The Little Paris Patisserie

by Julie Caplin

  Finally, Roger departed when a large party came into the restaurant and took up residence at one of the large round tables at the back of the room.

  ‘Sorry about that,’ said Sebastian, reaching for his glass and swirling around the rich dark wine which Roger had insisted on them having on the house. ‘We tend to get a bit carried away when we’re together.’

  ‘If I get to drink wine like this,’ she said, taking an appreciative sniff, ‘I don’t mind at all.’

  Sebastian paused and put down his glass. ‘That’s what I’ve always liked about you, Nina. You’ve always been very patient and understanding. Too much sometimes. Your brothers took advantage on occasion, it used to wind me up.’

  And there it was, another one of those memories creeping through the cracks. Sebastian being her hero. Giving her a lift home because Nick had forgotten. Telling Nick off when he’d made her wait for fifty minutes before he took her to her friend’s while he finished a game on the Xbox. Living in the middle of nowhere had its downsides until you learned to drive. Now would have been the perfect time to make her confession but…

  ‘Katrin would have been a bit put out at me ignoring her for—’ he flicked his wrist to take a look at his watch ‘—ouch, sorry, twenty minutes.’

  Nina tensed at the mention of the sophisticated French woman. Would have? Was that past tense? Or just a figure of speech.

  ‘You weren’t ignoring me, you were just distracted and to be honest it was…’ Nina paused, sliding her hands under her thighs again. ‘It was good to see. You’ve always been so passionate about food. You inspired me. I’ve not seen that for a while.’

  Sebastian gave a shrug, a touch defensively she thought.

  ‘So how many restaurants do you own?’

  With a rueful laugh, he shook his head. ‘I don’t own any outright, I have quite a few investors. In fact, Roger and Alex have invested in my two new ones in Paris, both of which are on track to open next month and then the bistro a month later, once I get the contractors in after the patisserie is closed. And then there are four in the UK, with British investors, in Oxford, Stratford, Towcester and Olney. They’re all ticking along quite nicely which is why I decided to branch out.’

  ‘Because you didn’t have enough on your plate?’

  Sebastian winced. ‘There is that.’

  ‘So what drives you?’ Nina was amazed that she’d dared ask the question. But she was intrigued. He never seemed satisfied with what he’d achieved. Even Nick had been surprised that he’d moved to Paris.

  Sebastian glanced back down at the menu, his mouth firming. ‘I guess building a business. Being a chef isn’t enough. You’ve got to strive for more.’

  ‘But isn’t being a chef what you wanted?’

  ‘Of course I did, but… My dad was a banker in the city. Being a chef was a luxury, but it’s not really enough. You should own your own restaurant. The business side of things is equally important.’

  They were interrupted by the waiter bringing a dessert menu and asking if they wanted coffee.

  ‘Thanks for this, Nina,’ said Sebastian quietly at her side, catching her rubbing at her sore biceps at the end of the meal as the final coffee cups were cleared away. ‘I do appreciate you bringing the wheelchair over, it was thoughtful and it’s been great to get out. I really didn’t expect you to give up a whole day for me.’

  ‘It’s fine, and … don’t repeat this, but it’s much more fun seeing Paris with someone else.’

  ‘Ah, got fed up with the wanting to be alone campaign.’

  ‘No, not at all. It’s not that I want to be alone. I want to be independent and not have someone worrying or chipping in with their opinion every five minutes. But even that’s too much to ask.’ She picked up her phone and showed him her WhatsApp feed.

  ‘Ouch.’ He bit back a smile. ‘I used to envy your family. Everyone looking out for each other, but this … I can see it might get a bit much sometimes. Hell, are these all today’s?’ He scrolled through the chat. ‘That’s mad.’

  There were messages from every member of the family.

  ‘Yup. And if I don’t check in, like once an hour, I start getting texts as well.’

  ‘I guess it shows they care.’

  ‘It does but…’ She sighed. ‘But it feels like I can’t ever escape.’

  ‘You could not answer.’

  ‘Tried that.’

  ‘I know.’

  She shot him a look so he elaborated on his admission. ‘Last Tuesday. I started getting anxious texts from them.’

