Will enjoyed watching Kate eat with such gusto. It made a welcome change from sitting opposite Tina while she shifted food around on her plate, expertly rearranging it so that it looked like she’d eaten something. For some reason he had never been able to fathom, she liked to perpetuate the myth that she had theappetite of a horse and was given to pigging out regularly on junk food. Apparently there was no kudos is being thin because you starved yourself.
‘I hope Maria didn’t mind doing the cooking,’ Kate said. She was still feeling a bit guilty about being out with Will, especially after last night.
‘No, she doesn’t. She’s very fond of you, you know. Anyway, you deserve a break. You haven’t had any time off since you’ve been here. I didn’t mean to be such a slave-driver. I just wasn’t thinking.’
‘Honestly, I don’t need a day off. The job is bliss. I’m enjoying myself so much it’s more like a holiday than work. I just wish there were more jobs like it.’
‘Any idea what you’ll do next?’
‘Not really. Of course, Conor thinks I should become a celebrity chef – get on TV and hit the big time.’
‘Of course,’ Will said. ‘He gave me a bollocking about the first single we released off the last album – said it was completely the wrong one.’
Kate laughed. ‘That’s Conor!’
‘Trouble is, he was right.’
‘That’s the annoying thing – he usually is.’
‘So maybe youshouldbe a TV chef?’
‘No,’ Kate shook her head. ‘I couldn’t bear to be on television. Besides, I hate that whole cooking-as-pornography thing – people sitting at home watching other people doing it on TV instead of doing it themselves. Drooling over food magazines and cookbooks, but never setting foot in their kitchens.’
‘I never thought of it in that way.’ Will laughed. ‘Any other ideas?’
‘Well, Brian wants me to be the cook in a retreat centre he wants to open.’
What a waste,Will thought.
‘Mum thinks I should get married to someone very important and cook fabulous dinner parties for his important friends and colleagues. Rachel thinks I should cook fabulous dinner parties forherhusband’s important friends and colleagues, which she’ll then pretend she did herself.’
‘And what doyouwant to do?’
It was nice for a change to be asked what she wanted instead of being told what she should do by her bossy family. Everyone seemed to think they knew what was best for her. ‘What I would really love,’ she said, ‘is to have my own restaurant.’
‘Really?’ Will was surprised. ‘I thought you hated working in restaurants.’
‘Ah, but it would be different if it was my own.’
‘What sort of place would it be?’
‘Much like this, really,’ Kate waved her spoon to encompass their surroundings. ‘Laid back, unpretentious, with good home-style cooking.’
‘Sounds great. Tell me more.’
‘You’ll be sorry you asked. I warn you, I could talk for Ireland about this.’
‘No, I’d really like to know.’
Kate didn’t need any more encouragement. She had spent so much time fantasising about her own restaurant, it was as if she was describing somewhere that already existed, down to the tiniest detail.
‘You obviously haven’t given it much thought, then,’ Will teased her, when she had finished.
‘Oh well, it costs nothing to daydream. The reality is I’ll probably wind up cooking macrobiotic smorgasbords for an endless parade of Brian’s lost souls.’
‘Why don’t you do it – the restaurant?’
‘I don’t have the money, though I have saved a lot since I’ve been here,’ she added, not wanting to appear ungrateful. She had hardly spent a cent since she’d arrived and, true to his word, Will was paying her an outlandish sum, well over the odds. However, she had an awful feeling that Brian would expect her to sink her funds into his growth-centre venture.
