04. INSULT FOR MISTRESS.
Evies focus was on the meal that she was about to prepare. Even though she was somehow nervous and would glance up once in a while to check how fast others were proceeding. They were either chopping off one thing or the other but…she was far from chopping off anything.
"Try to think of any recipe, Evie. If not because of the nonsense cooking, I would have preferred him to eat bread and tea." She mumbled to herself and carried out the chicken that was in the refrigerator. She chopped it off into smaller pieces and washed it before boiling it on top of the electric cooker.
She added the seasonings and left them to cook very well while she got herself busy with the vegetables. She collected them and washed them before slicing them. She washed them again and blended some peppers.
Evelyn placed another pot on the other side of the cooker after a while and poured a little bit of groundnut oil. After heating up, she fried the chicken and then poured the blended peppers into the oil before adding seasonings in decreasing size because of the chicken. Then she calculated the time before transferring the already washed vegetables into the pepper before stirring it thick.
The vegetable was able to absorb the peppers because there weren any tomatoes. Then she placed the fried chicken one after the order into the pot and allowed them to cook in the meantime.
The security man who was supervising them couldn help but mock some of the contestants in his mind who were busy fidgeting with the preparation. How low could they want to go?!
Some couldn even handle the cutleries or anything else so why were they here in the first place striving for unnecessary dominance? He shook his head and took a look at his wristwatch before whistling to signal the end of their cooking.
"Thats a wrap, ladies. Please, you can stop exactly what you are doing because its useless after the whistle." He said and the ladies looked at him. Their faces held different expressions, some were of success, some were of failure and disappointment, some were of I don care look while some were of oredom after a while.
The man walked around the disasters caused by the ladies and the horrible eatable dishes they prepared which they actually called food. His eyes roamed over everything and he stood in front of them so that all eyes would see him.
"I appreciate you all on behalf of my boss for coming in here today to showcase your…Uhm… skills but now that we have come to the end of the interview, I am permitted to choose according to the masters wish those who are already qualified to move up to the next round." The man announced and Evelyns heart skipped a beat when she heard this.
She silently prayed that despite her meal being so simple…too simple for a chef to cook, she should be chosen. At least, that would be considered a step toward reaching her goal.
The man looked at the ladies once more before he started pointing.
"You…you…you…you and you[points at Evelyn] are the qualifiers for the second round. The rest of you are to please take off the apron since it is apparently useless and march back home. Thank you so much for coming here to showcase your skill." The man said with a meaning behind each of his words. He did a hand signal to his mate to see the ladies out before sending someone over to clean up the place before focusing on the ladies that he had chosen.
"Congratulations, ladies. Please, dish out your meal and follow me in two minutes."
Evelyn quickly did as she was told and was the first to follow the man. He was very polite but professional and his words clearly set out the boundaries between them and people like him without much action meant to be displayed.
As they walked through the tiled floor, Evelyn was more than amazed at the architectural designs. The gym room was made with a transparent glass wall so that you could see the equipment. But her notice-taking of everything soon came to an end when the man took another turn.
"How many turns does this place actually have? If I start working here, I will definitely need a Google map to help me with the directions but will there actually be one?" She thought.
They arrived at the dining hall that was twenty times bigger than the whole of Evelyns room. The chandeliers were hanging up in their different and amazing respective colors to add beauty to the hall. The table in front was a long one and had a total of thirty chairs with comfortable spaces between one chair and the other. It was brown but glistening brown if that word ever meant something shining.
The air conditioner was working fine, the atmosphere was chilly and there was a nice scent in the air. There was a TV set provided for something Evelyn considered enjoyable.
"He is so…damn rich that he actually does not know where and what to spend his money on. Poor unfortunate soul in confusion." She tried creating a sobbing look in her imaginary thinking.
Not realizing how long they had been walking, they were finally standing in front of a man whose back was turned against them. Evelyns breath stopped for a minute, even the back view was glorious but she cleared her throat softly as if that would clear her dirty mind. Mandarin was facing them with a drink in her hand while Ryan had his left hand holding onto her waist so their posture was vice versa.
"Boss." The security man called. Evelyn had decided on a name for him in her mind. Coconut was a preferable option as he was thick-headed.