  ‘Oh, for fu – Pete’s sake.’

  ‘Nina Hadley, you weren’t about to swear then?’

  ‘Yes, I bloody was. Honestly, you are as bad as my brothers. They have this view of me being a perfect doll that needs to be looked after.’

  ‘I could have a word.’

  ‘Yes, you could and then that would be someone else looking out for me.’

  ‘Only trying to help. You do it then.’

  She sighed. ‘I can’t, I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.’

  ‘Well, you can’t have it both ways. At some point, if it bothers you that much you are going to have to do something about it.’

  ‘Thank you, Einstein. What do you think coming out here was about?’

  He grinned cheerfully. ‘I thought you were rushing to my rescue. Couldn’t resist my charms.’

  She stiffened and clenched her fingers under her thighs. This was it. The chance to clear the air and finally move on from what happened ten years ago. ‘Sebastian, at eighteen I imagined myself madly in love with you because you were nicer to me than my brothers. I realise now it was a crush. I hate to tell you this but you are definitely not my type. And I’m sorry I kissed you, it was a silly, rash thing to do and didn’t mean anything. Teenage hormones going a bit doolally and I’m embarrassed by it now and I embarrassed you. So, I’m sorry but I don’t … you know… and as soon as you’d gone, I fell in love with another boy. That’s what girls that age do.’ She forced out a self-deprecating laugh. ‘God, it must have looked so stupid to you. This silly little girl trying to kiss you. You must have had quite a laugh about it later. Anyway, that’s all water under the bridge. Rather apt after our boat trip, don’t you think?’ She could feel herself getting pinker and pinker, and her cheeks hurting with the forced smile on her face. It all just came out at once and she couldn’t stop herself. She could read sympathetic concern in his face which was the last thing she wanted and in panic, she blurted out, ‘I really don’t fancy you anymore. I don’t even find you very good looking or anything…’ Her voice trailed away. His face changed.

  ‘Good to know,’ he said, dismissively. ‘It’s not every day I get told that.’

  ‘Ouch, sorry that came out wrong but you know what I mean, you’re not my type. I’m sure there are some women who would find you, you know, good – er – a – attractive … but not me. Not that you aren’t but…’ Why couldn’t she just shut up? ‘I just wanted to set the record straight, you know, so there’s no awkwardness between us anymore.’

  ‘Well. That’s quite a speech.’ He didn’t look amused, which was what he was supposed to do. ‘And for the record, I didn’t laugh about it.’

  He picked up his phone and started checking his emails.

  That was it? She’d just laid herself bare with the most embarrassing moment of her life and he was reading his emails?

  ‘Damn. Will you excuse me for a minute? I need to make a couple of calls. It looks like the flooring contractors have delivered the wrong tiles.’

  Nina stared down at the pristine white tablecloth, grateful for his absorption in a conversation about grouting and square metres. The thudding pain in her chest felt as if it had been hollowed out by an ice cream scoop. Unrequited love was a stinker. It felt even worse now, to know that the moment, so indelibly printed on her mind, had meant nothing to him. If ever she knew that her misplaced love was of absolutely no interest to him, it was now. Disi
nterest was written across his face, and in the way he didn’t even acknowledge what had happened and how casually he switched back to his work. What had she been thinking coming out here? She was as much in love with the stupid bastard as ever. So much for all her bravado. Nina had never felt so deflated.

  Chapter 24

  ‘Oh God, they look terrible.’ Maddie poked at the sticky crumbling mess which was a disgusting shade of puce. ‘Truly, truly awful.’ Nina could see her biting her lip trying to hold back the laughter.

  ‘Thanks,’ said Nina, with a wobble in her voice, tempted to point out that Maddie wasn’t looking brilliant, what with the big blue streak of paint down her face and the bright yellow dot on her nose, but as she was working on touching up the mermaid, it would have been a bit mean.

  But it was hard to see the funny side of things when you’d just wasted nearly a dozen eggs and a ton of sugar and all you had in return were five cooling racks worth of sugary splodges. They looked nothing like Sebastian’s perfectly risen circular macarons. Nina pursed her lips as Maddie nudged her, her eyes twinkling in amusement and then conceded, ‘Yes, alright, they look terrible.’ She smiled. ‘How come they don’t even look vaguely pink, I put enough food colouring in to sink a small fleet of ships.’

