Chapter 15 #3
Then Bella says, “Tell you what, though, their dish actually sounds really good. They’re marinating the cod with miso, orange peel, and brown sugar syrup.”
That’s when the dagger of doubt plunges deep into Mebel’s belly.
Orange peel and brown sugar syrup? That’s exactly what she was planning on doing with her duck.
The duck meat that Chef Clarke had ordered for her arrived two days prior, and Mebel had gotten to work on it immediately, marinating it in a spiced brine overnight before coating it with her brown sugar and orange peel syrup.
Could it be a coincidence that her classmates have picked out the same ingredients as she had?
“You all right, Mebs?” Adam says.
“I am using orange peel and brown sugar syrup in my dish,” Mebel blurts out.
Adam and Bella both stare at her. “What,” Bella says, “like, exactly that combination?”
Mebel nods, not trusting herself to talk.
“Well, fuck,” Bella mutters.
“What does this mean?” Mebel says.
“You’ve got the poultry course, right?” Adam says. When Mebel nods, he says, “That means you’re right after fish. You’ve got to change your dish. It’s going to look so bad if you go right after them and your dish is exactly the same flavor profile as theirs.”
Anxiety claws at Mebel’s chest, making it close up. “But I work so hard to come up with the combination.”
“They must’ve overheard you talking about it or seen your notes or something,” Bella says.
“But why they want to copy it?” Mebel cries.
“Mebs, I told you, this is a big deal. Everyone wants to win,” Bella says. “And brown sugar syrup? That’s pretty fucking brilliant. That’ll go really well with miso and orange peel. I can see why they’d copy it.”
“Do I really have to give up on my idea?” Mebel says in a small voice. She feels so lost right now.
Adam and Bella exchange a glance before nodding sadly at her. “Sorry, Mebs,” Adam says.
“It sucks. You need to be more careful.”
Mebel can’t stomach the thought of staying through to the end of the meal.
She tells them she is done and leaves the table.
Outside, she walks past Bruce, who is arguing animatedly into his phone.
How ironic that only minutes ago, she’d judged Bruce for getting upset over his dish, and now here she is, upset for exactly the same reason.
Life really does have a way of getting you.
Mebel walks briskly down the street, hugging herself.
She feels at once angry and hurt and vulnerable.
Not to mention foolish, because how many times have people tried to warn her about the stakes in this competition, and she’d failed to take any of them seriously.
To her, all of this has just been an amusing game, but now that her dish is being copied, everything has suddenly turned very real for her.
It is only in this moment that she realizes, despite the compassion she feels for her classmates and how much they have at stake, she really, really wants to win this competition.
Not so much for the position at Canard et Vin, but to prove to herself that she is capable of it.
She is capable not just of doing decently well but of excelling.
She is capable of being more than just a trophy wife.
But now, she is going to lose it all, and isn’t that just classic Mebel?
As she walks, she goes through a list of ingredients that she might be able to substitute for the orange peel and brown sugar syrup.
Maybe instead of brown sugar, she could use Javanese sugar?
It’s her favorite sugar, made out of palm instead of sugar cane, and has a caramel taste that is very distinct.
No, that’s the problem with Javanese sugar, it’s too distinctive.
It’ll overpower the entire dish. Perhaps wild honey?
That could work, but it isn’t as exciting as brown sugar syrup though.
And what about the orange peel? What can she substitute that with?
Lemongrass? Maybe. But lemongrass wouldn’t go with the Peking duck–inspired dish.
It’s too strong and would overpower the hoisin sauce.
Argh, this is horrible! And why must Mebel go through this ordeal all by herself?
It’s so unfair, especially when everyone else has a partner they can bounce ideas off.
She should storm inside Chef Clarke’s office and demand—what?
What should she demand at this point? The banquet is only two weeks away.
What can Chef Clarke do? He’s hardly going to call the whole thing off, and there’s no way he can get her a new partner.
And anyway, Mebel doesn’t want any other partner, she wants Gemma, her first-ever friend at the school, the girl who loves cooking and secretly works overtime to shoot cooking videos for her social media account.
Mebel gasps. Foolishness! The answer was right in front of her all this time and she’d missed it.
She scrambles for her phone and opens up Instagram.
