Mistakenly Eaten

26. Some Sort of Connection

“I know I said that we will be doing Chinese tonight but we have a surprise challenge for you guys.”

Salva announced standing in front of the all of the work stations, with all of the ten fake and one also fake but pretentiously serious participant standing right in front of him on their allocated work stations.

They had already eliminated one of the workers, since his food tasted the worse but Andrew, who was the most anxious one to leave and run away from the kitchen, was still stuck pretending to be a participant only because he was amongst the fewer ones in the house, who actually knew how to cook.

“Oh! I wonder what it could be?” Althea cooed, looking at Garry and turning around to throw a friendly smile at Fiona, who also smiled at the girl, whom she had slowly starting to trust.

Just as Salva opened up his mouth to announce the surprise, he stopped when the door to the kitchen opened up and everyone turned towards the door to find Nicholas standing tall.

Salva and Serena’s eyes went wide, who immediately rushed towards the door and covered up Nicholas.

Althea felt slightly distorted, finding Nicholas in the kitchen.

She was told by everyone that as a director, he oversaw everything through his office and mainly maintained the regulatory businesses of the society and simply handled administrative matters of the society but finding him in the kitchen made her feel slightly anxious.

She remembered that the last time she saw her, he was trying to save her and she had slapped him, something that she actually regretted a lot.

She gulped hard, fidgeting her fingers, as her body shook up and she felt scared, having anxious thoughts that Nicholas might have arrived at the cook off station, only to have her fired.

But little did she know that her thoughts were far away from the reality.

“Nick! What are you doing here?”

Salva asked, trying his best to hide Nicholas’s view but the guy stood firm, with an obnoxious expression covering his face, that told Serena that their little lies and tricks to lure Nicholas away and off from the kitchen, were somehow not going to work anymore.

“Shouldn’t I ask you what are you doing?” he asked in a low monotonous tone and Salva was about to saw something when Serena held his hand, silently informing him that there was no use of trying to pull another trick.

“Nick! Whatever you think is happening, we can explain everything.” She murmured in a low tone, afraid that Nicholas might speak up loudly and their real truth would be revealed.

Nicholas understood the concern and fear in Serena’s voice and pulled himself out of the kitchen and Salva and Serena followed him out in to the main foyer.

Before leaving Salva gestured at Gigi, who stood right behind them, watching everything with sheer concern and asked him to take over as they stepped outside in the main foyer and stood facing Nicholas for a long due confrontation.

“Nick! Please, we can explain everything, okay? Just listen to us and…”

“Guys! of course you have a lot of explaining to do and I will surely listen to what you guys did and why and a part of the reason, I know I am because you wanted me to get better and eat something. I get that part.”

“How much do you exactly know?” Salva wagered in, wondering if he would work some thing out and pull out another lie, in order to deviate and fool Nicholas once more.

Whilst Nicholas sighed in exhaustion that Salva was still looking to find a thin line to lie to him again, Serena smacked Salva’s shoulder.

“Don’t be a quip. He knows everything. You do, right?” Serena inquired and Nicholas nodded.

“Well, I know that you guys are doing something extremely stupid and you guys are lying to that girl in there, who is not a p********e or an educationist…” Nicholas reprimanded Salva, who opened up his mouth to say another lie but shut up the moment Nicholas spoke at him.

“… she is some chef and maybe she has some magic in her food that made me want to eat nothing but just everything that she ever made was the only thing that my body accepted. I don’t want to know how you guys ended up finding her and what connection do I have with her or the food that she makes but…”

“You remember the pasta from Gragnano that you always talked about and told us that you wouldn’t eat anything but that pasta.”

Nicholas was left silent, looking at Salva as he asked that question.

Nick simply nodded and Serena further went on to add point to their self defense.

“That girl is the one who had made that pasta, even when you had in Gragnano and she is the one whose food is the only thing that you would eat. Remember we gave you two scotched eggs one morning, around two weeks ago?”

Nick nodded at the question, once again silent and confused.

“One was made by Althea and the other one was made by Garry. You ate the whole egg that she made and enjoyed it to the most but one bite of Garry’s egg and you pushed the plate away.” Serena informed Nicholas, leaving him stunned.

“You guys had been treating me like some sort of lab rat.” He complained and Salva shrugged.

“You kind of pushed us to.”

Nicholas gasped at Salva’s words and Serena smacked the back of his head.

“Be gentle!”

“What? Tell me what else were we supposed to do? Nicholas had refused to move out of the island and refused to eat anything. So, I just did what I thought was the right thing to do. And remind you, it wasn’t easy at all. If you are an i***t. Congratulations! So is that girl. We had to lie a lot and we still are lying and this might continue for God knows how long.”

Salva complained as he continued ranting out his feelings.

“Maybe, that’s why he likes her food. She is just as stupid and adamant as he is and…”

“And it needs to stop.” Nicholas spoke up, moving out of his state of trance.

“No! Nicholas we have worked so hard and don’t you think we tried the easy way? Yes, we had to lie to begin with and to bring the girl to the island and I promise to tell you everything.” Serena tried to persuade the guy but he simply held his hand up in the air.

“I know there is a lot to explain and please do explain me everything but not just me. That girl is not just being lied to but we are also risking the island’s security. You are telling me now that you have even brought her here with deceit, do you even know how much big of risk that is? Not just to the island, who’s location is kept remote and hidden for years but also to the Santiago name.”

“But at least just listen to us first and try to understand the whole situation…” Salva opened up his mouth but Nicholas cut him off by stepping in between him and Serena and pushed his way back inside the kitchen.

“You can explain me everything once this stupid charade ends.”

He once again entered the kitchen but this time no one bothered to look at him, since everyone was already busy cooking for the challenge that Gigi had given them.

He simply found the working station where Althea was and noticed that she had her back turned towards her stove, since she was collecting some ingredients from Fiona’s station, that was right behind her.

He reached her station and at the same time, Althea turned back, only to gasp and to be shocked by Nicholas’s presence.

The flour jar in her hands dropped down and was about to hit the floor when she immediately jerked down but at the same time Nicholas did the same thing, preventing the jar from hitting the floor.

He caught it just in time and at the same time, Althea also held the jar.

Within a moment, the two looked at each other, as their eyes met and they finally realized that their hands were touching, with Nicholas’s wrapped around Althea’s who held the jar.

A burning sensation erupted everywhere around the room and everything seemed hazy, as the two looked in to each other’s eyes, getting lost with one another’s touch, feeling nothing but each other’s presence.

Maybe the world was trying to give the two a signal, that perhaps, there was some sort of commection between the two.

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How cute is our little cooking couple?

More fun to come :D

Thank you for always reading and supporting my work <3