Chapter 19

Bob, furious, paced in front of the house waiting for Ed to arrive. The man had hurt his wife’s feelings for no reason. When Ed came home, Bob was going to give Ed a piece of his mind before his wife had a chance to see him. His stomach churned at the thought of having to leave the house because Ed had been a bastard. Bob had listened to her vent her anger for almost twenty-four hours.

Marguerite was furious with Ed and was threatening to kill him when he arrived home. The day before, a package had arrived from one of the most prestigious cooking magazines in the country. Opening it, she had seen the silver trophy that featured an opened soup can on a marble base with an engraving that read, “Soup Can Award.” Her name was engraved in large letters on the marble base. Inside was a note from the editor saying that no one deserved the award more than she did.

There wasn’t any doubt in her mind that Ed had told everyone there that she cooked from cans. As far as she was concerned, this was a career killing disaster. She glared at the third place and three first place trophies from the Culinary Contest for private chefs. After receiving this trophy, those awards were worthless. She screeched, “How could he do that to me?”

George had never seen Marguerite so mad, and couldn’t believe what Ed had done. From the security center, he watched Bob pacing in front of the house. He was at a loss about what he should do in this circumstance. Walt sitting next to him shook his head and said, “This really sucks.”

“Sure does,” replied George. Scratching the side of his head, he added, “It’s my job to protect Ed from them.”

“Sarah is really pissed. She hasn’t come out of her room all morning.”

The two men shook their heads as they thought about what that meant. If Sarah and Cathy were both angry with Ed, then preventing Bob from beating Ed to a pulp would get them in trouble with the women. After several minutes of silence, George said, “Why in the hell did he do that?”

“It must be a joke that went awry,” answered Walt. “It isn’t like him. He’s a stickler for the ‘if it harms none, then do it’ rule.”

The mail arrived and Bob carried it into the house to Cathy. The normal procedure was for George to check the mail for explosives and then give them to Cathy. Then she would deliver the mail to everyone. With a sigh, George said, “Watch the monitor for me and let me know if Ed shows up.”

“Okay.”

Once he had dropped off the mail, Bob returned to his position outside the house. Ed was running late and he wondered if Ed knew how angry Marguerite was with him. That would explain the delay in arriving at home. Outside, he resumed his angry pacing in front of the house knowing that the later Ed arrived, the angrier he would be.

Cathy sat in her office depressed at the current state of affairs in the house. The entire staff was well aware of Marguerite’s fury. She announced it loudly and frequently. Everyone understood her anger, feeling that Ed had insulted them all by having a well known culinary magazine send Marguerite a Soup Can Award. Even in the office, she could hear the occasional shouts as Marguerite vented her anger.

George went through the mail with his normal dispatch until he noticed a magazine with Ed’s picture on the cover. He set the magazine in front of Cathy and tapped the cover with a finger. It wasn’t until she noticed the magazine with Ed’s picture on the cover that she showed any interest in what he was trying to communicate. She opened the magazine and read the article. The article was about Marguerite and how she was the best private chef in the world. Her feelings underwent a complete turnabout, as she became jealous of Marguerite and the attention that Ed had given her. In hindsight, she wondered how she could have doubted Ed for even a minute.

In the dining room, Shuana was waiting for Marguerite to cool down a little. The kitchen was currently a very dangerous place to be and for the time being she preferred the dining room. She flinched as she heard the sounds coming from the kitchen. It hurt to listen as Marguerite threw pots and pans around the room with less than her normal care. The sounds coming from the kitchen were too similar to the sound of hitting canned food with a frying pan for Shuana to mistake it.

Cathy carried the mail for the kitchen into the dining room so that she could give it to Shuana rather than Marguerite. At the moment, she was a little afraid to face the woman. As she dropped off the mail, Cathy said, “You better read the magazine.”

Surprised by the comment from Cathy, Shuana accepted the mail. As she picked up the magazine, she saw the picture of Ed on the cover. A sinking feeling crept into her stomach as she opened the magazine and searched for the article. She, like everyone else on the staff, knew that Ed didn’t give interviews. If his picture was on the cover of the magazine, then this was something very extraordinary.

Marguerite, in the kitchen, shouted, “I’m going to kill that man and can him for dog food. No, that won’t do. It would be cruel to feed that to the dogs.”

Shuana read the article, stunned at the content. The Soup Can Award was intended to be the greatest recognition that a private chef could receive. The award was to recognize private chefs who catered to the individual preferences of their clients regardless of how unsophisticated those preferences might be on occasion. The description of Marguerite in the article was extremely nice and demonstrated his regard for her skills as a chef. Even more importantly, it conveyed the depth of his love for her. Since the article brought tears to her eyes, she knew that Marguerite was going to be a weepy mess when she read the article.

