Mistakenly Eaten

15. Scotched Eggs in Breakfast

“You asshole! I told you to keep the stand in erect position.”

The tall guard, buffed and stuffed inside his polo t-shirt, pretending to be the shooting director of the show, yelled at one of the other guards, who was his subordinate.

His blond hair sleeked back with clear gel, revealing the side of his head that he had shaved to create a much more rough look. Tattoos covered his entire body, running around his arms up till his neck but he concealed it all, by pretending to be a hip man, as he pulled his hair back in a man bun.

The other guard that he yelled at, was also wearing a regular t shirt and held the camera more firmly on the stand, annoyed at Carl’s firm and strict instructions.

“Dude! Will you please just relax. It is not like it is all real.” Gigi shouted at Carl, making him gasp in utter shock.

“It is not about the reality but the scenario and will you stop being such a negative Nancy?” Carl demanded, rubbing the slight stubble grown around his sharp jaw.

Gigi snorted back at him and simply moved along, passing through the kitchen where six similar counters were set up, as working stations for the ‘pretended participants’ to cook on. With two participants working on each station.

Salva walked through the counters, checking each station and Serena followed his movements, making sure that everything was on place.

They had carefully and intricately followed the whole mapping and setting of the competition that was held by the original secret chefs’ society. They had closely and keenly followed the setting of the SCHS. They went through all of their cooking competition videos and knowing that Althea was obsessed with the society and must have seen those videos quite a lot, they decided to make sure to keep everything perfectly in line with their plan and not to let Althea suspect that they were faking the whole thing.

“Everyone in line.” Salva guided the fake participants to stand on their allocated stations and they all simply grunted as they took their positions.

Garry was confused, to see how everyone around the house was acting annoyed.

He turned to look back, finding Fiona standing diagonally to him, at the station right behind him.

He looked at the empty station besides him, wondering why the place next to him was left empty.

He rose his hand up in the air, making Salva c**k.

“What?”

“I have two questions.”

“What is it Garry?”

Gigi also stood by the door, with his hands crossed across his chest, looking at his entire squad, that he had hand picked and trained to make the perfect fighting beast group but Salva had turned them in to a complete joke.

Half of them were working with cameras and the rest were going to use knives to cut vegetables. His masculinity was not just challenged but entirely drained down the flush and all that because of Althea and her stupid little ability to move on from a competition that didn’t even want her to begin with.

According to the house residents, Althea should have been grateful to them and simply accepted Salva and Serena’s offer to be a private chef, instead of being so hung up on some society that had obviously and rejected her off.

“A. why is not one excited? And B. why is the station next to me empty?”

“Well, A. no one wanted to be here.” Gigi spoke, making everyone laugh out loud in agreement.

Garry turned to look back at Fiona, who even though looked confused and slightly scared to be there but she simply shook her head at Garry, showing that she was just as excited as him.

“Come on! This should be fun! Don’t you guys get bored doing your regular activities.” He tried to pump some enthusiasm in everyone, who simply yawned and groaned back at him, showing that they were simply annoyed by the fact that they had to get up early in the morning.

“To answer your second question…” Salva attained everyone’s attention, especially Garry’s. “… you will be standing next to our target – Althea.”

“What, why?”

“What, why?”

Both Garry and Fiona asked, the two obviously having different perspectives to their question.

Whilst Garry was confused, why he was the one allowed to go anywhere near the said target that they had to be so keen and careful around, since Salva had made it quite clear that no one would go anywhere near her, why he was the one, against whom the girl was going to be pushed and placed next to.

But Fiona was simply worried why the new girl would be fixed next to Garry. This alerted her heart, making her instantly feel insecure about the fact that even though everyone around the house knew that Garry was hers to take, whenever that i***t was to realize that she had a crush on him ever since she was fifteen and Serena had brought her to that island. He was eight years older than her and looked at her as a mere kid Fiona had made his quite clear and evident to everyone that she was in love with Garry and one day she would profess her love to him. but the new girl, was already putting him in a difficult position.

“Because you are the only one here who knows how to cook and everyone in this competition is supposed to be a skillful yet amateur and aspiring chef, so…”

“Why not, Andrew? He is a proper chef.” Fiona argued and Salva simply shook his head, understanding that she was simply acting that possessive and offensive.

