Mistakenly Eaten

7. Supposed Recruiters

Salva and Gigi were still in midst of trying to solve the equation of whom Althea assumed them to be, when she smiled brightly and excitedly at them.

“You know what? Why don’t you guys just sit back and let me serve you another dish of this pasta.”

She told them collecting their food from their table and Salva tried to stop her.

“But wait, who do you think …”

“Trust me, I know what I am doing so just relax and give me another fifteen minutes. I promise you, you will not regret the very next bite of food that you will have in your mouth.”

With that Althea rushed back and inside the kitchen and Liana also noticed her excited yet quite hasty exchange with the customers.

“What is going on?” she asked Althea, who immediately placed a pan on the stove and began preparing her specialty pasta.

“Those guys you see our there, I think they are from the Secret Chef Hunter’s Society, as recruiters for their new competition.” She told everyone in the kitchen, who were already aware of her attempts of trying to get in to that competition.

“Really? But didn’t they like send a letter and then a ticket or something along with it? Why would they send their recruiters specifically?” one of the chefs asked, who had also sent in his application for the competition.

“Yes, they do but around three years back one of the finalist of the competition shared his experience that the recruiters liked the dish that they tested but they weren’t sure so they had sent two recruiters at the same time to judge and taste the dish. They have specifically asked for that dish in particular that I had mentioned in my application and each time anyone who ordered that dish, I was the one who had made it in the past six months, throughout the whole time when the applications were open and the recruitment process was going on. I have a strong gut feeling about this. They are here to taste my dish and if they do like it, I might get in to the competition.”

She squeaked in excitement and everyone around the place immediately began helping her prepare the dish that could help the poor girl get in to the competition of her dreams.

They had known her for just a few months but everyone was grateful to her for her kindness, care and help and it was about time that they did something for her as well and helped her achieve her dreams.

But what the poor girl didn’t know that as she cooked, mindlessly, full of gest, hope and heart, Angelo stood filming her cook in the restaurant.

In a vulnerable state when she was in love with him, she had told him about how Romano and Gustav were against her cooking in the kitchen and how dreamed of being a chef. He never helped her achieve her dreams in any manner and instead always told her that she should never try to go against Romano, since not only was he his friend and business partner but also he was her boss and she should respect his opinion and commands.

Angelo knew that the video of Althea cooking in the kitchen and the rest of the staff not only letting it happen but also helping her was worth a million buck to him. He wasn’t going to show it to Romano. That would only help Romano further torment and humiliate Althea but instead he planned on using it to threaten Althea to get back with him and be at his command and if she refused to do so, then he was going to show that video to Romano and let trouble come Althea and her coworkers’ way. Once he was done collecting the video, he left the place not staying back to see what was about to unfold.

Once her dish was prepared and she had organized it on the plate in a beautiful and representative manner, she picked it up and carried it out and put it in front of Salva and Gigi, who were still confused about whom Althea thought them to be.

“Please have a taste. I am sure you will not regret it and enjoy.”

Gigi looked down at the dish in front of him and it definitely looked more appealing. The plating was definitely different and more vibrant.

The smell that waved up in the form of steam from the plate was also somewhat different and more alluring.

Salva leaned froward and took a whiff from the plate. He was definitely attracted to the aroma that waved off the plate and plating was also quite vibrant and more colorful this time.

Salva and Gigi both looked at each other with muddle written all over their face.

“Umm, is this a different chef?” Salva inquired and Althea simply nodded, holding back her urge to burst out in laughter and excitement.

Her expressions made the two think something otherwise. They thought that she was holding back her urge to laugh at the two, since they assumed that they looked like idiots crying over a pasta and its maker.

Althea noticed that they were a bit hesitant to taste the pasta in front of her and then suddenly she remembered the rules of the recruiters that one of the old contestants shared with them in the Aspirants of Secret Chef Hunter’s Society group.

The recruiters never tasted the food in front of the servers or the chefs, since they had a secret dairy in which they had to record the taste and all the other sensory evaluation aspects of the food.

“Oh I am sorry! It is so rude of me, please enjoy your meal. I will leave you two, you enjoy your meal in secret.”

She winked at them and then rushed back towards the kitchen, where she hid behind a counter and watched in secrecy as Salva and Gigi were about to taste her food. The rest of the restaurant staff also hid along with her and everyone watched in utter awe, excited and enthralled to see what would happen next.

