Short Soup(9)

“Not bad,” she said as Pearl waited for her opinion.

“Better than not bad. He put in something different.” Pearl made a few sucking noises with her tongue. “What is it? I must ask him.”

It was quite a while later before they saw Dion. When dinner was more than half over, he emerged from the kitchen and stopped at each table to chat to the guests. Even though he must have been working frantically in the kitchen, he managed to appear relaxed and calm as he worked the room like a pro. As Toni followed his progress, her admiration for what he’d achieved grew. Dion had never nursed any serious ambitions about anything. He’d been happy to accept whatever life dealt him. But look what he’d achieved tonight. His new menu was wowing the whole room, and he’d managed to impress his harshest critics – their parents. They were still clucking in approval, and it was plain they couldn’t be prouder of him.

When Dion reached their table, the Chans and Laus burst out in spontaneous applause. Face pink, he bowed his head in acknowledgement. “Thanks, I couldn’t have done it without you,” he said when he’d recovered. As his parents settled down, he moved closer to Toni. “Hope you enjoyed it too,” he said almost shyly.

“Dion, your cooking is amazing. I never knew you could …” She trailed off, not wanting to blunder as she struggled to find the right words. “I’m so impressed. I’ll be coming back to Piper Bay a lot more often now.”

“Will you?” He smiled, but the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I’m glad you liked it. I made the wontons specially for you.”

“Ah, your wonton,” Pearl interjected. “Very nice. You put something different in them, ah?”

“Some pickled ginger, a little cloud ear mushroom, a dash of cognac.”

“Mm, you show me one day. Your mother, too.”

Dion nodded, eyebrows lifted in surprise. “Of course. No problem.”

“You work very hard, Dion. We all proud of you.” Pearl gestured towards the room, which had become rather noisy as people waited for the final courses. “You better get back to the kitchen.”

He nodded then turned back to Toni. “A few of us are going out to unwind after all this. Want to join us?”

She glanced at her parents for a brief moment before replying, “Yeah, that sounds like fun.”

“Great.” For the first time that night he gave her a genuine smile. “I’ll give you a lift home afterwards. See you later.” He brushed his fingers over her shoulder before hurrying back to the kitchen.

“You going out with Dion?” Shen tapped his fingers on the table cloth.

To her surprise she saw faint disapproval printed on her father’s face. “Uh, yes, Dion and some of his friends. I shouldn’t be late,” she felt forced to add, even though it was faintly ridiculous having to explain her movements to her father. She was twenty-seven, give or take a day, not seventeen.

“Don’t be.” He continued to frown at her.

She stopped herself from rolling her eyes. “Okay, Dad.” Honestly, why was he coming down on her? It was just a casual invitation. She’d be with Dion’s friends, who would include Melissa, she was willing to bet. Just a few friendly drinks to celebrate his success, that was all it would be. Nothing like last night would happen, she was sure of that. Still, the tingling in her blood wouldn’t die down.


Two hours later Dion walked into the restaurant’s main room. The tables were clear, the crowd had dispersed, and just Toni and Melissa were still there, standing at the hostess desk. With Dion were Gary and Ronan, his assistant cook and kitchen hand respectively, who had just finished cleaning the kitchen with him. He had exchanged his chef’s jacket for a plain, charcoal-grey shirt and washed the smell of cooking from his face and hair. “Okay, ready to go?” he said to the two women.

“Hell, yeah.” Melissa gave him a wide grin, her lips bright red from the freshly reapplied lipstick. With her metallic dress and killer heels she looked ready to hit a casino, not share a few quiet after work drinks. “Where’re we going? Hey, I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we drive down to Newcastle and go clubbing?”

Behind Dion, Gary uttered a groan. “I’m too knackered to go all the way to Newcastle.”

“Oh, pooh, you’re no fun” Melissa spun round to Dion. “How about it, darl? I’ve got my dancing shoes on, just like old times.”

Dion’s gaze slid past her to Toni, who hadn’t moved from the hostess desk. In her bluish purple dress she looked like an untouched violet. At the sight of her his heart panged. The adrenalin rush of the opening still pumped in his veins, and he had enough energy for anything, but the last thing he wanted was to take Toni to a noisy, crowded nightclub where they’d have to shout to be heard.

