I don't like you Neil D'Silva

*18*

FARAH turns to look at the chef and gasps when she comes face to face with Neil. Neil's eyes were wide and mouth ajar as he stared at her. Farah had agreed on going to the restaurant Alex worked at, forgetting the fact that Neil's father owned this restaurant and Neil was the head chef. "what are you doing here?"

Neil asks her, still shocked to see her here. "Hey Neil, I just brought Farah here because well obviously I work here and I wanted her to meet you, the head chef." Alex chimes in, unbeknownst to the tension clouding the atmosphere right now. "hey Neil," Farah says awkwardly and averts her gaze from him. "you know him?" Alex asks excitedly,

"yeah we were high school friends," she said, each word of the sentence stabbing Neil's heart repeatedly. "yeah, high school friends," Neil says cold heartedly. Farah pleads with her eyes and silently prays that Neil wouldn't cause a scene here.

"wow, what a small world," Alex says and smiles at both of them. "alright chef Neil whip up our best dish for this fine lady here," Alex says as he picks up her hand and kisses the back of it. Neil stiffens, his hands balling into a fist at his sides. He closes his eyes for a few seconds before opening them back again. Neil looks at her before walking towards the kitchen. He lets out a frustrated sigh as the aroma of the dishes and mixed spices fill his senses. He covers his hair with a hair net, washes his hands and places all the ingredients he would need on one of the counters. Everyone stops their work and looks at him in shock, as if he was doing something he wasn't supposed to. He notices everyone and says, "what?"

"you're cooking?" Dave asks with shock, still unable to process the fact that Neil was working. "Am I not a chef? Am I not allowed to cook?" He snaps at him,

"it's just that you usually just monitor our work and only cook for important diners," Dave says, "oh god is someone important outside? Is it your dad, chef Dilip?" Dave frantically paces around the kitchen. Neil rolls his eyes and says, "calm down, he isn't out there. Just, get back to work everyone," he says and everyone does so. He cleans some chicken before dicing it into small cubes, he prepares some dough to make fresh naan, he makes some jalebi paste on the side. All the chefs in the kitchen watch him in awe; how skilfully his hands move and how multitasking and making many dishes looked like no tedious job. He wiped the sweat of his forehead with a spare hand towel and went back to his work. In less than an hour, his dishes were ready. He washed his hands, threw the hair net in the bin and called for one of the waiters. "take this to table number 15, and after you place these dishes on their table, come back to me," he says to the waiter who was intimidated by Neil. Neil gives him a smile and the waiter leaves with the food.

The waiter stops at their table, "good evening ma'am and sir," he says before placing the dishes on the table. Farah inhales the aroma of the delicious food in front of her, "this is my favourite," she says with a smile as she looks down at the food before her; chicken tikka masala, butter naan and garlic naan and jalebis. "oh really? I didn't know that. Such a great coincidence that Neil makes your favourite dishes," Alex says, completely oblivious but not sounding suspicious or sarcastic at all. They dig in and Farah sighs with delight as she takes the first bite. She felt like she was home, in Neil's arms. She shouldn't be thinking like this in the presence of another man who was her date for the night, but she couldn't help but think of Neil as he was cooking all this for her. "so, tell me a little about you and Neil in high school, how was he?" Alex asks and Farah finds it hard to swallow her food.

"well we didn't really like each other at first, he was the boy everyone fell in love with, but a jerk and an asshole nonetheless, " Farah starts and he scoffs,

"that's not surprising, Neil is a jerk." Alex said and Farah really wanted to reach across and slap the smug look off his face. "but then we became friends and everything was great after that. We talked a lot, went out a lot, did a lot of things together, we were really close," she says as she takes a bite of her jalebi.

"did y'all date?" Alex asks and she chokes on her food, furiously coughing. He passes her a glass of water and she takes a big gulp before answering, "no, we never did," she lies and Alex visibly relaxes. They finish the rest fo their food in silence which was broken as the waiter approaches with two drinks, "two strawberry mojitos," he says before walking away. "another one of your favourites?" Alex asks bitterly and she nods, "seems like you two were really close huh?"

"we were best friends,"

"what happened? It looks like you guys haven't seen each other in ages," she smiles awkwardly. She thought about everything and wanted to tell him the truth, and so she decided that before they have anything serious she'll tell him about Neil, "well he started dating the girl I hated and I started dating the guy he hated and ever since then we hated each other," Alex chuckles and sips his drink. Farah drinks her mojito as she tries to gain the courage to tell him the truth, "Alex I need to tell you something,"

"before you tell me anything, let me give you a vip tour," he says and leaves his empty glass on the table before taking Farah's hand and guiding her through the restaurant. She almost spilled her drink on one of the diners but thankfully regained her balance as Alex pulls her. They enter the kitchen, "heres where all the magic happens," he says as Farah watches all the chefs moving around and doing their work. The kitchen looked like how any restaurant kitchen would look like, but this one was a little more fancy. Specks of golden and white sprinkled around the kitchen to match the interior outside. Neil's eyes look with Farah's from across the kitchen and her breathing quickens. Something about his gaze was making her feel some type of way, and she knew that her being in between Alex and Neil was gonna end really bad. Neil marches towards them and says,

"you're not allowed to bring guests here,"

*****
Sending love your way
HappyWatermelonKid•~•