Page 19 of Sensuous

“You okay? You look upset about something,” she says quietly as she makes her way over to me.

“I’m fine,” I lie, shaking my head as an added way to convince her she’s wrong.

But she’s not believing me. I am upset. The mere thought of being forced to fight with her to win this competition makes me unhappy, and that little talk Alex and I had out in the hall did nothing to make me feel better about things with him.

“Are you ready to make some cooking magic happen?” she says with a giggle. “That’s what the producers on the last show I was on used to say.”

Her kindness and attempt to cheer me up make me smile. “Sounds pretty hokey, but right now, hokey might be nice. As for magic, I guess we’ll see what they have us do today.”

Emma starts to say something about some recipe she tried last night for dinner when across the room Angus barks in his Scottish accent, “Who the fuck has been messing around with my things? One of my fucking knives is missing!”

I turn to look at Emma and see the same horror on her face that I’m feeling at this moment. Touching a chef’s knives is a definite no-no. Anyone who’s worked for even a single day in a restaurant kitchen knows that.

“Oh my God! Who would do that?” she whispers to me as we inch closer to where everyone has gathered around Angus.

“I don’t know, but that’s the first thing you learn when you start cooking in a restaurant—no touching other chef’s knives,”I say as I scan the room to see if I can find anyone with a guilty expression.

Nobody looks the least bit guilty, but then I look over at Alex and see he hasn’t made a move to join the rest of us near Angus. How odd. It’s like he doesn’t give a damn that someone did this to a contestant.

Maybe it was him. That would explain why he looks so disinterested.

Angus stomps around looking for his missing knife near his station, his face growing angrier and redder by the moment. “Whoever it is, give it back right now, or I swear I won’t be responsible for what happens if you don’t. Fucking around with my knives tells me you’re not a goddamned professional. That’s for sure.”

Shane rushes over to help him, followed by Maria who looks utterly terrified right now. “I’m sure it’s here somewhere,” he says to her as they help Angus search.

“It shouldn’t be anywhere but where I fucking left it!” Angus yells. “If this is how things are going to be on this show, then the gloves are coming off this guy. I promise you that isn’t what you want. None of you!”

“Maybe someone came in here overnight to clean or something,” Michaela, the contestant who’s originally from some tiny town in Idaho, suggests. “Are there cleaning people who do that each night?”

The two producers lift their heads from looking under the counter where Angus’s station is to shake their heads. “We told everyone involved not to come onto this set until the show begins,” Maria says. “There shouldn’t have been anyone here after we left yesterday.”

“Then it’s one of them!” Angus shouts angrily at the rest of us.

Shane and Maria wanted conflict. Well, it looks like they got it. I’m just not sure they were looking for it to be so full of rage too.

CHAPTER NINE

Kat

Emma steps closeto me and says in my ear, “This isn’t great, Kat. It’s one thing to have drama for the audience, but we haven’t even begun filming yet.”

As we watch the three of them frantically search for the missing knife, I whisper, “Nobody looks guilty, so do you think it’s possible it could be one of us? Everyone looks as upset as we are. Well, everyone but Alex over there. Look at him. He looks like he can’t even hear Angus freaking out.”

We both turn our attention to where Alex stands setting up his area like he’s blissfully unaware anything is happening that would make him focus anywhere but on his own damn business. How is it no one else dislikes this guy?

“I don’t think it’s him,” she says, disappointing me. “I know you don’t like him, but I don’t get a cutthroat vibe from him. Honestly, I get a laid back, no fucks given feel from him.”

“Exactly! It’s the perfect way to hide that he’s a thief.”

Just then, Shane calls out, “Found it! It was over near where we were talking to Kat at the end of the day yesterday.”

I watch in horror as everyone turns to look at me like the mere mention of my name means I had something to do with Angus’s knife going missing. He doesn’t wait a moment before asking point blank, “Did you take my knife?”

Shaking my head, I try to keep calm and not lash out, but suddenly, defensiveness fills me. “No. I wouldn’t do that. I’m a professional. I’d never touch another chef’s knives.”

Maria quickly comes to my rescue. “No, no. Kat left before Shane and I did last night, and we locked up on our way out.”

Angus grumbles something, and all I can think is everyone here hates me now. I so hoped today would be the start of better things.

---