Vanilla Salt (31 page)

“Exactly! ‘Avoid scandals,’ the people say, but if you experience a scandal, learning it is no good if you no can to apply it when it arrive the next scandal.”

“I’ve run into Àlex a couple of times in Barcelona. He doesn’t look good. He told me he lives in the Raval. I guess I’ll see him quite often, as I tend to be around that area. I understand you’re not working together any more.”

“He no here now. He needed to change. He not feel good?”

“What isn’t good is the food you’re serving here now. I don’t want to offend you, but I do want to warn you. This food is too pretentious and too expensive. It’s lost the authentic taste you had before. It’s dressed up as something else now.”

It’s true. The cooks Carol has found all want to be celebrity chefs and have no idea of what the public in this part of the world expects. Accordingly, the takings have dwindled considerably, and the pages of the reservation book are verging on immaculately white once more.

Annette can’t cover their excessively high costs with what they’re earning. It’s not only a matter of paying suppliers and the staff’s wages, but she also has to pay rent on the house. The Can Bret owner is implacable. Annette’s resolve is shaky.

Tomorrow is Monday and Roda el Món is closed. Carol has decided to go and have lunch in some fashionable place in Barcelona, because she has to write about it for her newspaper. The idea of spending her day off with Carol is unbearable for Annette, but Carol will never take no for an answer. She’s the boss and makes or cancels decisions as she pleases. Annette is her puppet and must satisfy her every whim. She hasn’t left Annette alone for a single day since Àlex left. Now Annette only wants to have a day to herself, with time to think about how she can get out of this prison in which she’s now trapped. She believes that the bars have been forged by Carol’s possessiveness, but the real prison is her own brain, which keeps forcing her to recollect Àlex’s words: “I’m very sad to be leaving, because I love you, Annette. You’re the only person who makes me believe in life and you’re all I have in my life.”

*  *  *

Furthermore, she’s starting to see in Carol’s behaviour some other words uttered by Àlex that night: “She didn’t want to hurt the journalists, but was aiming at me and, in particular, she wanted to destroy our love”; “She wants to have you totally in her thrall. You’re a pushover for her, especially as she knows how desperate you are.” A few remarks made by Carol – and one of them in particular: “It’d be better to take the watercress soup off the menu, because the clients might think we want to poison them” – have again made her doubt that Àlex is the guilty party.

How did Carol know the poison was in that particular dish? The inspectors couldn’t analyse it, because not a drop was left. They never discovered how the journalists were poisoned. The Health Department couldn’t fine Roda el Món because they found no negligence in the cooking procedures and all the spaces of the restaurant observed the most rigorous standards of hygiene. Àlex had said it too: “I didn’t put poison in the watercress soup.” Now Carol has mentioned it. Annette’s head is spinning. How did they both know which dish was poisoned?

16

TURKEY

Carol has drunk a lot tonight and, snoring rhythmically, is hogging most of the small bed. Annette, kept awake by the unlovely noise, is looking for Òscar on Facebook, because she hasn’t spoken with him since the party. She’s been avoiding him for weeks, as she’s afraid he’s going to ask her to repay the loan, but she also needs to talk to somebody who understands her and knows the characters in this show, which is more twisted than anything any author could ever dream up. She wants to suggest that they have lunch together so they can chat without hassles and she can also get out of Carol’s clutches for a while.

“Òscar…”

“About time you contacted me! I’ve written, phoned and was about to turn up at Roda el Món to see how you are. I see you haven’t made any attempt to pay me back. I imagine there’s not much coming in.”

“No, we no do well, as you can to imagine. After the scandal in all newspapers it very hard to keep going. And you, you are OK? I no ask you still if you get poison also.”

“I found out about it in the newspapers, but I felt very sick. I didn’t know what it was, because it wasn’t the usual kind of stomach ache you get from overeating or eating something that’s gone off. It was a
strange sensation. I had diarrhoea and a terrible headache for two days. I couldn’t leave home, but it stopped all of a sudden, and now I barely remember it. What caused it?”

“We no know, really. I have some signs, but it is all big mess. I need talk with you, because you involved also. I no have money, but we find cheap restaurant for to eat. What you say?”

