Epilogue
Three months later…
A fter only ten minutes at work, Ivy put her head into the kitchen and caught Warren’s eye.
“Lewis wants to speak to you in the office,” she said.
“What for?” Warren called from the food storage.
“How would I know?”
“Why can’t he come in here and talk to me? And since when does he send you to fetch me?”
She shrugged. “He just said if I saw you, I should let you know he wants to speak to you.”
“That sounds ominous.”
A few minutes later, Warren knocked on the office door, then pushed it open.
“You were looking for me?” he said as he sank into the chair.
“Yeah.” Lewis’s eyes were on his computer screen while he scrolled with the mouse. “I received this letter this morning.” He paused in what he was doing and slid a single sheet of paper across the desk.
The company logo jumped out, but the rest of the words were a jumble that Warren’s brain couldn’t quite fathom.
“What is this?” he asked, his voice oddly croaky.
“An invitation to Michelin’s award ceremony.”
That’s what he thought he was looking at. His heart rate went through the roof. “Why are they inviting us to the awards?”
“The restaurant is being awarded a Michelin star.”
“Right.” He stared at the paper, still unable to get his brain to focus on the words. “Okay.”
“I know you always said you’re not driven by awards and accolades, and I’m actually starting to see why.”
“How do you mean?” he asked, his words sounding hollow.
“Someone from Michelin called me for a chat yesterday. Partly to warn me of what to expect when the new guide comes out next week, and it’s all official. He told me to be prepared that our online booking system is likely to go down due to too much traffic.”
“Really?” Warren asked dumbly.
“Yes. He was talking about how much busier we’ll be and how important it is not to let standards drop. Apparently, some restaurants don’t cope well with the boost in customers and the high expectations of those customers…”
Warren was barely listening. “We’re getting a Michelin star?”
“Yeah. And you know what I never really considered?”
“What?”
“Once you have a star, you have to make sure you don’t lose it. The inspectors will continue to visit to make sure we maintain standards. Imagine the disappointment of having a star taken away. That would be worse than never having one, wouldn’t it?”
Warren stared at him, not sure what he was babbling on about .
“A Michelin star?” Warren said again.
“Hard to take in, isn’t it?” Lewis said.
“Let it sink in and next week we’ll get together for a planning session of any changes we’ll need to make.
I’m thinking we’ll need to take on more staff, both in the kitchen and out front in the restaurant.
From now on, every meal coming out of that kitchen – be it breakfast, lunch or dinner – has to be of the absolute best quality.
That goes for your days off, too. Everyone needs to be at the top of their game. ”
“Of course.” He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times. “Who knows about this?”
“Just us. And Erin.”
“You haven’t told the rest of your family?”
“No. I didn’t know if you’d want to tell Anna yourself.”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t mind me telling the rest of the family?”
“No.”
“I thought we might hold off on telling the kitchen staff. Wait until the guide comes out, and it’s all official.”
“Sure. Whatever you want. We should celebrate, though. Maybe we can do something with the family this weekend? I can get Liam to take care of the kitchen.”
“That’s the other reason I don’t want to mention it to the rest of the staff yet. Erin and I are away in Madrid for the weekend.”
“Oh, yeah.” Warren shook his head – he knew about that.
“So we’ll tell the staff next week and then organise a proper celebration.
I don’t want to tell them and then fly off to Spain – I’ll look like a pretty crappy boss.
” He grimaced. “Sorry I can’t celebrate with you this weekend.
If it were anything else, I’d cancel, but we booked the trip ages ago and we’ve been looking forward to it. ”
“No worries.”
“I got you something,” Lewis said, reaching under his desk and producing a bottle–sized gift bag. “I know the star is awarded to the restaurant and not the chef, but it’s really down to you, and I want you to know how much I appreciate all your hard work and dedication.”
“Thanks,” Warren said, slipping the champagne out of the bag.
Maybe he had more in common with his dad than he liked to admit, because he couldn’t help but think that if Lewis truly appreciated him, he would have chosen a decent champagne and not a cheap supermarket brand.
“When do you leave for Madrid?”
“Tomorrow morning. I hope we get a bit of blue sky. I really need a break from all this grey and drizzle.”
Warren frowned. He’d just found out he was being awarded a Michelin star and Lewis was drivelling on about the weather. It all felt slightly surreal. “Yeah,” he muttered. “Have a good trip.”
“Thanks.”
