Appetite For Love

Chapter Seven

It had been a tense few days since that Christmas morning incident.

Aïda had asked her second in charge, Martin Dippenaar, to open up for her in the morning. To her relief he not only accepted but, offered to do it on a permanent basis. He had always felt that it was too dangerous for a woman to be alone in the restaurant so early in the morning. She told him that she would draw up a schedule for him, Clinton the other chef, and Sipho the quality assurance manager. For the moment though, she was back opening duty.

The drive through the sleepy streets of the city was usually a pleasant one for her. Very few vehicles were present at 05:40.  So trafic was almost none existent.It is especially quite during the festive season as many people leave the Cape to go back to their families in other parts of the country.

She used that time to reflect and plan ahead for the day. Mental preparation she calls it. Some of her favourite Christian worship and praise cd's would usually be playing in the background while she hummed away behind the wheel. Carefree.

This morning was different. The beautiful worship music was replaced by dead silence. Instead of a garment of praise was a shroud of fear and confusion.

She still could not fathom who would want to hurt her. Why else would someone be following her if not to harm her?

The streets were empty except for a couple of delivery trucks. Here and their was a car. Probably beach goers.

The cute mustard coloured building with the big front windows, either side of the French patio doors, greeted her just like most other mornings. She cautiously looked around but saw no strange activity. She prayed Psalm 91 and git out of her car.

Aïda felt much better after that prayer and opened the front door with more confidence than she had in the last few days.

Between her humming a song, the jingling of the keys, the noise coming from the fridges and the ringing of her phone, she did not hear the soft footsteps coming up behind her.

But she felt the hand on her right shoulder.

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"Come on Aïda pick up your phone. Why did your phone to to voicemail all of a sudden." Zoë muttered to herself.

She called two more times but this time instead of ringing the phone went straight to voicemail.

She had no choice but to speak with her friend over the phone. She was at the beach already and the hunt for a parking space had been nightmarish but, she got one. Obviously she could not leave now. She would not get a spot again.

She tried Aida's number for the fourth time. No luck.

"The number you've dialled is unavailable at present. Please try again later."  Came the operator voice.
She left a voice note.

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With horror Aïda looked at the man lying on the floor groaning.

Everything had happened so fast just a few seconds ago. Fortunately her bag was still open when she felt the soft tap on her shoulder. She grabbed her pepperspray and sprayed a liberal amount in the direction of his eyes hoping it would reach the intended target. She was about to kick him in a really sensitive area when she turned around and actually saw him.

It was Aden.

The open bag was not so fortunate after all.

She quickly got some milk from the nearest fridge.