The Little Paris Patisserie

by Julie Caplin

  Sod’s law, he had to bend down, pick them up and hand them to her as she blushed like a sunburned tomato.

  ‘Merci,’ she stuttered trying to give him an insouciant smile, taking them calmly from him as if this sort of thing happened to her all the time and it really was nothing and she wasn’t the least bit fazed by it or dying slowly inside.

  With a charming smile, he nodded, said something in rapid indistinguishable French and walked away, stepping around a pair of boxers.

  Aware that she’d become a bit of a spectacle in the busy lobby, not that anyone was rushing forward to help, she hurriedly snatched the scattered clothes and rammed them back into the case any old how, closed it and, smoothing her hair, she crossed to the front desk. Sebastian had told her to ask for him at the front desk so that they could give her a key for his room.

  Goodness only knows what everyone thought she was doing with a suitcase of condoms and men’s clothing. The receptionist gave her a decidedly glacial look. Everyone probably thought she was a call girl, which was almost correct as for the next few weeks she was going to be Sebastian’s beck-and-call girl.

  Chapter 4

  Sebastian was on the ninth floor and his room, rather practically, was right next door to the lift. She knocked loudly with several firm raps before inserting the key card into the slot. Three attempts later the little light finally turned green and she pushed open the door, her heart thumping so hard that she could almost feel her ribs rattling. Which was ridiculous.

  ‘Nina?’ His voice called from beyond another door in the short gloomy corridor.

  ‘Yes, its me.’ Her voice sounded thin and reedy. She took a deep breath. It was ten years ago. They were both older and wiser.

  ‘You’re late.’

  Sighing, Nina nibbled at her lip and pushed open the internal door.

  She didn’t see him at first and took a minute to stare around at the rather grand surroundings. It was cowardly, she knew, but her legs had gone all wobbly, not unlike one of the newborn calves on the farm. A wave of homesickness grabbed at her and a longing to turn the clock back to a time when Sebastian was her brother’s best friend.

  ‘Yes, it’s a suite,’ Sebastian’s dry voice came from the sofa in front of her, where his head poked above the back.

  This wasn’t at all how she’d imagined their first conversation would go, but then she’d had trouble imagining how it would go at all.

  ‘It certainly is,’ she said, taking refuge in the grandeur of the room rather than meeting Sebastian’s narrow-eyed gaze.

  It was palatial, double the size of her little flat at home, with two sofas opposite each other, a series of French windows opening onto three balconies and a monster TV screen. Antique-y looking furniture lined the walls on either side with two double doors opening onto what she guessed were bedrooms. ‘All this just for you.’

  ‘I have handy friends,’ said Sebastian, his voice scratchy and cross. ‘And it was the closest to the lift.’ She finally looked down at where he lay on the sofa, propped up against the arm with a pile of pillows, the offensively, bright blue cast clashing horribly with the pale lemon of the silk damask cushions.

  ‘You loo…’ She stopped herself in time. Telling him he looked terrible probably wasn’t going to go down well. Inside, some less than charitable little minx shouted, Yay! Sebastian Finlay looks horrible. Skanky. Yukky. Totally unfancyable. His skin had a grey pallor and his hair was greasy and yes, yuk, slicked to his scalp. Purple shadows underscored his eyes and his chin was dotted with several days of stubble. The white T-shirt he wore looked grimy and he was in his pants. Sebastian in his pants. Her mouth twitched. She wanted to do one of those victory dances footballers do when they run around the pitch with their shirts over their heads.

  ‘Thanks,’ he said, dryly second guessing the rest of her sentence. ‘Excuse me if I don’t get up.’

  ‘Looks … uncomfortable,’ she said suddenly realising that she wasn’t behaving normally at all and trying not to look at the top of the cast where it met his pants. What was wrong with her, for goodness’ sake.

  His mouth thinned but he didn’t acknowledge her comment. ‘I, erm … your stuff. I brought it. Where do you want me to put your case?’

  Sebastian closed his eyes as if summoning up some patience and then glanced down at his leg.