“I don’t get it! She looked like she had added something in it.” Gigi stated, sharing his fears quite confidently with Salva, careless of the fact that he was scared of a girl half his size.

Salva kept his quiet and kept his gaze in tact over at the plate.

“It does look different than the previous one and she is saying that it was prepared by someone else.”

He moved the plate around on the table, judging it by all angles.

“Whoa! They are inspecting it so keenly.” Said one of the female waitresses.

“I know right? They are being so careful and so cold about how the food would taste, it is almost giving me chills.”

One of the chefs, felt chills running all over his body, which made him shiver and rub his hands over his arms. He was also an aspirant of the Secret Chef Hunter’s Society, especially after Althea had urged him to apply there and had told her how it was a nice opportunity for small scaled chefs like them.

“Oh my God! Oh my God!” Liana waved her hands at them and whispered yelled, “They are about to taste her dish.”

She squeaked in excitement and everyone went in to complete silence, watching as Salva brought his fork towards the plate but Gigi held his hand, making everyone sit back and look at the two in sheer confusion.

“Dude! Didn’t you just hear her? she said that I know who you guys are. What if she is an enemy? Or better yet, one of your crazy stupid ex’s sister and now has poisoned the food? Being the head of security, I can not let you taste this food.”

He stated and Salva pushed the dish of pasta towards him, “Then you taste it.”

He told him, taking Gigi by surprise, “Dude! I didn’t mean to say that I would eat it. I am saying that it is poisoned, how could you urge me to…”

“Because I am f*****g tired of Nicholas, okay? I am tired of seeing him like this, in such a big slump. I am tired to see how he is sad and broken all the time. He refuses to move on from a girl, who left him at the altar. My biggest problem is that, that girl doesn’t deserve that much of him. He gave her a lot. He left a life full of joy for her. He quit on his usual things and cleaned up his act and for a guy like me and him, it takes a lot. But he still did it and I regret letting him do that. He came to me and told me that he was in love with this amazing girl and I let him go after her, when I should have stopped him. I never really liked Cheryl but for Nicholas, I pretended to do so. And that was my biggest mistake and this pasta, is my only hope and my only chance of making up for that mistake. Camila said that tasting this pasta now, could make Nicholas realize that there was nothing special about Cheryl and it was just simply his own feelings that made him take stupid decisions, like proposing her, so maybe after having this pasta, he might realize about his other stupid decisions as well. Cheryl is a gone case and she doesn’t deserve how Nicholas is still sulking after her. he doesn’t want her back either but he also refuses to move on. So, I don’t care if it is poisoned, I am ready to risk my chances because it is either helping Nicholas move on or death for me, at this point.”

With that Salva dug his fork in to the dish and stabbed a bunch of penne in to the sauce and took a bite of the food.

His chewed on it for a second and then his eyes shot up in sheer and utter surprise, making Gigi look at him with horror.

“What is it? Are you alright? is it poisoned?” he asked but Salva didn’t say anything and instead, tears welled up in his eyes, as his long monologue of explaining to Gigi why that pasta mattered to him came to an end and a big conclusion for him.

It had happened, he was home.

“This is…” Salva spoke with his mouth full of the bite that he hadn’t even swallowed and instead, took another bite, “… pure…” he took another bite in his mouth, “… heaven!”

Salva kept on eating the pasta again and again and Gigi also dug in and the moment the food hit his taste buds, he moaned in sheer joy and only one word escaped his mouth.

“f**k! This is amazing.”

“I know right?” Salva nodded and the two finished up their plate within a minute.

Once they were done with the food, they leaned back in their chairs, nothing but pure bliss basking on their faces.

“I just feel like I f****d a thousand whores.” Salva explained the aftermath of his feelings, as he leaned back in his chair and looked up at the beautiful clear blue sky, that had some clouds burst and parted around it.

“Now you see why Nicholas ended up proposing to Cheryl? f**k even I want to make love to someone after eating this. This is pure magic.” Gigi concluded and Salva turned his face back towards him and nodded.

“This chef and this pasta, is going to bring Nicholas back to life, I can tell you that. We need to get our hands on the man. listen Gigi, let’s find out who the chef is, take him to a side, knock him down and take him to the island. This was our plan, right?”

Gigi nodded, “Yes, but we have to be careful about it now. We have quite specifically asked about that chef. So, we will have to have another strategy because if that chef goes missing and…”

Before Gigi could’ve come up with another plan, Salva rose his hand up and called for Althea.

