17
A silence fell over the kitchen after Lou left, but Aidan could feel it was loaded with judgement. He was aware of Shane and Mark scowling at him, and even Ian had the nerve to look like he had something to say.
‘Right, you lot, get back to work and finish cleaning down. Unless anyone wants to be next?’
To his annoyance, no one budged.
Shane just stood looking at him, arms folded. ‘You were very hard on her,’ he said finally in his maddeningly quiet, reasonable way.
‘Yeah, well, she deserved it. I can’t believe you’re defending her.’ Aidan knew he’d overreacted, but he wasn’t about to back down. He’d had a lousy day, starting with the delivery from their vegetable supplier being short a couple of essential ingredients, meaning he had to tweak the lunch menu at the last minute before leaving for his awful date with Catherine. He’d arrived back at the restaurant already in a bad mood, fed up and hungry. Discovering that Senan Walsh had been in in his absence and that Lou had decided to cook for him was the last straw.
‘She actually did a good job,’ Shane said, nodding to the stove. ‘You should taste it.’
‘Is that it?’ Aidan nodded to the pot.
‘Yeah.’
‘It’s really good,’ Mark chimed in.
‘I’ll be the judge of that.’ He was aware he was acting like a tool, but he couldn’t seem to help himself.
As the kitchen staff swung back into action, Aidan turned to the pot of soup sitting on the stove, gentle steam still rising from it. He approached it with a sense of dread, reluctant to know the worst. Still, best to be prepared. He might as well see how bad the damage was before Senan Walsh wrote them up in his next column. He picked up a ladle and dipped it into the pot. Even though he had his back to them, he could feel everyone’s eyes on him as he brought it to his lips and sipped carefully, slowly rolling the taste around on his tongue.
‘Crap!’ he cursed, shoving the ladle back into the pot with force. Then he sighed heavily, trying to calm himself before turning and racing back out of the kitchen, the sounds of the team’s hushed sniggering following him. He was just at the door when he had an idea and turned back.
‘Forget something?’ Shane asked. ‘Apart from your manners?’ He smirked.
‘Very funny,’ Aidan said, scowling at him as he headed for the walk-in fridge.
‘Going to cool off?’ Mark called after him. ‘Good idea!’
‘Yeah, you’re all hilarious,’ he said grumpily as he strode back out through the kitchen, a large parcel under his arm.
Lou paced her kitchen, her arms wrapped around herself, too agitated to stay still, occasionally swiping tears of fury from her eyes. She was angry with herself as much as Aidan. Why did she have to be such an idiot? Now she’d lost the best job she’d ever had. And what were the chances of getting another one, once word spread that she’d been fired by the great Aidan McBride for insubordination? It was a small town, and she’d probably be a pariah by morning, unemployable and friendless.
She hit her closed fist against her forehead. What an idiot! She should have said,Yes, ChefandYes, ChefandYes, Chef, kept her head down and her stupid mouth shut. She glanced at the clock on the wall. At least she had another hour or so before Fiona would drop Jack home. She was taking him to a football class after school today. She flicked on the kettle and swiped tears from her eyes. She had to calm down before he came home. She didn’t want to scare him. She’d pull herself together and hit the streets first thing in the morning looking for another job – hopefully before Aidan Mc-Bloody-Bride could blacken her name all around town.
She froze as the doorbell rang before the kettle had even boiled, not ready to face anyone yet. Sighing, she braced herself and went to answer it.
She was annoyed that her first thought on finding Aidan standing on her doorstep was: yum. Her second thought was a lot less favourable.
‘Hi.’ She looked at him questioningly. He was holding a large parcel wrapped in paper and must have come straight from the kitchen.
‘Can I come in?’
She couldn’t very well refuse. It was too late to pretend she was out and despite him being such an asshole to her just now she didn’t want open hostility to break out between them. It was a small community, and she couldn’t afford to alienateAidan and his legion of fans. He was ridiculously – and quite unaccountably, she now thought – popular, lionised by staff and school mums alike. It was probably just his family giving him an unearned halo effect.
Besides, Jack adored Bo, so she’d just have to suck it up and try to get along with Aidan for his sake. And what was the worst he could do? He’d already fired her, and since she no longer worked for him, there was no point in him berating her any further for the heinous crime of stepping up and trying to save his precious restaurant’s reputation. Maybe he was feeling guilty about firing her so summarily and was going to give her some sort of severance pay as compensation.
‘I came with a peace offering,’ he said, holding the parcel out to her in both hands.
Lou frowned curiously as she took it from him. It was heavy and smelled strongly of fish. She gasped as she peeled back the paper to find a whole, glistening sea bass.
‘This is for me?’
Aidan nodded, giving her a sheepish smile. ‘To apologise for flying off the handle like that.’
‘Gosh!’ She blinked dazedly down at it. It was huge and heavy – a wild fish this size would cost a fortune. The money would have been more useful, but at least he was apologising, so she should take the opportunity to keep the peace between them and try to be gracious. ‘Um… thanks.’