  ‘Sorry, you need me to unpack it for you,’ said Nina

  ‘It would help,’ he said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. ‘Did you bring my laptop? Phone charger? Can I have those first?’

  Nina brought the case over to the second sofa and opened it up.

  ‘Jeez, Nina.’ Sebastian scowled. ‘Why did you stuff everything in there? Those shirts were freshly ironed. They look like they’ve been used to wipe the floor.’

  He had a point, and they sort of had but before she could apologise or explain, he carried on, ‘If you’re going to throw a temper tantrum every time I ask you to do something you don’t want to do, this isn’t going to work. I need someone to help me, not a spoilt prima donna who throws her toys out of the pram when things don’t go her way. I knew this was a mistake.’ He threw his arm over his face.

  Nina whirled round, feeling her nose flaring. Possibly her most unattractive trait, but it only ever happened when she was really cross. And now she was really, really cross.

  ‘I appreciate you don’t have a particularly high opinion of me, Mr She’s-the-last-person-I’d-want-to-help but I’m not that petty. I didn’t do it on purpose. The stupid case just popped open by itself.’

  ‘One, you weren’t supposed to hear that comment and I’m sorry, it wasn’t terribly tactful. And two, yes that case does that,’ he bit out, ‘which is why I specifically told you to bring the holdall.’

  ‘So because I wasn’t supposed to hear that comment, it makes it alright?’ said Nina through pinched lips. ‘And two, I’m not sure you were that specific.’

  ‘How much more specific do you need than, make sure you bring the leather holdall on top of the wardrobe? The one with—’ His face tightened and his eyes narrowed. ‘Nina. This is never going to work. You might as well pack your bags and go back home.’

  For a minute she stood, clenching her hands into fists feeling wrong-footed and foolish. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. This was supposed to be her showing everyone that she could stand on her own two feet.

  ‘Look, I’m sorry. It’s my first day here. I was rushing. I can take your shirts back and wash them. It’s not the end of the world.’

  ‘No, it’s not,’ he agreed with a wince. ‘It’s inconvenient. It means I have to get housekeeping to do them for me and I’m already pushing it on the favours front with my mate Alex, who’s the general manager here.’

  ‘He must be a really good friend. This looks expensive.’

  ‘Like I said, he’s doing me a favour. He keeps an eye on me, otherwise I’d still be in hospital, so I don’t like to take advantage. He’s a busy guy, with this place to run. I told him the cavalry was on its way, which is why I was keen for you to get here.’ He looked pointedly at his watch.

  ‘I’m sorry. Have you been on your own all day?’ Now she felt bad. ‘When was the last time you had anything to eat or drink?’

  ‘Last night,’ he said curtly. ‘But it’s fine, it’s a hassle to pee.’

  Ah, so that explained his surliness. That, Nina, could cope with. She knew what hangry men were like.

  ‘Information I could do without,’ said Nina crisply. ‘However, you probably need to eat something to keep up your strength.’

  She picked up the room service menu. ‘What do you fancy?’

  ‘Surprise me. I don’t really care. I’m bored with hotel food.’ His listless sigh made her stop and study him more carefully. He didn’t look great at all.

  She sat down on the sofa opposite with the menu in her hand and even at that distance there was a distinct whiff of unwashed male. A part of her could have revelled in seeing Sebastian at such a disadva
ntage for once in her life, but the good part overruled all the petty, stored-up grudge-y stuff.

  ‘You need to eat,’ she said, softening her voice. ‘I know you probably don’t feel like it and I’m hardly medically trained, but I do think it will help. How about an onion soup? That’s quite light.’

  ‘I don’t need a nursemaid,’ he snapped, the listless droop vanishing in seconds. ‘I need some practical help. I’m not that hungry but you can order some food although it would be more helpful if you could unpack my stuff for me.’

  ‘Wow, these look great,’ said Nina studying the mood boards propped up on two flip chart stands, relieved to find an impersonal opening topic. She’d unpacked Sebastian’s clothing as quickly as she could, hanging up the crumpled shirts and hoping the creases might drop a little.

