Chapter 13
The next two weeks are some of the best times in Mebel’s life.
It isn’t that she has found her purpose, since she’s still unsure about the value of becoming a chef, but for the first time in a long while, she has a very defined goal and she is only too happy to work hard at it.
Not to mention she now has an excellent group of friends—yes, even Bruce she is now considering a friend, albeit an irritating one she also sometimes wishes would not show up to class.
She’s even stopped wearing her custom-made Hermès chef uniform because she no longer wants to be seen as someone different from her classmates.
She hasn’t stopped wearing her makeup though. She’s not an animal.
In the mornings, Mebel wakes up bright and early and, after a quick wash, blow-dries her hair and applies her makeup carefully.
During this time, Gemma usually barges into her room and begs to use Mebel’s Dior lipstick.
The first time Gemma did this, Mebel was somewhat taken aback, hovering anxiously as she watched Gemma rummage through her makeup drawer.
But after this happened for the third morning in a row, Mebel found herself expecting the intrusion.
When Gemma doesn’t show up the fourth morning, Mebel surprises herself by knocking on Gemma’s door and demanding to know why Gemma is choosing to sleep in.
Doesn’t she know that they have Introduction to Soups today, which is, according to Chef Clarke, “one of the most important modules you could ever take”?
Gemma rolls her eyes but smiles before prancing into Mebel’s room.
Gemma has become a sort of honorary daughter to Mebel.
Mebel has always thought of herself as a boy mom, grateful that she has Sammy as her son.
But there is something so delightful about Gemma, both buoyant and comforting at the same time.
She fills Mebel’s room with a cheerfulness that Mebel finds both irritating and soothing in equal measure, and whenever Mebel tells her off, which is all the time, Gemma merely laughs and squeezes her arm affectionately.
Once in a while, Bella pops by as well, and they stay in Mebel’s room going through her closet and trying on various pieces of luxury clothing.
Their favorite topic to grill Mebel on is, of course, Alain.
“Have you fucked yet?” Bella says one afternoon.
They are getting ready to go out for dinner, and Mebel has generously allowed the girls to borrow her clothes. Mebel, who is carefully lining her eyes, almost stabs herself with the Shu Uemura liner. “Excuse me?”
Bella levels a flat gaze at her. “Mebel, you’ve gone out on, what, three dates now? It’s a fair question to ask.”
Mebel sputters. “Of course not! You think I am a—an easy woman?”
Gemma giggles. “Mebel, trust me, there is nothing easy about you.”
Mebel harrumphs. “Good! Being easy woman is very bad. Premarital sex is very, very bad.”
“Okay, but both you and Alain are technically married,” Bella says.
“Not to each other!” Mebel cries.
Both Gemma and Bella share a look, then dissolve into wild peals of laughter.
“Aiya, both you kids are terrible!” Mebel snaps. “If you don’t behave, you cannot wear my Ferragamo dress. You also, Gemma.”
“Okay, we’ll behave,” Gemma says. “But, Mebel, Alain is going to want to do it at some point, you know.”
Mebel wrinkles her nose. “Oh, if he want to do it, then he can go find someone else. I never like the sex. All that…skin.”
Gemma and Bella are both staring at her like she’s just started singing the German national anthem. After a thick silence, Gemma clears her throat and says, “Mebel, has Henk been with anyone else other than you?”
“Well, Wendy, I guess,” Mebel mutters. Even now, the thought of it hurts, like a serrated knife biting into scar tissue.
“Aside from her,” Gemma says. “Before you, I mean.”
“Of course not! What part of premarital sex is bad you don’t understand? In my culture, we stay virgin for our future spouse.”
“Well, that would explain why you don’t like sex,” Bella says. “Have you ever had an orgasm with Henk?”
“I am not going to answer such question!” Mebel snaps.
“That’s a no then,” Bella says to Gemma, who stifles her laughter.
“This is so disrespectful!”
“Aww, Mebs, we’re sorry. We’re just trying to make sure that you’re having a good time,” Gemma says.
“Yeah, especially now that you’re estranged from your philandering husband,” Bella says. “It’s time for you to enter your slut era.”
Mebel feels as though her head is about to explode with a mixture of mortification, frustration, and strangely enough, laughter.
“No slut era!” she snaps again. “Stop this nonsense now.” With that, she strides out of the room.
It’s only when the door clicks shut behind her that she realizes she’s just stormed out of her own room while only half-dressed, and of course, it is this very moment that Adam walks out of his room, which is two doors down from hers.