“I’m delighted with your proposal, but I’m working, so it can’t be lunch. Come here for dinner if you like. Then we can talk and I’ll also show you the video I made that night. What with the stomach upset and all my work I haven’t had time to post it online yet. But it’s great. It was a fantastic party, even if we did all end up poisoned.”

Annette is already hard at work in the kitchen very early in the morning. Sharing a room with Carol is a nightmare and she gets up at dawn. Carol comes downstairs a few hours later, as happy as a sandboy. She pours a glass of cava and makes herself a plate of different kinds of cheese. Annette doesn’t know how she can start drinking so early.

“Carol, you drink cava at this time?”

“It’s your day off, isn’t it? It’s a big day and we’re going to have fun. Now we’re going to have a few drinks, then we’ll go up to your room and, while everyone else is working, I’m going to have my way with you. You’ve been very mean to me lately and ignoring all my caresses for days. I want to touch you, see you opening up, feel how wet you get and watch you coming. I want you to be all mine this morning. Then we’ll go out for lunch and, if you’re a good girl, this afternoon I promise you’ll see stars… of pleasure. I want you all to myself today, sweetheart.”

“Well, this morning I must to go for talk with this man of Can Bret. He ask many times for to talk and I no can postpone more.” Annette doesn’t want to see Carol’s sex-induced stars. “Oh and I sorry, but I no can to have lunch in this restaurant because—”

“Because nothing!” Carols snaps. “You’re having lunch with me. We arranged this and you’re not going to spoil my plans. You can go to Can Bret this morning, OK, but after that we’re going to have lunch in the restaurant I’ve chosen especially for you and then we’ll spend the afternoon in our room. You’ve kept me waiting too long and I’m fed up. It’s my turn to be pleasured by you today. It’ll do you good too, because you’re very tense. Sex is what you need. Believe me, you’ll come out of it relaxed, full of energy and ready to face anything next week may bring.”

Annette can’t find any good excuse that might let her off the hook. Without answering, she takes off her patchwork apron and leaves Carol alone in the kitchen with her cava and cheese. It’s time to go to Can Bret.

The meeting is an ordeal. The Can Bret boss insists she has to sell the restaurant, showing her a document signed by Àlex in which he agreed to transfer the business. He’s paid Àlex an advance. Either she sells him the restaurant or Annette must return the advance with interest, plus a fine for “financial loss and damage”. This is more than she can handle. There’s too much money involved, not to mention all the stress, much more than she can take either physically or psychologically. She asks for time. He gives her thirty days, after which she has to sell him the restaurant or pay back his money.

Why is she so principled? She should sell the place and forget about everything and everyone: Àlex, Carol, Òscar, the Can Bret man and the fat fish supplier. But this would mean throwing in the towel, and her father brought her up to be a fighter. Making a success of the restaurant is a challenge she’s ready to accept. She doesn’t want to give up now. It’s not a question of proving anything to anyone, but simply a goal she’s set for herself, to show she can succeed with a big project like this. One is always one’s own harshest critic. Anyway, she’ll only have a few cents left over after she’s paid back Òscar, the fish man and what she owes the other suppliers, because she’s now behind with those payments again.
What can she do with her measly few cents? She must keep trying to succeed with Roda el Món, as a matter of pride, survival and showing she’s not going to give up so easily.

Carol’s waiting for her upstairs. She makes her put on the clothes she bought that long-ago day in Granollers. Annette is too weary to protest. She puts on the red dress and gets into the car and they head off for a stylish restaurant in Barcelona. As often happens in these chic places, it’s full, and the stuck-up employees look like peacocks with ruffled feathers, ready to hiss rebukes at you if you don’t behave like a good client. When you go to these “in” places, you have to dress up, in order to fit in. Carol decrees that the food isn’t bad. She’s not going to rip them to pieces but plans to write something friendly – that’s if the two bottles of Verdejo she’s downed don’t make her forget what she’s tasted. On the way back to Roda el Món, Annette prays that she’ll fall asleep as soon as her head hits the pillow.

