. Ally feels like she has been stabbed in the heart. Not only is Taste their biggest competition but it is also owned by Eric. Eric must be closing the restaurant because he is blinded.

“We will have to up our game. We do not want new business to take their patrons from us. I expect you to come up with new ideas on how to attract their patrons and I will also need a list of everything you will need to make it happen.” He smiles a half excited and half expectant smile at her.

Ally has never been able to completely trust Mr Doubell. She does not know if it is because he treats her differently or if there is some kind of secret, he is keeping from her. She gets the feeling that he knows something he does not want her to know about.

Ally agrees with him and he pardons her. On her way back to the kitchen she feels more worried with every step. Surely Eric’s staff knows exactly how to replicate his dishes? If she was to leave this restaurant, she is more than sure that her staff will be able to cope without her. She would be replaced and the restaurant will go on. The rest of the day, Ally works out a plan to lure Taste’s patrons to their restaurant. She also works out how they can increase their seating capacity in the restaurant and what would be needed to accomplish this. Then she also calculates how many extra staff is needed. She knows that she can recruit great service staff and also excellent kitchen staff from the Taste employees that are now left jobless. By midnight she has a whole file drawn up with the necessary planning. She walks back up to Mr Doubell’s office and places the file on his table.

As she turns to leave the office, an envelope catches her eye. She turns back to the desk and picks up the pristine white envelope. The beautiful writing on the envelope reads MR AND MRS DOUBELL.

Ally knows exactly what is inside the envelope. It is a wedding invitation to the upcoming Symons wedding. Ally carefully places the envelope exactly where she found it. She finds it strange that Mr Doubell would be invited to the Symons wedding. He seems to not really like Eric and his family. They have always been the competition and to Mr Doubell, competitors should not rub shoulders. He does not believe in keeping the enemy closer. Mr Doubell would speak badly of every other restaurant that is his competition in this city. Ally finds it strange that he does not treat Taste and its owners the same way. Judging from the invitation on his desk, Ally would almost assume that they might be friends. Ally shakes her head quickly. There is no way that they are friends, but they are most certainly connected in some way.

Ally finishes up in the kitchen and gets ready to leave. As she is closing her notebook a notification pops up. She quickly reads the headlines of the news flash.

TASTE IS CLOSED FOR GOOD.

Ally clicks on the link and waits for the page to open. She quickly reads the article. According to the article the owners have decided to retire and since the son is getting married during the next week, they have decided to close the restaurant. According to the article the sole heir to the restaurant have made it known that he does not wish to follow his parents’ dreams and would like to move with his wife to Canada.

Ally rubs her forehead. There is nothing in the article of Eric losing his eyesight. Ally is sure that the information in this article was fed to the journalist. Any journalist who started digging by her own would have come across some kind of inaccuracies regarding why the son of the most famous two chefs does not wish to be a chef himself. They would also be able to find out that most of the dishes on Taste’s menu, was created by Eric himself. Especially the signature dishes.

Ally closes her notebook and packs everything away. This is the most unsettling day she had in a long time. She leaves the kitchen and heads home.

It is strange entering the apartment knowing that Meg will not be there or come in later. Ally saw Meg as her sister but somehow Meg did not see Ally as hers. A sadness settles over Ally. As she puts her things on the counter, she gets a call on her cell phone.

She opens the phone and sees that it is Meg calling.

“Meg? Are you okay?” Ally answers the phone.

“Yes, but I need your help.”