  She looked closer at the various designs for restaurant interiors.

  ‘The first two are coming along.’ Sebastian scowled. ‘Although, we still haven’t quite got it right for the bistro I’m putting into the patisserie site.’

  ‘It all looks very chic and trendy.’ Not quite her cup of tea but judging from the success of his restaurants in England, Sebastian knew what he was doing.

  ‘That’s the plan.’

  Nina nodded and was relieved to hear the knock at the door announcing room service.

  Taking the tray from the waiter, she awkwardly realised she needed to tip him when he loitered for a second. Dumping the tray on the coffee table she got out her bag and fished out a couple of euros handing them to him. When she turned around Sebastian was wriggling like a worm on a hook, trying to reach the tray but unfortunately he had slid too far down the cushions to get enough purchase to push himself up again.

  ‘Here, let me,’ she said unable to bear watching him struggling any longer.

  ‘I told you, I don’t need any help,’ he said, swiping at the sheen of sweat on his forehead.

  She ignored him and went around the sofa and hooked her arms underneath his and around his chest to help him sit upright again. As soon as she touched him, her heart bounced uncomfortably in her chest as a flood of memories collided in her head, leaving her with a familiar sense of inevitability. It seemed as if Sebastian still had the physical power to affect her. She gritted her teeth. In future she’d be sure to keep her distance.

  Despite his protestations that he wasn’t hungry, the soup disappeared pretty quickly. No sooner had he put the soup bowl aside, he picked up his laptop and the papers she’d brought.

  ‘Right. We might as well get started. Do you have pen and paper?’ he barked.

  ‘No, I arrived today. You said the job would be two days a week. The course doesn’t start until Wednesday. I thought you just wanted me to bring stuff over today.’

  His mouth snapped shut as if he’d thought better of what he was about to say.

  ‘Count this as the clock starting from now. Take one of those.’ He nodded at a foolscap pad. ‘There’s a lot to do before the course starts and unfortunately, I’ve been busy with the plans for the first two restaurants, so I hadn’t done anything before…’ He indicated the cast, his face signalling disgust. ‘You’re going to have start from scratch. It’s a seven-week course, which will be a full day every Wednesday but I’m going to need you to work the day before to get everything set up. Over the seven weeks we’ll look at different pastries and the techniques – except, I’m still thinking about the final day. I might do something a bit different then.’

  Nina scribbled notes frantically for the next half hour, her heart sinking. This wasn’t quite what she’d imagined. In her head she was the theatre nurse to a clever consultant, handing him his scalpel and suction at exactly the right moment, demonstrating how efficient and supportive she was while soaking up his brilliant skills. None of her daydreams involved the equivalent of prepping the patient, making beds, disinfecting the theatre or swabbing down the wards.

  ‘Hello, Nina. Are you listening?’

  Nodding fervently, she sat up straighter. Concentrate, Nina.

  ‘I’ll get my usual suppliers to deliver the fresh ingredients, eggs, butter and cream but there should be plenty of the basics – flour, icing sugar, caster sugar – in the kitchen already. You’ll need to get the more specialist items from a wholesaler I know. We won’t need them on the first day as we’ll be covering the basics. I’ll give you the account details. We’ll need things like rose petals, pure vanilla extract, crystalized violets, pistachio paste, freeze dried strawberry pieces and mango powder later on.’

  She perked up. This was more like it. The fun stuff. Baking for the farm shop wasn’t exactly challenging, she could rustle up a Victoria sponge or a coffee and walnut cake in her sleep. You could make some amazing things with the ingredients Sebastian had just listed.

  ‘Er, hello. You still with me?’ Sebastian’s irritated voice cut through her daydreams.

  ‘Sorry, it’s—’ she nibbled at her lip again ‘—patisserie dirty talk. I can’t wait to see what you do with all those ingredients.’ She’d watched the pastry chef at the restaurant for months, intrigued and delighted by her creations but too shy to ask too much about how they were made.

  ‘It’s like all these secret spells you have to master, you have to be a sorcerer with sugar, a wizard with chocolate and a magician with flavours and fillings.’