“We’ve been on our feet all day,” he pointed out to Melissa. “We’re going to the Dolphin Bar.”

“That old place.” Melissa pulled a face before shrugging. “Oh, fine then, if that’s where you want to go.”

Not for the first time Dion was glad he and Melissa had broken up. She was lively and fun to be with, but only in small doses. “Yeah, that’s where we’re going.” He glanced round at the others. “I’m giving Toni a ride. Anyone else need a lift?”

“Oh, me, please.” Melissa gave an exaggerated wink. “I’m in the mood for a night out, and I don’t want to leave my car overnight outside the Dolphin Bar.”

Suppressing a sigh, Dion ushered the two women outside and over to his SUV. “You don’t mind the Dolphin, do you?” he asked Toni when they were briefly alone. The Dolphin Bar was an old-fashioned pub on the outskirts of town. It was a little daggy but cheerful and wouldn’t be too crowded at this time of night.

“Not at all.” She smiled at him. “To be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to traipsing all the way to Newcastle.”

In the car Melissa insisted Toni sit up front, then spent the entire trip with her head poked between the front seats while she quizzed Toni about her future plans. “Wow, that must have been tough for you,” she said when Toni confessed she was recently divorced. “I guess you’ve gone off men for a while, huh? I don’t blame you. Men can be such pigs.” Pinching Dion’s shoulder, she snickered. “Present company excluded, of course!”

Dion rolled his shoulder. Melissa was getting on his nerves. Usually he enjoyed her company, but not tonight.

“Oh, Dion can be a pig too, sometimes,” Toni said. Dion gripped the steering wheel harder, shooting her a confused glance. Was she ganging up on him with Melissa? “Once he offered to give me a surfing lesson,” Toni continued, “and then left me on the beach while he tried to impress some girl with his prowess on the surfboard.” He blinked, trying to recall the incident. Hmm, maybe she was right about that. She grinned at him. “But that was a long time ago. You haven’t been a pig in quite a while.”

He didn’t know how to respond to that. Luckily, the drive to the Dolphin Bar was already over. They parked behind the pub and met Gary and Ronan inside. As expected, the place wasn’t too full, and they managed to find a corner table away from the main bar.

Dion ordered a magnum of champagne, much to the bartender’s surprise. He poured out a glass for everyone. Melissa banged the flat of her palm on the tabletop. “Speech! Speech! Come on, Dion.”

He shushed her down. “Okay, just a quick word. Well done, everyone, but especially to Gary and Ronan. I couldn’t have done it without you guys.”

Gary grinned. “Too right, mate.”

Dion raised his glass. “Here’s to the Happy Palace.” Everyone joined in the toast.

“Woo hoo.” Melissa downed her champagne in one gulp. “Refill, please.” Dion tipped a dribble of alcohol into her glass.

“What are the bookings like for tomorrow?” Gary asked.

“Better than expected. We’ll get a lot of people just turning up too.” For a while he discussed business with Gary. “Sorry,” he said to Toni after a few minutes. “Didn’t mean to talk shop all the time.”

“No, I’m fascinated,” she said without a trace of sarcasm. “I’m glad you’re talking about cash flow and projections. Sounds like you have a solid business plan.”

“My bank manager insisted I have one before he approved my loan application.”

“Oh.” A worried frown hovered on her forehead. “I didn’t know you had to borrow money.”

“It’s not that much. The repayments are well within my budget. Don’t look like that or you’ll start reminding me of my dad.”

Her face cleared. “I wouldn’t want to do that.”

When the champagne was gone, Dion got up to buy everyone a round of drinks. He returned from the bar to find that Gary had squeezed himself in next to Toni and had her deeply engrossed in conversation. Gary was thirty, single, and not bad-looking in a clean-cut way. He was hard working, innovative, and a great asset to the restaurant. Dion hadn’t thought he was a ladies’ man before, but now he was monopolising Toni like a seasoned smooth operator.