Page 18 of The Signature Dish of the Underworld

“STOP calling me that!”

Now people were looking.

Garth cocked his head at her. “I still don’t understand why you’re upset.”

Rae nudged her chair back. “No, well, Mr-wins-this-every-century, you wouldn’t. Excuse me.”

She rose from her chair and walked towards the bathroom, barely managing to keep one foot in front of the other.

CHAPTER EIGHT: Early morning markets

Each step caused another tear to fall. Rae blinked rapidly in an effort to keep them at bay as best she could until she was in the bathroom stall, all alone.

There, she collapsed onto the toilet lid and wept.

Garth was going to win the cook-off. Again. There was no doubt about it, that dish was the best thing she’d ever eatenandit was the cleverest homage to Persephone that anyone could have come up with while staying on the brief. As much as she wanted to say that Garth had sabotaged her cook-off efforts, she knew that was a lie. Never could she have hoped to pull something like his dish off.

So why had the apple made her feel like she could win?

That was the real kicker. She’d been so sure that this time she hadit. If she hadn’t been so foolish as to test the apple essence out on Garth, to make sure it worked, he wouldn’t have got the idea to create that sauce. Because it was that sauce that pulled it all together. The individual components were amazing in their own right, but it was that piece of magic that had really sealed the deal, as well as the flavour in. No pun intended.

Perhaps Rae had been lying to herself all along. Perhaps she had convinced herself of something, and used the juice from the apple as an excuse. An excuse to justify herself not workingharder,smarter. Losing,once again.

Eventually, she managed to concede to herself that sitting on the toilet seat wasn’t going to change that. Garth was going to win this century's festival, and she was going to have to spend another hundred years scraping by working for Geras. She could either mope about it or just crack on with it.

She chose the latter.

Wiping her face clear of snot and tears, Rae exited the stall and splashed her face with ice cold water from the taps that sung as they let the water run through them. When the splotches on her skin returned to their normal pale colour, and Rae was confident no one would be able to tell she’d been crying, she turned the taps off and headed back out to the restaurant.

Her table had been cleared, and her jacket was no longer hanging over the back of her chair. Turning towards the bar, she caught Savvas’ eye. In return, he gave her a look that was both sad and expectant.

“Nika put your coat away. You’ll have to go and find her for it.”

Rae nodded, for some reason feeling chastised. “Thanks.”

She wandered about the sections of the restaurant, checked the area where deities dragged on fire sticks outside, before figuring Nika must be in the staff section. She was about to enter through the staff entrance when she heard raised voices.

“You can’t forfeit the competition!” That sounded like Nika’s voice, Rae was fairly certain of it.

“I can and I will.” That was definitely Garth’s.

“What, for her? You just want to hand it all over toher? After everything all of us have stuck with you for. Why, Garth? Tell me why,” Nika demanded.

“Because she deserves it.”

“She deserves it?” Nika laughed, but it was a cold sound. “You’ve basically given her a free pass to come and join the team, and now you’re going to let her win the cook-off. You know how hard all of us work to make sure that you win that every time. You know why wehaveto. You’re willing to throw all that away, throw all of the team’s hard work away, because she … deserves it? Or because you want to sleep with your little Rae of sunshine?”

Rae’s eyes bulged wide. Slamming herself against the outside wall of the restaurant, she continued eavesdropping, trying to keep her laboured breathing as quiet as possible, even though she was freezing without her jacket.

“You’ll watch the way you speak to me, Nika. This is still my restaurant. It’s my call. I’ve made my decision.”

“You’ll ruin us, for her.”

“We’ll find a way through this, we always do.”

“Not this time, Garth. This time you’re about to spit in our faces and ask us to smile while you do so.”

“I’ve helped each and every one of you when you asked me. Now, there’s a talented Arae out there who is barely getting by, who deserves a break like the rest of us got, and I’m damn well going to make sure she gets it. Surely, you of all deities should understand that, Nika.”

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