  ‘They look puke-coloured,’ said Maddie, with a twinkle, as she attempted to peel off a piece of macaron that was firmly welded to the baking paper. They were so sticky she had to spend a minute picking off bits of paper that stuck to her fingers before she was able to pop it into her mouth. ‘Mmm, they taste good.’

  ‘If you could get them off the paper.’

  ‘Yeah, there is that. They have definite superglue properties.’ She chewed manfully, picking at her back teeth with her fingers.

  ‘I don’t know what I did wrong. Maybe tripling the recipe wasn’t such a good idea. But if we did the small batches we’d be here for ever.’ She sighed. ‘Sebastian made it look so easy. Same with the spun sugar lesson.’

  ‘Which was a complete nightmare, I was still finding strands of caramel in my hair yesterday. I’m not sure I’m ever going to get the hang of this cooking malarkey,’ said Maddie before adding with a huge grin, ‘but I’m having so much fun.’

  ‘I wish I was,’ said Nina gloomily. ‘What am I going to do? Marcel’s relying on me today.’

  ‘Better stick to éclairs,’ said Maddie, practical as ever. ‘You’re ruddy brilliant at those.’

  ‘I can’t keep making nothing but éclairs forever.’

  ‘Marcel won’t mind, not really. He’s just delighted that he has fresh goods to sell. I think he’s mortally embarrassed by the bought in ones. He can barely look the delivery driver in the eye.’

  ‘Well, he needs to get over that, besides it’s not for that much longer,’ said Nina, immediately regretting saying it. The poor man was about to lose his job. ‘And making éclairs is not exactly expanding my repertoire.’

  ‘Yes, but the customers love them. Especially the chocolate and hazelnut combo.’

  ‘They were rather good, weren’t they?’

  ‘Good, they were pure heaven.’ Maddie smacked her lips.

  ‘That reminds me, what do you think about coffee and walnut flavoured ones? Like coffee and walnut cake at home.’

  ‘Genius! What a brilliant idea. See, you can make éclairs forever.’

  Nina rolled her eyes.

  ‘No seriously, it’s a British twist on a traditional French favourite. Anglo-French fusion. You could market that.’

  ‘Anglo-French fusion,’ Nina laughed. ‘I think the French might be horrified at that concept and I don’t need to market anything. I’m just practising my skills while I’ve got the opportunity and a commercial kitchen, and Marcel is taking shameless advantage. I can’t believe he cancelled today’s delivery.’

  She turned to Maddie with sudden horror, realising that the cabinets in the patisserie were virtually empty. ‘I need to come up with something else, quickly.’

  Nina started gathering together the ingredients to make fillings for the éclair shells which were already made. She’d got it down to a fine art, making a big batch of choux pastry and baking enough that could be kept for a couple of days before filling. But she’d been doing it on an ad hoc basis to please Marcel rather than as a serious supplier – she was thrown now he’d cancelled the order. How on earth was she going to fill the gap? At home she’d knock up a quick batch of scones, some shortbread and a Victoria sponge, all of which she could do in her sleep. Traditionalist Marcel would have a fit if she tried to palm those off on him.

  She stopped for a moment and turned to Maddie. ‘Anglo-French fusion. I think I’ve got an idea. It’s not proper patisserie but…’ The more she thought about it the more she liked the idea, if she could pull it off.

  ‘When I went to Ladurée, there was this amazing cheesecake, but it was a modern twist. Really clever. Maybe I could do a patisserie twist on an old faithful that I do at home.’

  Maddie looked very interested and hopped up on one of the benches, her eyes beady and head cocked like an impatient robin. ‘Spill.’

  Nina winced. The idea was a little too new to share yet. It could be a complete disaster but Maddie looked so bright eyed and enthusiastic it was difficult to resist.

