CHAPTER EIGHT: Early morning markets

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 eaten and it 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 had it. 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 working harder, 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 to her? 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 we have to. 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.”

“You know what I understand, Garth? I understand the books. I look at them, just like you, every night when we close. I see how many tokens you send off to Zeus. Fifty percent of them! All because your stupid great-great grandfather agreed to that ridiculous libation tax with him! Who the hell agrees for libation power in exchange for fifty percent of their profits?! And don’t even get me started on the fact that Zeus never pays his bill when he’s down here. The cook-off token prize is the only thing that has kept this place afloat the last five centuries. You know it, I know it, the whole team knows it. It’s why we work so hard for you. You’re willing to throw all of that away, just for her to catch her break?”

“Yes, I am.”

Nika sighed. “You can’t help the poor by getting poorer, Garth.”

Before she could hear any more, Rae forced herself to head back inside and ask Tomas to fetch her jacket instead.

***

Rae wriggled around in an uncomfortable silver dress. The awards show envelope that had spat through her house door yesterday was welcome, it meant she was a finalist again, but she hadn’t realised until this moment that meant she had to go to the show and lose in public ... again.

When was enough going to be enough?

There was no way Garth had been serious about pulling out of the festival. Nika would have talked him out of it, Rae was sure of that.

“Can you believe we’re at another one of these things?” Geras said, interrupting Rae’s thoughts, as he handed her a glass of bubbly wine the colour of peaches. “Not that you ever win this silly little thing you insist on competing in anyway.”

“Can we just go in and get it over with?” Rae muttered, putting the untouched glass back on one of the moving side tables that was going around collecting and dispersing drinks.

“Come now, Sunshine. You should be celebrating! It’s an awards night!” Garth appeared in front of Rae and Geras, smiling that suave smile of his, his hair slicked back and a tux sharpening his look.

Rae was about to berate him – wondering where he’d come from and why he’d been eavesdropping – when another tall, white daemon schmuck waddled up to the group.

“Geras, of Geras’ Grub?”  he said.

“Yes,” Geras smiled, the smile taking up his whole face in a maniacal way.

“My name is Plutus, I’m an Olympic investor. If you and your—” a glance at Rae, “cook win tonight, I’d like to discuss making you an offer.” He handed Geras a card, a vigorous handshake passed between them, and that was that as Plutus wandered off to go schmooze another schmuck.

“Well then,” Garth clapped his hands. “Shall we head on in to the awards?”

Geras nodded, striding ahead of them. Garth went to follow, until Rae grabbed his elbow and tugged him back towards hers – hard.

“What the hell was that?”

“What the hell was what?” Garth feigned an innocent look.

“Why is an Olympic investor getting Geras’ hopes up?”

“Is he?” Garth raised an eyebrow at her. Then he placed his hand on the small of her back and nudged Rae into the awards show with him.

***

“And the winner is … Rae from Geras’ Grub!”

Rae barely remembered being pulled up from her seat by an ecstatic Geras. Or being pushed towards the stage by an over-enthusiastic Garth. She didn’t remember the judge handing a sack of tokens, so heavy it felt like a sack of potatoes, or the delight on Queen Persephone’s face when Hades presented her with Rae’s dish to try.

It all felt like a surreal, slow-motion, dream.

One which was announced in bold lettering across the top of the νέα the next morning: GERAS’ GRUB TAKES TOP SPOT IN Vraveío Astéri! There was a brief paragraph talking about the “smart hire” Geras had made in bringing Rae into the fold “to bake out back”, and how he had generously – out of the kindness of his heart and not his pocket – backed Rae to win every century.

The picture was one of Geras standing outside the bistro, arms raised triumphantly. Rae wondered when the photo had been taken. When had they come to talk to Geras?

Of course, there was also a paragraph dedicated to the dish that had won it all. Rather surprisingly, there was a sentence or two from Geras about how he had come up with the inspiration for the winning dish and, with the help of Rae, perfected it.

But there was no mention of the grand-champion daemon, or why he had chosen to pull out of the cook-off. It hadn’t even mentioned that he had pulled out of the cook-off.

“I see you went and won this thing!” Simon commented, as normal business resumed and Rae served him his morning kylix of coffee.

“It would seem so.” Rae offered him a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. The feeling of winning wasn’t what she had expected, Garth’s overheard confession from nights ago still sitting heavily on her conscience.

“They given you your prize tokens yet?”

Rae nodded.

“They’ve already spoken to Geras too, by the looks of things! I  mean I practically saw him skip out the building when I went by my walk earlier. I swear that old boss of yours looked like a frog, he was leaping so high!” Simon kept talking.

Rae couldn’t imagine Geras as anything but hunched over, but sure enough, an hour later when the door groaned open, he was practically skipping on long legs that seemed to have grown several inches overnight.

“You’re not going to believe it! That investor signed with me! ME!” Geras blurted out to no one in particular, as he headed to where Rae was pouring the cold coffee out of Ibrik to replace with a fresh batch.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me, Arae! Thanks to my ingenious bet on you, and that marketing with the interview in the νέα, the Olympic investor signed with me this morning!”

“As in, to franchise the place?”

“What?” Geras looked around at Simon, then the few other occupied tables, then back at Rae. “No! He bought me out! I’m free!! Can you believe it? With enough tokens to last me … well, I don’t know how long!”

“But, Geras, remember our original agreement? You said if I ever won, you would let me buy you out of this place and take it over,” Rae stressed, that heavy feeling on her chest suddenly coming back to settle like a doom cloud.