“Excuse me!”

“Dude! At least listen to my plan.”

Gigi hissed at him and Salva shrugged his hands at his friend.

“It’s fine! I know what I am doing.” He told Gigi and after having seen how quickly the two ‘supposed recruiters’, ate her pasta and seemed quite happy and sated, Althea walked out of the kitchen, pretending to be all unbothered and unaware of what was happening.

“Yes, how may I help you?” she asked in a quite plain, yet slightly amused tone. It was getting extremely hard for her to hide her excitement from the two.

“This chef, we want to meet him.”

Althea’s lips betrayed her, as they stretched out in a plain smile but she immediately masked her expressions and nodded at Salva, as if she is complying to his demands.

She turned to leave and took a few marching steps but remained at her place and then immediately turned back towards Salva and waved her arms out at him.

“Ta da! It is me! I am chef!”

Salva and Gigi both look at Althea with their eyes bulging out of their sockets.

“I am Althea Ferrara, the girl that you are here to recruit.”

“What?” both Salva and Gigi spoke out simultaneously, confused by what was happening around.

Seeing their delusional expressions, Althea straightened up and looked around the place and then gently leaned forward, making the two also move their heads ahead, sensing that Althea was about to tell them a secret.

“I know you guys are supposed to be anonymous. But I know you guys are from the Secret Chef Hunter’s Society.” She whispered at the two and as much dense Gigi remained, Salva’s eyes went inside towards the kitchen and he saw as everyone else hid behind the kitchen door and was watching Althea in excitement.

“But you are saying that you cooked this pasta? Aren’t you a waitress?” Gigi inquired and Salva also shifted his eyes back at Althea.

“Yeah, but I did mention it in my application that I am a waitress here but I cook in secret and the pasta that you mentioned from six months back, I have been the one cooking it because I had mentioned it in my application that it was my specialty pasta and no one cooked that pasta except for me in the past six months. The chef in our place prepared it for you because I had stopped preparing it, ever since the applications closed.”

Gigi was about to say something else but Salva interrupted him.

“Can you please excuse us and give us a minute?” Salva asked, making Althea lose of all her excitement in that moment.

Looking at Salva’s face she felt that something wasn’t right and she did want to ask him but decided against it. She simply nodded and left the two to themselves.

Salva watched as she got inside the kitchen and everyone hurdled her, wanting to know what happened with the two ‘recruiters’.

“I don’t know, they looked very excited to see the chef but I think, they might have a problem with me being a waitress.”

Althea’s tone sounded low and dejected and everyone felt extremely bad for the poor girl.

“Hey! The rules of competition state that they can’t discriminate against anyone based on their job and everyone deserves an equal opportunity.” The fellow aspirant chef stated.

“Yes, Don’t worry, they have to accept you in. they came all the way here for you, don’t worry they will go back after giving you a good news.” Liana patted her back and Althea sighed, crossing her fingers and hoping for nothing but to get selected for the competition.

Salva remembered the name that she had said and immediately pulled his phone out.

He searched for Secret Chef Hunters’ Society and opened up the first link that popped up on his screen. He found out that it was an underground cooking competition, very aspiring chefs who couldn’t go to chef school, get hired and rewarded. It was an opportunity for people who can’t pursue their dreams on their own and seeing Althea’s condition, being a waitress and cooking at a restaurant, since she must not have a proper diploma or training in cooking, Salva sensed that the girl was applying for that competition, may or may not have gotten selected but was confusing the two pasta hunters as chef hunters.

He remembered Gigi’s words. If the Chef of that pasta disappeared on its own, it would be quite alarming for people around the small town. The chef had to leave willingly.

He read on the website of Chef Hunters’ Society the competition was held on an exotic island and this was his perfect opportunity.

“What are you thinking? Is that girl really the chef of that pasta? And if she is, what the hell are we supposed to do now? We can’t just kidnap her or take her to the island with us!” Gigi scratched and pulled his beard, trying to come up with a way of taking that girl with them.

Salva wasn’t always quite good at math but he knew how to do the basic addition.

He added all the factors and finally came up with a solution.

On the website he saw that their applications were closed and they were sending answers to everyone else, either if they had gotten selected or rejected and if they were selected, they were called for an initial audition on their island and it was the moment where Salva was going to swoop in and take advantage of things.

He rose his hand up and called for Althea again.

One of the waitresses inside the kitchen saw Salva calling for Althea and immediately nudged her.