  ‘It’s just science,’ said Sebastian, his eyebrows drawing together in puzzlement.

  ‘No, it’s not,’ retorted Nina, at first thinking he was teasing for a minute, but his face was deadly serious. ‘It’s magic. Making wonderful special sweet potions of sugar and all things nice. Like baking alchemy, spinning sugar into edible loveliness.’

  ‘Still fanciful then, Nina,’ said Sebastian turning back to his laptop. ‘To be perfectly accurate, like with most cooking, patisserie is more about chemical reactions, where precise combinations of one or two substances react together to become another substance.’

  She stopped and stared at him. ‘But…’ At eighteen she’d been inspired by his passion, his descriptions of the food he wanted to cook and his pilgrimages to visit new suppliers in the search for those special and unique ingredients.

  ‘So what’s with the sudden interest in patisserie?’ he asked, his gaze sharpening.

  ‘I … want to learn how to make proper patisserie. I’ve been watching the pastry chef at work for a while and … well, she’s amazing and I love baking, so I thought—’

  ‘Nina.’ He shook his head with a rueful mocking laugh. ‘You’re living in cloud cuckoo land. Seven weeks here assisting me isn’t going to train you. It takes years to become a pastry chef. You have to train properly.’

  Nina felt the flush race along her cheekbones. ‘I realise that,’ she snapped back in a bid to hide the rush of mortification. ‘I’m not stupid. But I want to learn … and this is … a start.’

  ‘What? And you’re thinking about training? Or is that another…’

  Nina wanted to ask, another what, but she had a pretty good idea what he might say. It was alright for him, he’d always known what he wanted to do. He’d been driven from day one and had had to fight against parental disapproval to pursue his goal, whereas her parents were always supportive, no matter what she did – and she had to face it, she’d done quite a lot of things. She’d worked in a garden centre when she thought she might be a landscape gardener, applied to the bank when she thought she might try a serious career, helped out at the children’s nursery when she thought about being a teacher. It wasn’t that she wasn’t a hard worker or prepared to put in the effort, it was just that none of them ever quite turned out to be what she thought they would. But she really wanted to learn how to cook the amazing confections she’d seen Sukie making over the last year.

  ‘Right, we’d better get started. There’s a lot to do. I’ll give you a set of keys, although Marcel, the manager, will be there. He’s a miserable sod, so ignore him.’

  ‘I guess that’s because he’s about to lose his job
.’

  ‘Once the new bistro is opened, there’ll be work for him. I’ll need waiters. Right, if there’s anything missing or where there are particularly low supplies, you’ll have to go out and buy them. You can use the company credit card.’ He strained forward to reach a battered leather wallet on the table. ‘I’m still working on the set up lists and recipes, I’ll email them through to you. Check that the kitchen has all the right equipment and enough of everything for the three people on the course.’ He looked down at the notebook on his lap. ‘Anything missing, you’ll need to go out and buy it. Thank God, it’s only three of them. With any luck a couple will drop out and then I might be able to cancel the course. Here’s the basic shopping list.’

  She blinked at him. ‘You want me to go shopping?’

  ‘Is that going to be a problem?’

  ‘No, but there’s a lot more involved than I thought there would be.’ She bit her lip.

  ‘Say now if you think you’re not up to the job.’

  ‘Of course I am. I just didn’t realise there’d be so much to do.’

  ‘I’m not paying you to twiddle your thumbs. You wanted to come, it’s not going to be a picnic. I’ll expect you to work. And work hard.’

  She straightened and ignoring the flash of fury inside, she said calmly, ‘I’m not afraid of hard work.’

  ‘Excellent.’ ‘He wriggled again, poking a finger down the top of his cast before he checked his notes. ‘I think that’s everything, then. Although I will pay you an extra day this week as there is more to do than I’d originally anticipated to get started. It’s Thursday today. You’ve got four days to get yourself organised and set up. I’ll see you on Tuesday, we’ll go over to the patisserie and run through things ready for the course starting on Wednesday.’