  ‘I was thinking of a twist on millionaire’s shortbread. I’m copying the idea of the cheesecake base, where the base was biscuit crumbs but really lovely buttery ones. So I thought I’d make up a batch of very fine shortbread, I’ve got a brilliant recipe I use, then crumble it up and combine with more butter to make the base, then put a thin layer of salted caramel on top of the shortbread base and then a thick layer of chocolate mousse on top of that, topped with a very fine layer of crisp chocolate, dusted with a few flecks of gold leaf.’

  ‘Oooh scrummy scrummy. I adore millionaire’s shortbread and that sounds amazing.’

  ‘Yes, but whether I can make it and it all stays together is another matter.’

  ‘Let’s bin these bad boys and get started,’ said Maddie, jumping off the counter.

  ‘What, now?’ Nina looked around at the messy kitchen.

  ‘I’ll get started on the washing up and you can knock up the éclairs so Marcel’s got something to start with, and then we make your multi-millionaire’s shortbread. I can’t wait to try it.’ Maddie was already picking up the trays of deflated macarons and sliding the baking sheets into the bin.

  ‘You don’t have to help,’ said Nina. ‘Shouldn’t you be studying or something?’

  ‘Or something,’ said Maddie with a mischievous grin. ‘I’ve an essay to do but I’m a last-minute merchant. I’ve got a week to get it done. I’d far rather be doing this. Plus I get fed which is always a bonus.’

  ‘You look like you know what you’re doing,’ observed Maddie from her spot at the sink, taking surreptitious licks of the caramel pan. ‘This is delicious.’

  ‘And you’re going to make yourself sick,’ said Nina with a laugh. ‘God, I sound like my mother.’

  ‘I don’t care,’ said Maddie with a grin taking another swipe at the pan with her finger. ‘And I sound like my younger brother, when I used to nag him. I don’t miss that. Being the responsible one all the time. Even though I miss them all like crazy. Thanks for letting me help.’

  Nina couldn’t help laughing. ‘You mean I had a choice?’

  ‘Not really, no,’ said Maddie complacently. ‘But you do look different.’

  ‘How?’ asked Nina, wrinkling her nose as she tried to concentrate on spreading a layer of caramel on the shortbread biscuit base. She’d decided to make them in the small metal rounds she’d found in one of the drawers at the back of the room, so that they looked daintier and more like patisserie.

  ‘You’re more decisive and confident.’

  ‘I guess it’s because I know what I’m doing. What the consistency of each thing should look like. I make this kind of stuff all the time at home. It’s almost second nature. And Sebastian’s not here.’
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  ‘Ah,’ said Maddie.

  ‘He makes me nervous because he’s the professional.’

  ‘He makes me nervous because he’s so damn good looking. My hormones get all a bit giddy looking at him.’

  ‘They need to get a grip then,’ said Nina with a sudden snigger at the memory of her conversation with him at lunch yesterday. After he’d finished his call, he’d promptly called a cab to take them back to the hotel, the wheelchair bundled in the boot, the laughter of their day together forgotten, and he’d spent most of the journey on his phone.

  She began to giggle. ‘I’ve just re – remembered…’ She held back a snort, her hand over her face. ‘I – I to – told him…’ She tried to breathe in but laughed again.

  Maddie looked at her impatiently, taking one last lick of the finger she’d been using to swipe around the pan.

  ‘I t – told him…’ It was no good, she held her stomach.

  ‘Do you know how irritating you are?’ asked Maddie, rolling her eyes as Nina carried on giggling and clutching her stomach.

  ‘S – sorry,’ gasped Nina. ‘It’s really not that f – funny.’

  ‘I dread to think what you’d be like if it was funny,’ said Maddie, laughing as she crossed to the sink to start running the water.

  Nina took a breath and started rounding up the dirty utensils. ‘I told Sebastian he wasn’t very good looking.’

  Maddie’s mouth crumpled as she tried to keep a straight face. ‘Seriously?’

  Nina, clutching a chocolatey whisk and a handful of sugar-covered wooden spoons, nodded, her face almost aching as she tried to keep it perfectly straight.

  They both burst out laughing.

  ‘And what? This just came up in conversation? I mean, I’m sorry but how do you tell someone they’re not good looking?’ Maddie put on a silly high-pitched voice as she plunged her hands into the hot soapy water. ‘Hey Sebastian, did you know you’re not very good looking?’