One Night Wager by Katherine Garbera

Author:Katherine Garbera
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-12-15T19:50:21+00:00

* * *

Dash had stayed most of the afternoon, then left, and Conrad had come to the test kitchen. It was situated in an old warehouse that he’d converted a few blocks from his Michelin starred restaurant La Bête de la Fable. He had done most of his kitchen training in France and all of his recipes were twists on classic French dishes.

Recently though, he’d been leaning more into fusion, which he knew could go either way with the Michelin judges, and the head chef, Lucien, and his partner, Sig, both were wary of doing anything risky. Risk was like second nature to him at this point, but he knew that his livelihood wasn’t tied to the success or failure of the restaurant the way his staff’s and partner’s lives were.

Yet he couldn’t help pushing himself. And he was back again trying to find a dish that would help him make sense of Indy. Last night he’d had a different glimpse of her, with her hair hanging down and curling around her face. The dark curls against her lighter skin had made him think of sorrel and mushrooms in a thick cream sauce. There was something so homey and satisfying about that combination.

So he’d start with that as a base. She’d stirred fire and heat in him, so he gravitated toward garlic and maybe some chilies or ginger. He pulled the spices walking through his kitchen pantry and trying to think what else. She was delicate, and a cream sauce required something else delicate...not chicken, which was too commonplace for Indy. Something more exciting and intoxicating. His mind kept running through ingredients; before he could make his choice the door to the test kitchen opened and Ophelia walked in.

“I was surprised to see your bike out front today,” she said. “But glad. We need to talk about the challenge.”

She looked understated and sophisticated as always. She wore a pencil skirt and T-shirt that had sequins where her breasts were. He never knew what he was going to get with Ophelia. She loved to experiment with fashion, he had realized a long time ago that her clothes were an indicator of her mood. He just never had been sure what that mood was. .

“What about it?”

“I have been editing the footage. Do you want me to take out the part about you going to the spring renewal? I also found another challenger for you. You free this weekend?” she asked. “The chef who issued the challenge is one the network is thinking of offering a show to, so it would be a nice test run.”

Well fuck.

He was tempted to say yes. Maybe it was fate as Indy believed, stepping in to save her from him. But he wanted her, and fate was going to have work harder than this.

“Sorry, but I can’t. Leave the spring renewal thing in. I think one of the kids in town put a video of it up on his socials—Dash is monitoring it if you want to add the footage to the end of the show.

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