“Exactly! We need an amateur chef like Garry. Someone on the same level as Althea.”

With that said, Salva clapped his hands and made everyone listen to his dictations more precisely, about how they should be careful around Althea and act like proper competitors. But Fiona stood still, watching through her peripheral vision and looking at Garry, afraid that even though she had been trying so hard for the past ten years to attain Garry’s attention and had been failing at it.

She had tried to reach his level but was never noticed by him. she only feared that if someone like him would appear in front of Garry, she might lose him to her.

“So, are we all ready?” Salva inquired and everyone shook their heads in a lousy manner.

The door to the kitchen split open and Althea walked inside the room, wearing a sleeveless sun dress, that hug tightly over her body and slightly revealed the crease of her cleavage, flowing down over her hips, ending right in the middle of her thighs.

“Am I late?” she questioned, pulling her hair up and tying them in a lose bun with her hands.

Everybody in the room instantly recognized Althea and realized that she was the new chef, whose food was going to be given to Nicholas and for whom, they were running such a big set up.

Many men in the room were in awe to find such a simply beautiful girl standing in front of them, whilst Fiona was simply jealous of her. she was immediately revolted, seeing Althea in such clothes.

But Fiona wasn’t the only one questioning Althea’s choice of clothing it was Serena as well, who had a strict, no skirt above the knees policy in the house.

“No! just in time.” Salva chimed and pointed towards the empty station next to Garry, gesturing Althea to take her place.

She nodded in excitement, and immediately took her place, grabbing the apron placed on top of her work station and wrapped it around her waist.

She looked up at Garry, who was looking at her with quite a keen expression.

“Hi, Althea.” She offered her hand to take and Garry smile gently, taking her hand and shaking it softly.

“Garry!”

“Where are you from?” she asked in a low whisper.

“Spain.”

“Italy!”

Fiona stood right behind them, watching the two get closer, everyone in the room cooed as they looked between Garry, Althea and Fiona, noticing the knife that Fiona carried in her hands and wished to stab Althea with it.

The door to the kitchen flew open attaining everyone’s attention, including Althea who shrieked and immediately perched down, bending on her knees and hid behind the white counters.

Garry noticed her movement and looked down at her. she looked up at him and kept a finger on her lips, shushing him and asking him to keep looking up and at the door, where Nicholas stood.

Althea had recognized his beard and thick hair on his head, knowing it damn well that it had to be the said director of the society.

Salva and Serena also turned towards the door, shocked to find Nicholas standing in the kitchen’s entrance and looking up at the six counter aligned in the middle of the kitchen, making him feel that he had walked in, on a master chef set.

Before he could’ve said anything, Salva and Serena dragged him out of the kitchen and once the door of the kitchen was closed, Althea gently crawled from behind the counter and sighed in relief that Nicholas was gone.

She stood up straight and found everyone in the room looking at her with concern.

She faked a smile at them and waved her hands, deciding to not to say a word about her oddly suspicious behavior.

She simply wanted to stay in the competition, which meant that she had to stay out of the director’s sight.

“What is going on in there?” Nicholas inquired as Salva and Serena brough him out in the main foyer.

“Nothing!” the two lied immediately.

“No! why are there so many counters and cameras inside the kitchen, what the hell is going on?” the odd setting of the kitchen along with multiple cameras set all around the place.

“It’s an activity that I came up with.” Salva began spilling out his lie that he had already formulated in case Nicholas would notice anything odd or suspicious around the house but they had not expected to tell him all of those lies this soon in their entire plan.

“What activity?”

“Everyone around the island was extremely bored, so I saw online different ways to increase work efficiency. I saw that doing different competitions and activities can boast work place enthusiasm and…”

“Seriously? Boast these losers? What the hell are you even thinking? This is not a corporate set up. These idiots already work around the house all the time. Where is your brain Salva? Don’t you know that this is the least enthusiastic way to…”

“What are you doing in the kitchen this early?” Serena cut him off, asking the main question that concerned him.

Nicholas immediately shut up as he felt slightly embarrassed to admit why he was out in the kitchen.