Ryan turned around slowly with his cold face. His eyes landed directly on Evelyn who felt like she was going to go through a shock therapy section and was already imagining her soul being dead and being pressed by the hospitals iron just to revive her. Why was he so gorgeous and scary at the same time? How was she supposed to get close to him if his looks were making her imagine all sorts of death scenarios?
Ryans gaze didn last much longer on her as he took his seat on the biggest chair in the dining hall that was at the head of the table. Mandarin stood domineeringly behind him and touched his shoulders in a…maybe soothing manner and other ladies couldn help but grimace including Evelyn. What did she even think of herself? That she was special than any other women standing in the room? Well, she might be since she could afford the latest Lamborghini ride and had Ryan at her beck and call while she [Evelyn] could only afford her favorite bike which she had been using for the past three years and had to try to win Ryans heart.
"Boss, these are the successful contestants," Coconut spoke and directed with his hand that the ladies placed their meal accordingly in front of Ryan. After they did this, Mandarin took it upon herself to taste each meal and savor the taste. She cast down a disgusting look at a few until she got to Evelyns side.
"What is this that you have prepared?" She asked.
"Its my recipe known as Chicken Veggie," Evelyn replied and earned a mocking laugh from Mandarin before her face turned serious.
"Are you blind? Are you blind that you can see the riches of this place before entering? Do you think that we look like some commoners to you that you went ahead to prepare a beggars meal for us?"
"You consider it a beggars meal but it is not because its a simple meal prepared with lots of nutrients to make you grow well, give you more flesh and help your brain and thinking to function very well," Evelyn replied meaningfully. Those around were stunned at the psychological manner of response that they just heard. Coconut glanced at his boss who was still wearing the same facial expression and sighed.
"Are you indirectly telling me that my brain is not functioning and that I look skinny as a rake?" Mandarin asked furiously and Evelyn smiled.
"Wow, you must be so smart and intelligent to have given meaning to my words but I didn say any of what you just accused me of. I only told you the work…nutritional value this meal of mine will add to your beauty and body. Everyone here can serve as a witness that I did not say what you ACCUSED me off." Evelyn replied intelligently.
Mandarin was now more than furious. She understood the meaning of the words Evelyn had spoken and she was sure that others understood them too but the foolish girl was blatantly lying and turning the cruise around to hit her. No one had ever spoken to her in that manner before so how dare she? She threw the meal to the floor in anger and that gripped everyone by surprise.
Evelyn could see the imaginary air coming out of Mandarins ears and her snarling like an angry hell bull.
"How dare you say such words to me? Don you have any respect? Were you not taught well by your parents…"
"Whatever that you are going to say to me, Miss, try to be respectful to my parents and don mention them in your useless rantings. Anyone with a regular brain cell and no further ado knows who lacks home training and doesn lack one. Look at what you have just done, you wasted a meal that right now could have saved someones life on the street…"
"Why don you go back there and feed useless commoners like you a meal? Because this place is not a place for you. You are withdrawn from this!" Mandarin gave her final verdict with her eyes wide open and burning from anger.
Immediately Evelyn heard this, her eyes darted towards the man sitting on the chair and her heart sank when their eyes met. She had totally forgotten that she was in his presence. If not she would not have fought for human rights that quickly and now her only way of getting in was tarnished yet, she did not want to apologize to Mandarin because she wasn guilty in the first place so why would she?1
"Mr…"
"Out!" Mandarin yelled at her and Coconut quickly came to her aid. He stretched out his hand toward the entrance.
"Please come with me, Miss. You are disqualified."
"Seriously? Isn he going to say anything?" Evelyn threw her hands in the air and shut up on realizing what she had said. She quickly dashed towards the entrance not caring if she would get lost for not waiting for Coconut.
Mandarin calmed herself down and went back to stand beside Ryan. Her face was now gentle as she tried calming herself more. Ryans thumb smoothed his chin in the aspect of rubbing as he was distant in mind…locked on the corridor of thinking.
"Thank you for coming." Evelyn was pushed out and she puffed her cheeks as the high gate was shut against her. Didn that go so well? She thought sarcastically. Now she had to think of one excuse to give Shaft that might save her from his wrath. It was simple, she would just tell him that her food wasn chosen amongst the others and so was disqualified. Now that was the right answer to give. She looked at the whole building and started her Israeli walk for one hour a day.
Maybe she shouldn have gone into the law course.