“Oh, poosh. Even with those winnings, you wouldn’t have been able to offer me as much as this fellow. Besides, now you can keep those winnings for yourself and still work here. I told them you would stay on.”

“You did?”

“Well, where else are you going to go? This place made you famous! You have a name for yourself. Now, people will actually want to come and see you. Buck up!” Geras boomed as heartily as he could, offering Rae a clap on her shoulder that had her bones shaking.

She was surprised at the strength of him.

“This is everything you’ve dreamed of.”

“Yeah,” Rae agreed softly.

Geras let out another whoop of delight, as he moved back around the counter. “I’ve got to get my things. Time to go off exploring, before my dreaded ex-wife comes and tries to score some of these investor tokens off me. If she comes looking, you tell her I no longer own this place and you have no idea where I’ve gone. You hear me?”

“Geras, I have no idea where you’re going or exactly what is going on right now.”

Geras chuckled. “Atta Arae.”

The door tinkled when he left.

“So?”

Rae looked at Simon, sitting under the domed window, at the table he sat at every morning at eleven. As he had been every day for the past five decades. “So?”

“What now?” he asked.

Rae sighed, flipping an unruly teatowel over her shoulder. “Now, we crack on with the lunchtime rush.”

***

Rae’s stomach growled the minute the last customer left the bistro.

Geras had decided to leave right before the height of the lunch rush, which meant she’d had another day where she’d been behind the tidal wave of customers. With Geras gone, and no sign of the Olympian investor yet, there was once again no one to help her.

Not that Geras had been much help anyway, she supposed.

Now … now she was so tired she could barely stand. Her feet ached and she felt faint as she went about cleaning the place down. The bistro helped as much as it could, knowing how exhausted she was, but Rae found herself missing the sentience of Garth’s cleaning equipment. In fact, she found herself resentful to even be in this position.

Who worked for something their whole lives, only to feel like a failure, a fraud, a cheat, when they got it?

Barely managing to drag her feet around, Rae somehow found it in her reserves to carry herself home, shut the door, and make it to her fridge. Where there was one of her golden apples waiting for her.

“I’m not sure I can face eating you right now.”

The fridge pushed the shelf out to greet her, the apple sliding with it.

“Alright, alright – I’ll eat.”

She took the apple, placed it on a small side plate, and stood in her small kitchen while she cracked the honeyed casing of the apple with the side of a teaspoon, and wondered what she was going to do with the winnings now that her plan for them had fallen through.

The crack of the golden edge was exactly how she wanted it, even if there was no warm honey casing. The goats cream was the perfect consistency. Rae moaned in agreement at her own flavour combinations before her pupils dilated as the final drop of Hesperides apple landed on her tongue.

And, right then and there, she knew why everything had unfolded as it had.

And, right then and there, came a knock on the door.

She  walked back out into her small hallway just as her house opened the door for her, to see Garth standing out in the rain, on the cobbled street under the awning of ash trees.

Rae stood there a moment, her mouth hanging open, a half-finished mouthful still in her mouth … just. She closed her mouth, swallowed, and tried to think of the words she wanted to say.

What she came up with was, “How did you know where I lived?”

“I’ve seen you walk back from the bistro once or twice,” Garth shrugged, a heavy droplet of water falling onto his face from the leaves above.

“You’ve been following me?”

“No, I was making sure you got home safe,” Garth scoffed. “Anyway, that doesn’t matter. I came to congratulate you on your big win, Sunshine.”

The vine gently took the plate and teaspoon away from Rae, which was when she began to wring her hands nervously. The vine gently pushed her toward the door.

Before she could get a word in, Garth continued. “Look, you won it fair and square. You were right, I should have done my original dish off its own merit, not used the influence of yours to change it. But you had to know – I need you to know – that I thought I was doing the right thing.”

Finally, Rae had the words. “Like you thought you were doing the right thing by pulling yourself from the cook-off so I could win?”

For the first time ever, Garth narrowed his eyes at her. “Who told you that?”

Rae shrugged. “I have my ways.”

Garth shook his head. “Nika,” he muttered under his breath, the wind nymphs barely carrying his words to Rae’s ears.

“It wasn’t her. I just … I know.”

“You … know.”

“I do. And I know you need the winnings to keep your place open. So I want you to take them.”

“I can’t take those from you.” Garth shook his head incredulously, causing his hair to fly around his head and water droplets to lash out, like a dog drying themselves off. “I won’t.”

“You didn’t let me finish. I want you to take them, and then I want to take you up on your job offer of the sous chef, too.”

“You … want the job? The sous chef job?!”

Rae smiled at him. “Yeah. My plan for what I was going to do with the winning tokens fell through, and I figure I may as well use the tokens to keep a place I actually want to work in open.”

“They’re your winnings. I can’t take them.”

“Well, if you don’t I’ll have to stay working at Geras’ Grub for some ruddy Olympian investor who probably doesn’t know the difference between a baster and a basting brush, so you may as well…”

“You’re hired,” Garth interrupted her.

Rae snapped her mouth shut then immediately opened it again.

“Wait … I am? And you’ll take the tokens? Hold on a minute, that was far too easy to get you to agree. What’s the catch? If you think-”

Garth grinned. “Get some sleep, Sunshine. You and I have an early morning at the markets.”

***

WANT MORE?

If you’d like to see Garth and Rae’s relationship develop or you’d like a peek into the life of a different character, leave a review here with what you wish to see in the underworld novellas … and influence what happens in the next instalment of the series!

Pre-order book two in The Underworld Novellas:

Taking Orders in the Underworld.

While you wait, visit: www.gwynethlesley.com for Rae’s secret cabinet food recipes that can all be made with some mortal adjustments!