“Well…?” Salva implied, wanting an answer from Nicholas, sensing some sort of hesitance from his side to answer the question.

Nick sighed, rolling his eyes slightly, “I was wondering if the chef, who prepared the pasta yesterday, could make me some breakfast.”

“Yes!” Both Salva and Serena chimed in excitement and immediately rushed towards the kitchen but stopped before entering inside.

“What would you like to have for breakfast?” asked Serena and Nicholas simply shrugged.

“I guess, scotched eggs? Or something like that?” he stated in a completely casual manner, “And oh! Get me my breakfast in my office.”

With that he left and Salva and Serena smirked, looking at each other. It was already working, Nicholas was already demanding food, which meant that there was hope for them to have that guy move on with his life and eventually move out of the island.

Salva entered inside the kitchen, where all the pretended participants and Althea, were standing on their stations. He cleared his throat broadened his shoulder, to give off the essence that he was an extremely somber person, who meant strict business and only wanted results to be delivered to him.

“Chefs! Your journey to become the next top underdog chef, someone who will be a part of our chef’s society by the end of the competition, as many of you will begin leaving one by one, during your journey in the next twelve weeks, begins now. Your first challenge for today is to make the perfect scotched egg and your time starts now!”

Listening to the challenge, Althea got extremely excited. Scotched eggs were her luxury breakfast that she would make at the beginning of each month when her salary would be credited. She would do it, just to feel a little sense of luxury but never had she imagined in her wildest dreams that her first challenge would be something that was so close to her heart.

“You have precisely fifteen minutes to create the perfect dish and your time starts now.”

Serena clapped her hands and begin the stop watch, making Althea and Garry rush towards the pantry where all the ingredients were placed. Fiona also rushed after them, making sure to not to leave Garry anywhere alone with Althea. Garry was pumped up to be a part of the entire drama only because he felt compelled and competed, that made cooking for him even more interesting and Fiona, was only doing so, so that she could get closer to Garry.

Everyone else lousily walked in to the pantry and Serena only rushed them like a bunch of sheep, pushing them to at least act excited.

After collecting her ingredients, Althea began preparing her dish. Garry tried his best to match her pace and her skills but the way Althea articulated her moves and worked her way with each and every thing that she put in front of her, he was in simple awe.

He had to so many questions to ask her. like, where did she learn to cook like that. How did she master her skills. He used to think that he was a master at the art but he was nothing compared to how perfect her skills were. From the way she handled the knife and the delicate manner with which she took care of her coated egg made Garry believe that Althea was truly and indeed the true master of the art.

But he had learned that she hadn’t attended any proper training school in culinary, since which was almost an unbelievable fact that the girl was self learned.

Garry smiled softly, as he looked at Althea and how passionate she was about cooking. It was almost a sight of pity for him, that the real competition didn’t get their hands on the girl, or else they would have been lucky to have her.

And since, Althea was there, Garry was determined to learn a lot from her.

Once the buzzer went off, everyone was asked to put their hands up in the air and step back from their stations.

“You guys can leave the kitchen and our judges will taste your food and at the end of the day, we will announce which one of you had won the day’s challenges. You will be judged on the basis of your cooking in breakfast, lunch and dinner. We will announce the result by nine PM and top three amongst you will get a day off tomorrow and the rest would have to compete to stay in the competition.”

As Serena announced the lines that Salva had written for her to say, everyone left the kitchen and Serena immediately ran towards Althea’s station and collected her plate but Salva stopped her.

He picked up Garry’s scotched egg and placed it on to Althea’s plate.

“Why are you adding this…”

“Let’s do a little experiment and see if it is actually Althea’s hands that do the magic or just some psychological thing for Nicholas.”

With that Serena left the kitchen through the dining room, where Martha and Anthony were seated on the dining chairs, half asleep, drowsy and startling out of sleep, as their heads twitched the moment it would slip out of their palm’s grip and hit the dining table.

“Why the f**k do we have to get up so early?” Martha complained.

“Hey! Having fun helping your nephew?” Anthony mocked, earning a growl from his wife.