In a daze, Warren headed back to the kitchen, then felt utterly lost. What was he supposed to do now? Just carry on with work as normal?
He stepped out of the back door intent on calling Anna, but was distracted by Lewis posting on the family messaging group. The picture of the letter from Michelin popped up, along with the caption, ‘Exciting news! Guess who’s getting a Michelin star?’
The flurry of replies made him smile.
He tried to ignore the niggling annoyance that Lewis hadn’t given him time to tell Anna himself.
His phone rang before he could think too much about it.
“Oh, my goodness!” Anna sounded slightly breathless. “How long have you known about this? Why didn’t you tell me yourself?”
“Good question. Apparently because your brother beat me to it. I only just found out. No one else knows. ”
“It’s so amazing! I’m not at all surprised, though. Haven’t I been saying all along that you’d get a star?”
He tried to contain his smile. “I think you should congratulate me, not say, ‘I told you so’.”
“Sorry!” She laughed loudly. “Congratulations! We need to celebrate. Let’s get everyone together over the weekend. Liam and the rest of the kitchen staff must be over the moon, too.”
“They don’t know yet. Lewis wants to wait and tell them next week. He’s off to Spain tomorrow.”
“Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. I’ll call Carla and my parents and we can do something with them at the weekend.”
“That sounds good.”
“Let’s have a drink tonight as well.”
“I have a really bad bottle of champagne we can drink.”
“A what?”
“Never mind.” He shook his head. “I’ll see you after work. Can you meet me at my place? I want to tell Edie.”
“Yes. She’ll be so excited.”
And she was excited. Sadly, he didn’t get to see her immediate reaction to the news, since Anna had accidentally told her before he arrived.
The week went on like that – with everything just a little underwhelming. Considering he’d genuinely never thought he’d get a Michelin star, it was funny how his expectations suddenly weren’t being met.
The proper excitement would come the following week, though, when it was officially announced and splashed all over social media.
Not telling the rest of the kitchen staff felt fairly excruciating, but at least he had their reactions to look forward to.
It was their achievement too – once he could share it with them, he’d no doubt stop feeling so flat about the whole thing.
Walking into Anna’s place after work on Thursday evening, he immediately spotted the trepidation in her features.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, giving her a kiss and sitting beside her on the couch.
“Don’t freak out,” she said, gripping a cushion in front of her.
“That’s never a good start to a conversation.”
“Mum called this morning to say she’s got the flu.”
“Maybe that explains why she hasn’t been in touch to congratulate me,” he said under his breath.
“What?” Anna frowned. “She’s messaged you, hasn’t she?”
“Yeah.” She’d sent him several messages – he just thought the situation warranted a phone call, but that was the mood he’d been in since he got the news about the Michelin star. No one seemed to react quite how he’d like them to.
Anna narrowed her eyes. “So Mum won’t make it for dinner tomorrow, after all.”
“Us and your dad then,” he said sulkily. At least Nicholas had called him and made a big fuss.
“Carla feels terrible, but she can’t just cancel when she’s agreed to dog sit.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s fine.”
“So I thought maybe we’d just do something completely different.”
“What’s the plan?”
“Remember, I said not to freak out…”
He lifted an eyebrow and waited for whatever was coming next.
“Your parents are very excited.”
“No.” He shook his head. “No way. I’m not celebrating this with my parents. It’s not happening. We’ll do something just the two of us.”
“It’s one night of your life,” she snapped.
“And you always said the Michelin star wasn’t a big deal to you, anyway.
What does it matter how we celebrate? I spoke to your mum today, and she suggested we drive down to Bath tomorrow and have a night there with them.
She’ll get Rachel to come along and cook, and we can have a nice evening with them. ”
“I’d rather just not go out. I’ll tell Liam he doesn’t need to cover for me after all, and I’ll work over the weekend as usual.”
“I already told your mum,” Anna complained. “Plus, we can go into Bath on Saturday and get some supplies I need for my candles and greetings cards.”
“So this is not actually anything to do with celebrating the Michelin star? You just fancy a weekend trip?” He regretted the words instantly. “Sorry,” he said, running his hands through his hair.
“Do you really not want to go?”
Of course he didn’t want to go. Didn’t she know him at all?
“We can just have dinner with them,” she said quietly. “Then disappear off to the hot tub with a bottle of champagne…”
He rubbed his eyebrow. “Yeah, okay. Whatever you want.”