She’s messaged Gemma on there several times, of course, but Gemma hasn’t bothered to reply.
The messages show as “Seen,” however, so she knows that Gemma is still alive, even though she has stopped posting videos since she disappeared from the school.
But now, Mebel realizes there is a ton of valuable information to be gleaned from Gemma’s IG account.
She scrolls through the videos, looking for the ones she’s thinking of.
Ah, here we go. Here’s one where Gemma bakes a honey cake using “locally sourced honey.” In the voice-over, Gemma says, “I am so lucky to live within walking distance to the Clover Lover Farm. Their honey is just the absolute best. Look how thick this clover honey is, and it smells heavenly. Oh, I wish you could smell it through your phone screen.”
Mebel had known that Gemma lived in the Cotswolds, but when she previously looked up the Cotswolds, she’d been surprised to find that it’s a huge area. There is no chance of Mebel finding Gemma just by driving around the entire Cotswolds.
Now, Mebel hurriedly taps the words “Clover Lover Farm” into Google, and the first hit is a farm located in an area called Northleach, which, according to Google, is a small market town located in the Cotswolds district in Gloucestershire, England.
“Aha!” Mebel says. Several passersby turn to look at her, but she ignores them. Her heart races with excitement as she keys “Northleach” into Google Maps. She’s not sure if it’s small enough for her to go door-to-door until she finds Gemma, but she sure as hell is going to try.
Mebel goes to her contacts list and taps on Alain’s name.
“Hello, Mebel, I wasn’t expecting to hear from you tonight,” he says when he picks up the phone.
“Alain, you want to go to the Cotswolds with me?” Mebel says.
There is a pause, then he says, “Uh, why?”
“Well, you remember my classmate Gemma?”
“Yes,” Alain says carefully.
“She disappear and I am worried about her. So I am going to look for her there. She lives there.”
“I don’t know about this, Mebel. Maybe she just wants to be left alone, no? She is a grown woman, if she wants to talk to you, I’m sure she’ll reach out.”
Mebel sighs impatiently. “Okay, I take Uber.”
“Wait—” Alain pauses again. “All right. I will take you. But, Mebel, I think you’re overreacting.”
Mebel ignores the patronizing tone in his voice. “I see you tomorrow. Nine o’clock.”
She is done with people telling her she’s overreacting.
Alain shows up at twenty past nine the next morning.
Mebel is irritated, but she’s also aware that she needs him to drive her to the Cotswolds, and so she bites her tongue when she sees him.
He greets her with a hug and a kiss on her cheek, then he says, “How about a day trip to London instead? Lunch at the Ritz? You’d love that. ”
Mebel swallows yet more irritation. What is it about her that makes people think they can just ignore what she wants and try to push their own agenda onto her? “I have lunch plenty of time at the Ritz. Is okay, nothing special.”
“All right. What about—”
Without waiting for him to open the car door for her, Mebel opens it herself, slides in, and closes it.
She smiles at him through the window and sees his chest heaving in a sigh.
When he’s inside the car, she looks at him askance.
“Why you don’t want to go to Cotswolds? I thought is your favorite place in England. ”
“Oh, I love the Cotswolds. I just think the reason you have to go there is rather suspect. We are intruding on someone who’d rather be left alone.
I want to respect her privacy. Now, if you wanted to go to the Cotswolds to have a nice day out, that’s an entirely different matter and I’d only be too happy to oblige. ”
Mebel snorts. “That is nice, but I am Chinese mother, I don’t respect anybody’s privacy. Start the car.”
With that, Alain seems to realize that the decision is final, and he does as he is told.
Mebel turns away from him and looks out of the window to hide the smirk that’s taken over her face.
What is she? She has never spoken to Henk like this before, and it is exhilarating. She could get used to this.
The drive to the Cotswolds is a peaceful one. For Mebel, that is. For Alain, it seems to be a different story altogether. Once or twice, he mutters under his breath in French, but when Mebel says, “What?” he says, “Nothing, ma chérie.”
Maybe he is irritated at having been coerced into driving her there, or maybe he is turned off by Mebel’s insistence at finding Gemma. Mebel decides that either way, she doesn’t actually care. She knows that their relationship has an expiration date, and the knowledge is liberating.