“Guys! go and test the food placed inside the kitchen and tell us who cooked the worst.” Salva came in, right behind Serena who walked out the dining room and carefully treaded towards Nicholas’s office, making sure that Althea was nowhere in sight.

She finally entered Nicholas’s office, who was working on his laptop and the moment his eyes landed on the golden crisp oval balls placed in the plate, he pushed his laptop away and gladly welcomed the plate on his desk.

He picked up the knife and cut through the first one, the yolk went on running down smoothly and the color scheme of the coated egg, was mesmerizing and definitely alluring to Nicholas.

Serena knew that it was the one that Althea had cooked and she watched how Nick devoured that particular piece of food and finished it up within less than a minute. The moment, he cut through the second one, the yolk was not that much runny and the color different wasn’t much appealing to him as well but he still decided to give it a try and the moment he took a bite, he kept his fork down and pushed the food away.

He was always quite particular about what he ate and the taste of the second scotched egg was definitely not like the first one, which was also quite obvious for Nicholas to catch up on.

“Are you sure these two are cooked by the same chef?” he asked Serena, who nodded, lying blatantly.

“Well, ask the chef to make it like the first one, there is some difference between the two recipes but I am full for now. I will have something in lunch.”

Serena nodded, picking up the plate and hid her amusement, as she bit her lips inside her mouth, holding back her excitement. She walked out of the room and once the doors of the office were closed behind her, she screamed in excitement, rushing towards the kitchen, where Martha and Anthony were scrunching their noses in disgust and spitting food out of their mouths, as they tasted yet another scotched egg cooked by one of the house helps.

“Why the f**k does it taste so horrible? Don’t people know basic cooking?” Anthony cried as he welched in disgust and Salva simply rolled her eyes at his uncle’s tantrum.

“Oh come on, it can’t be that bad.” He challenged, taking a bit of the egg and the moment the taste of raw unseasoned minced meat hit his tongue, he immediately threw the food out of his mouth and snatched the water bottle out of Anthony’s hands, washing his palette down by it.

“Who the f**k made it? I am eliminating them right now. I am not letting him or her cook lunch or dinner.” He complained.

“This is like crime against humanity.” Martha added and at the same time, Serena splashed the salon doors of the kitchen and squeaked in sheer joy.

“It’s magic.” She announced, making Salva look at her.

“It is Althea and it is the taste in her hands. There is just something about her cooking that makes Nicholas want to eat.” She stated, making everyone look at her and then at each other in complete shock.

“Are you sure?” Salva asked, suddenly pumped with adrenaline that it was indeed Althea, their final answer to help them bring Nicholas back to life.

Serena nodded, “he didn’t eat Garry’s scotched eggs.” She held the plate up and Martha and Anthony stepped ahead, taking a bite of Garry’s eggs and their eyes bulged out in sheer surprise.

“But it is tasty.” Martha argued.

“I know but Nicholas didn’t like the taste. He likes what Althea makes. She is our answer to help Nicholas. We need her.” Serena told everyone and Anthony sighed, understanding why Salva went through all the trouble. He looked around the kitchen, with cameras set up along with the newly installed kitchen counters.

It looked like a circus to him but they indeed needed that circus and they needed to keep up the entire façade and act like the circus masters if they were going to help Nicholas and bring him back to his senses and help him move on.

“Then we have to keep things going. We can not afford to lose Althea.”

“Which means we have to keep her away from Nicholas.” Salva told everyone, making Anthony and Martha look at him with confusion.

“What? Why?”

Serena finally began explaining them everything about how Althea and Nick encountered each other and having no other option, Serena ended up coming up with a lie about how she was a p********e.

“You could’ve just told him that she was a new chef and ended up mistakenly wandering inside the living room.” Martha sighed, knowing that Serena’s weak lie could cost them in the long run.

“I know but I just couldn’t come up with another lie in the situation.” Serena regretted.

“Well, then we have to keep Nick and Althea as far away from each other as possible.”

As the group stood inside the kitchen, discussing how they would hide Althea from Nicholas, Fiona also stood right outside the kitchen, listening to their conversation and understanding that if she wanted Althea gone, she would have to make her run in to Nicholas in some way.

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What do you think Fiona will do now?

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