Yes Chef, No Chef

chapter Nineteen



Tim’s stomach was knotted with tension while he paced the floor of the lounge in the apartment trying to make his glass of red wine last until it was time to meet Julie. They’d arranged to meet at a restaurant on New King’s Road and although he was excited and looking forward to meeting her it had been a long time since he’d dated and worried she was out of his league. He’d often heard Jessie and Simon talking about speed dating and on-line dates and knew there was a whole new set of do’s and don’ts that he was out of touch with.

“She’s called, Julie, but I call her Miss Cupcake,” he’d told Luke on his mobile.

Luke had laughed and said, “Just get out there and have a good time.”

Tim had frowned. “I will, but I’m a bit worried that I’m out of my depth?”

“Look it’s just like learning to ride a bike,” Luke advised. “As soon as you get your feet back in the pedals again you’ll be fine.”

They’d both laughed at this and then Luke had told him he’d definitely decided to leave Yorkshire and return to London. Tim’s flagging spirits rose and excitedly he’d invited him to stay in the apartment until he found somewhere to live. He grinned imagining them as roommates again and memories of drunken nights at parties, sharing everything at university, even girlfriends at one stage, flitted through his mind. And although they were older and wiser now, he knew Luke’s company was just what he needed at the moment.

Managing to fight off the urge to pour another glass of wine for Dutch courage he wondered if they should both enter the marathon again and he could organise a strict training schedule for them. And maybe, he thought buzzing with excitement, they could get tickets for the athletics’ events at the Olympics’ next year. On his way down Fulham Road the nagging doubts whirled through his mind until he began to wonder why he’d even asked Julie on a date in the first place. She wasn’t his Kate because nobody could be, but there again she was a woman and someone to talk to instead of spending his night off with the depressing never ending silence that seemed to have invaded the apartment since Kate left.

“Oh don’t you look good?” she said, when he bent to plant a kiss on her cheek and inhaled the light flowery perfume she wore.

He beamed at her and felt the earlier tension leave his body. “Do you want to eat first or have a drink?” he asked and was surprised when she agreed to the pub and then was even more surprised when standing at the bar she asked for a pint of cider.

She wore a white clinging cat-suit which had a zip that started between her voluptuous breasts and ran the length of her body ending in her crotch area. She looked sensational and he knew from glancing around the bar that he was the envy of every other guy in the place.

While he was imagining pulling the zip down to expose her fabulous body, she said, “I know exactly what you’re thinking?”

You couldn’t possibly; he mused, but smiled at her raising an eyebrow. “You do?”

She stroked the side of his cheek with a long pink-painted finger nail which instantly sparked his arousal and he felt his trousers tighten.

“Yeah, you’re wondering how I can drink so much. Everyone does because I can drink pint for pint with any guy, and eat like a horse without putting on weight. I just seem to have that type of a constitution.”

He knew the stroking of his cheek was definitely an intimate gesture and unless he was very much mistaken she was as turned on as he was. Her body language when she leant towards him, the slight shiver as he touched the base of her back guiding her though the door of the restaurant, and the small tactile gestures she made convinced him happily that he wouldn’t be making coffee for one the next morning. And, although she wasn’t Kate, the fullness of Julie’s breasts which seemed to bulge out from the scoop neck of the cat suit was so tempting he decided, that she came a very close second.

The restaurant had been her choice and when the food arrived he thought it was poor, second rate and struggled to eat it. His smoked salmon was a cheap quality, and he picked at it cautiously, and then after two mouthfuls of the chicken risotto, he decided it was simply a glutinous mess. But, because she enjoyed her prawn starter, chicken escalope, sticky toffee pudding, and practically a whole bottle of Canti to wash it down with, he didn’t want to cause any or awkwardness by complaining.

He decided it was easier and kinder to tell her he wasn’t that hungry when she mentioned how little he’d eaten, but it did mean that he’d had nothing to soak up the alcohol and because his idea of moderating the amount of wine he was drinking had long since gone, when he stood up to go to the toilet the room swayed and he gripped hold of the back of his chair to steady himself.

“Whoa!” he said grabbing the dado rail which ran along the wall behind his chair, “I…I haven’t been drinking much lately and the red wine’s gone straight to my head.”

She tittered, “As long as that’s the only place it’s gone to?”

He heard her soft laughter while making his way through to the toilet and had to agree with what she’d said earlier in the pub, considering the amount she’d had to drink she did look comparatively sober.

He managed to negotiate his way through to the male toilets without mishap but when he returned to the room he momentarily forgot he wasn’t with Kate and for a few drunken seconds he scoured the room looking for her glossy brown hair. Remembering she wasn’t there brought another pang of pain because he was so used to being with her but then winding his way between the tables he saw Julie’s blonde hair and her beaming smile, and he pushed the thought of Kate firmly from his mind. After all, he rationalised, here was a woman that definitely wanted to be with him and he was convinced they were going to have some fun later, which for now was quite sufficient.

He paid the bill while the waiter removed the three empty bottles from the table and she hung onto his arm as they left the restaurant.

“Coffee at mine?” she asked when they were outside on the pavement waiting in a queue for a taxi.

The cold night air seemed to knock the air from his lungs and his head spun even faster than before. He slurred, “Yeah, that’ll be great.”

Coffee would help, he decided, and if he didn’t have any more to drink he should be able to perform later and when she put her hands inside his jacket and wrapped her arms around his chest he moaned with sheer pleasure. He could feel the mounds of her soft, warm breasts pushed against his chest and he revelled in her female smell longing to lose himself in her body. Surely this mass of warm loveliness would be able to take all the weeks of pain away and when she lifted her face to be kissed he covered her mouth with his lips and probed deeply with his tongue.

The next day when Luke asked him on the telephone how the date had gone he jokingly told him that kissing his lovely cupcake was the sweetest thing he’d done for weeks, to which Luke had roared with laughter and Tim felt he was back in the land of the living again.



Simon was making pastry and Jessie had bought duck and goose in preparation for the Victorian stuffed game pies they were developing that day. Tim didn’t want the pies to be the standard type of stew in a dish with a puffed pastry lid which was the usual recipe in restaurants, he wanted his to be different. He decided to try and put the boned duck and goose one inside the other within a large turkey, which initially would make a fabulous centre piece for the royal wedding day banquet, and then they could cut thick slices from the bird to be wrapped in pastry and lightly oven baked. He worked feverishly all morning alongside Simon de-boning the meat and after stuffing the turkey and putting it into the oven to cook he took a breather in his office.

He’d tried twice during the last three weeks to put the photograph of Kate back in the drawer out of his sight but had now stopped struggling against it, admitted defeat and found it comforting to have her looking at him. Christ, he still missed her so much; it was like a toothache which was constant day and night – it never left him.

Two envelopes had arrived for her that morning and he’d pushed them into his jacket pocket before leaving for work. He pulled them out now and laid them on the desk in front of him. So far, he’d been re-directing her post but the longing to see her suddenly overpowered him and taking his tunic off, he tucked his clean white T-shirt into the waist of his jeans and headed out into the car park.

He knew he was being rash and she probably wouldn’t be there but as he turned the ignition he knew if he stopped to think about whether he was doing the right thing or not he’d change his mind. If there was just the slightest possibility of seeing her then it would be worthwhile.