This doesn’t happen. Carol is euphoric as she enters the room ready for her sex session, which is intense. She begins slowly, undressing Annette, taking her time. Carol wants to play and makes Annette pretend to be a painter’s model, so she can paw her with the excuse of getting her into the best pose. Annette finds it ridiculous at first, but eventually relaxes and starts to play too. Carol strokes her, caresses her, licks her all over and Annette likes it more and more. After all these days of tension, Carol’s fondling feels good. After the initial poetic tone, Carol changes her tune and starts manhandling her, insulting her and making her pose in uncomfortable, humiliating positions.

The heat rises and Annette is more excited than she’s ever been. She doesn’t want this, but trying to get some control over the situation and to resist turns her on even more. She finally surrenders and lets Carol take her well beyond all limits she had ever imagined possible.

“That was great, Annette, and I can see you were revelling in it too. You needed that, because I’ve found inside you the power you need to keep fighting. It was out of action, stymied by all your worries. Sex limbers you up and then you feel powerful. Believe me.”

“You have right, Carol. This it has been fantastic.”

“We’ll do it whenever I say. You’re my toy. I’m the one who puts in the batteries and takes them out. I’m the one who makes you move, who stops you in your tracks, who lights you up and switches you off. Your body is mine and I’m going to take over your mind as well. In a few weeks you’ll be like a dog running after me. You’ll be begging for sex and I’ll be the one who decides if and when. I’m doing this for you, because you need someone to guide you and to help you unwind. I’m like the masseur who might hurt you when touching damaged muscles, but who also helps you to move more freely. Now I’m going to get to work on you by making you come up here whenever I see you need it. But not always… I don’t want you to expect it, take it for granted or guess when it’s going to happen. I want the surprise factor to make you really hot.”

Annette listens, wide-eyed, her freckles dancing. She trusts Carol and feels safe and calm with her.

Her phone rings. Òscar’s waiting for her at the Granollers bus stop. They’re supposed to be having dinner at his place tonight. It’s getting late and, since she wasn’t on the last two buses, he’s wondering if she’s forgotten. Yes, she has forgotten, and now she’s going to be terribly late. She wonders if she should go or not, decides that she should, invents some implausible excuse for Carol and rushes out before she has time to object.

She’ll use the time she has to herself on the bus to think about her relationship with Carol, because right now she’s totally confused. She’s enjoyed her experience this afternoon, but now the intense pleasure also revolts her. Carol is extremely controlling and always gets what she
wants. In fact she’s doubly victorious now, because Annette’s revelled in it. She still has a pleasurable sensation, but there’s also bitterness mixed in with the sweetness. And there’s a memory that jabs at her almost painfully. Uneasiness has lodged in her spirit.

The bus reaches Granollers and Annette is no less confused, but dinner with Òscar should help to sort out the mess in her head.

Òscar’s worked hard and has prepared a dinner worthy of being posted on his blog, so he says. It’s one of those dinners that must be eaten cold because the photos have to be taken beforehand.

Seeing the exquisite spread he’s produced, Annette feels even worse that Carol’s skilful hands made her disconnect so much from the real world that she forgot about her friend’s invitation. They drink an Abadal Picapoll, a white from the Bages region, and what with the wine and her seething emotions, Annette almost forgets why she wants to see Òscar. He, however, is direct.

“So what’s going on at Roda el Món? Where’s Àlex?”

Annette gives him a detailed account of the incredible story of the clashing versions of the poisoning incident. She wants him to know for two reasons. First, Òscar presently owns a good part of the business, so he has the right to know, and second, Annette needs to talk to someone. Three weeks ago she was convinced that Àlex’s pride led him to put rat poison in the watercress soup, and for the last week she’s thought that Carol’s insatiable ambition led her to do it. Today, both options seem possible, she can’t see the wood for the trees and feels completely bewildered. She knows Òscar won’t be able to help her and isn’t the best person to drag into this.

“Who you think do this?” she asks.

“I’m astounded, Annette. How could someone deliberately poison the food? This is utter madness, the act of some lunatic. The strangest thing is that both of them know which dish was poisoned. What about
you? You’re hanging around with two psychopaths, so how come it hasn’t rubbed off on you?”