He sees her, takes in her bare legs, gulps audibly, and says, “Good day, Mebs.” Then he turns and goes back into his own room.
“Aiya,” Mebel mutters before marching back into her room and pointedly ignoring the two giggling girls while she finishes getting dressed.
When she goes down to the reception hall, Agatha calls out to her. “How are you doing?” Agatha says.
“Okay. You?”
“Good, good,” Agatha says. She tucks her frizzy hair behind her ear. “Ah, I was wondering, how are things going between you and Chef Alain?”
“Oh!” Mebel feels her cheeks warming. If Agatha, like Gemma and Bella, asks her for intimate details about her relationship with Alain, she is going to melt into a puddle right here, she knows it.
“They are going okay.” She turns away to signal that she is done with the conversation, but Agatha calls out to her once more.
“Only”—Agatha pauses, wringing her hands—“I just wanted to make sure everything’s, you know, kosher?”
What is she trying to say? Mebel wonders. What does “kosher” mean in this sense? With a sense of growing horror, she realizes that Agatha, like Gemma and Bella, might be referring to Mebel’s sex life. Is she about to ask Mebel if they are practicing safe sex? Oh my god, this is mortifying.
“Oh yes,” Mebel chirps. “Everything very good. Very healthy!”
Confusion crosses Agatha’s face. “Healthy?”
“You know, all kosher. Very organic!” Mebel’s brain, it seems, has hit a wall and is now choosing to throw random words out.
“I don’t quite follow…” poor Agatha says.
“I have to go. Bye!” With that, Mebel rushes off, her heart thundering, her face melting from sheer embarrassment. Once she is round the corner, she has to stop and take a few deep breaths to recenter herself before heading to the front door.
Lessons are going swimmingly. Mebel finds that she is adept at the soup module.
The first day, they learn to make consommé, and Chef Clarke is surprised by how clear and deeply flavorful Mebel’s consommé is.
They also learn to make leek and potato soup, which Mebel doesn’t quite understand because leeks and potatoes seem like two of the most boring ingredients one could put into a soup.
When the soup is done, Mebel has to admit that it is far more delicious than one might have reasonably expected.
Her favorite is the cream of spinach and kale soup, which comes out in a beautiful, vivid shade of green and tastes both healthy and decadent at the same time.
After the second day of soup class, Mebel goes out to dinner with Gemma, Bella, Adam, and Bruce.
It is now a regular thing for them to do, and at least twice a week, they all go down to Cowley Road for a casual meal.
Their favorite place is a pub that serves mediocre food but decent cheap cider, and Mebel has developed a taste for English pear cider, which is both refreshing and dangerously gluggable.
Their conversation flows easily, and they’ve all accepted Mebel into their inner circle, even Bruce.
Sometimes, they ask her for advice, something that Mebel is always ready to give. A typical example might go something like this:
Mebel: “Bruce, you seem even more bad temper today than usual.”
Adam: “Thank god someone’s noticed.”
Bruce: “Mind your own business.”
Gemma: “Why don’t you tell us what’s on your mind, Brucey?”
Bruce: “It’s nothing, just family drama.”
Mebel: “With your parents? Tell me, I know how to fix. I am a mother.”
Bruce: “You can’t fix this, Mebel. My parents don’t want me to go to culinary school. That’s all there is to it.”
Mebel: “Ah. Why they don’t want you to go to culinary school?”
Bruce: “They’re both doctors, they wanted me to be a doctor, simple as that.”
Mebel: “Oh, no. You cannot make it as doctor. You have terrible bedside manner.”
Bruce: “Thanks, Mebel. Very helpful, as always.”
Mebel: “But you are a very good cook. I see your cooking in class, you always get good marks. I remember the daughter sauces class? Your bordelaise and Mornay sauces were perfect.”
Bruce: “Thanks, Mebel.”
Mebel: “Is not so easy, making these sauces. I never use to think cooking is complicated until I start this course, and now I see is actually very difficult. You should ask your parents to come visit you at the school, then maybe they will see how hard you are working.”
Bruce: “They won’t wanna come. But I appreciate the thought.”
On a different occasion, Mebel finds Adam pacing in the hallway outside his room, obviously upset at something. When she asks him what’s wrong, he tells her, “I think my boyfriend’s about to break up with me.”
Mebel is, for a moment, taken aback by the revelation that Adam has a boyfriend.
She has heard of homosexuality, but in her culture, it isn’t something that most people would be comfortable talking about openly.
But when she looks at Adam, it seems silly to care about such things, when she cares about him like he’s a nephew to her.