“Hey! Hey! They are calling for Althea.”

Everyone pushed the girl out of the kitchen and with shaking hands and pumping heart, she stepped outside and walked towards Salva and Gigi.

“What are you doing? What are you going to do?” Gigi asked from Salva who shrugged and ignored Gigi.

“Just follow my lead, okay?” he whispered at him, before getting up and standing firmly in front of Althea.

“Hey there! Chef.” He laughed, throwing a fist bump at Althea, who looked at him with a skeptical look.

“Umm…” she didn’t know what she was supposed to do with the fist pointed her way and Salva also ignored his little too informal move.

“Anyways, you were right! We are from the Secret Hunting Society.” He extended his arms out in the air. “And we really, really loved your pasta! Seriously. We were sent her to taste your food because our last recruiter had some doubts about the food and really wanted to know if you had prepared it or not and since you have prepared it. Congratulations! You are selected to participate in the competition.”

Salva rose his hands up, pumping Althea for excitement, who felt her heart skip a beat or maybe two or more.”

She gasped out loud and held her hands over her mouth.

Tears welled up in her eyes, as the moment that she had been waiting for, for the past three years had finally come to happen.

She had dreamed and imagine about that day a thousand times.

She always imagined to receive the recruitment letter and rejoice that moment with her mother and her friends but seeing how the kitchen staff clapped in excitement for her, she still felt grateful.

She just didn’t know what was supposed to be her appropriate response, since her brain had stopped working and all she heard was the fact that she was selected.

“But there is a problem.” Salva stated, making Althea look at him in horror.

“What? What is it?”

“The final round of selection is closed and you are required to come with us, right now. You are the final participant that is selected and if you can not come with us right now, then I am sorry but we will have to go with another participant.”

Gigi also got up from his seat in terror, realizing what Salva was on to. He was tricking Althea in to believing that they were those very stupid recruiters of some cooking competition and for that she was required to leave with them.

Althea looked confused. She couldn’t just leave everything and join the competition. She needed at least a weak to wrap things behind her and also give charge of her catering company to her friends. She had to also hand over her savings and other things to her mother and her sister.

She just couldn’t leave right away.

She stood puzzled, contemplating her choices and looked back at her coworkers, all of whom bobbed and asked what was going on.

“Excuse me for a minute.”

She rushed back inside the kitchen and shared the news with everyone else.

“So? What are you waiting for? If they are asking you to leave right now. Leave now!”

“But I have so much to wrap behind me and take care of. My catering business, my bank information and everything, I have to share with my mother and…” she tried to argue but Liana stopped her from saying another word.

“Listen Althea! This is once in a lifetime kind of opportunity. These recruiters came to taste your food, because the competition acceptance closed up. There had to be a reason why they are here! It is God and fate that wants you to take part in the competition and win it. It will not happen over and over again and you need to grab this opportunity that is given to you by fate.”

“But…”

Althea still wasn’t sure what her decision should be and she stood contemplating her choices, whilst outside the kitchen Gigi cornered Salva and began interrogating him.

“What the hell do you think you are up to? Have you lost your mind? What are you even trying to do here? A f*****g cooking competition and you are taking her with us?”

“Listen, I know what I am doing. The girl with come with us voluntarily. And also nobody knows who the recruiters from the stupid competition are. They are all random and anonymous people. So, no one will suspect us.”

“What if something happens to her? they have all seen our faces and…”

“Do you really think these people can ever reach us? And also, who is even ever coming back to this s**t hole. The first and the most important thing for us to do is to get her to Nicholas and make that fucker eat her pasta and after that, either she comes back or we offer her a job as a chef. It’s a win win! She will stay harmless and unharmed. So, relax and let me deal with things.”

“Why not offer her a job here?” Gigi argued.

“Because there are chances that she might refuse. She has magic in her hands and do you think we are the only ones who had ever tasted her food and known that she has cooked it? No! there has to be some reason for which she is still struggling as a waitress. Let’s just take her with us for now and later on, once we know what Nicholas wants to do with the stupid pasta, we will then decide what we are going to do with her.”

As Salva ended up calming Gigi’s concerns down, or at least that was what he made himself think, Althea stepped out of the kitchen and finally approached the two.

“So, made a decision yet?”

Althea nodded at Salva’s question.

“Yes! I have! I have decided what I am going to do with your offer.”

-------------------------------------------

What do you think Althea would do with the offer?

Thank you for always reading and supporting my work <3