Sticking her head through the door of the kitchen, she said, “Marguerite.”

“What?” Marguerite screamed the question, giving free reign to her anger. Her arms were down by her sides with her hands curled into fists and her face was a mask of rage. Looking at the large woman, Shuana was happy that rage wasn’t directed at her.

Clearing her throat, Shuana replied, “There is something that you need to read.”

Angry, Marguerite retorted, “What? He’s firing me? He can’t fire me. I already quit!”

“Ah, Marguerite. You really need to read this,” said Shuana while she held out the magazine. It was opened to the article.

Marguerite stomped over to the door and grabbed the magazine out of her hand. With the magazine crumpled in her fist she carried it to the table and threw it down. Too angry to read, she turned to leave the table, but stopped when Shuana said, “Marguerite, you should really read the article. Now! It’s about the Soup Can Award.”

Livid at the idea that there was actually an article about the award in the magazine, her face changed from red with rage to white with a cold fury. Shuana, seeing the look on her friend’s face, left the kitchen. She didn’t go far, because she knew that Marguerite would need her once she read the article.

As Cathy spread the word about the article to the rest of the staff, George and Walt came down to the dining room to provide their support. The news that it was a real award and one that meant a lot had eased the tension considerably in the house. All that was left was for Marguerite to realize what an honor Ed had done for her.

From the kitchen, Marguerite screamed, “I’m going to kill that man and can him for dog food. No, that won’t do. It would be too cruel to the dogs.”

Shuana smiled at the difference at how Marguerite had said it this time with how she had been saying it over the past few hours. Rather than enraged, it was frustration at her mistake. The staff chuckled at the change in tone. Finally, Marguerite yelled, “How could he do this to me?”

Shuana stood and said, “Time for me to get in there. The tears are about to begin.”

As the others chuckled, Shuana went into the kitchen finding Marguerite at the table crying over the magazine. With tears running down her face, Marguerite read aloud, “The greatness of a private chef is measured in how well they serve their employers. It isn’t the great recipes that matter, but the pleasure that the food brings. Her food always brings me great pleasure.”

Marguerite sobbed, her shoulders rising and falling. Shuana went over to her and put an arm around the big woman. In response to the show of support, Marguerite grabbed Shuana to hug her back. She said, “Did you read the part about how only the best private chef will cook any dish, even canned soup, desired by her audience?”

Shuana laughed and nodded her head. Ed had put it better than that, but her friend was barely able to see the page through her tears. Marguerite cried out, “How could he do this to me? I was so mad at him and he went and did this to me.”

It wasn’t hard to understand the relationship between Ed and Marguerite. An external observer might easily mistake them for newlyweds based on the way they teased each other. The staff knew otherwise, Ed and Marguerite truly loved each other. Everyone should have known that Ed wouldn’t do anything to hurt her, but like many couples in love there were times when misunderstandings arose.

Marguerite, still sniffing, slowly pulled her self together and said, “I better cook something for him to eat.”

Smiling at her friend, Shuana said, “I would suggest grilled cheese sandwiches and alphabet soup.”

Laughing, Marguerite wiped the tears from her eyes, and said, “That would serve him right.”

Ed rode up in a limousine curious why the staff couldn’t come pick him up at the airport. All Cathy had told him was that the house was in an uproar and that no one could be spared. He rubbed his hands, hoping that he would beat the mail to the house. They had promised him that the trophy and the magazine would arrive today. He hoped to be there to watch the expression on her face when she saw the trophy and read the article.

The limousine pulled up in front of the house where Bob was pacing. Noticing the nervous energy of Bob, Ed got out with his saddlebag and went to talk to him. The limousine pulled away when Bob came running over to Ed. Without pausing to take a breath, he shouted, “You better get out of here before I beat the shit out of you.”

Surprised by the unfriendly greeting, Ed asked, “Why would you want to do that?”

“I’m going to kill you for what you did to Marguerite,” answered Bob confused that Ed might have expected any other kind of reception at the house.

“What did I do?” Ed was very confused by the angry reception and stood looking at Bob puzzled.

“She got the trophy yesterday,” replied Bob, his voice chill with accusation.

“Darn, I wanted to be here when they arrived.”

The reaction of Ed was so odd, that it forced Bob to think about what had happened. Bob was about to reply that Ed had to be crazy. After thinking about it for a second, he realized that Ed had suggested more than one thing was supposed to have been delivered. Puzzled, he asked, “They?”

“Yeah, the magazine and the trophy,” answered Ed as though the answer should be clear.

“What magazine?” He got a sinking feeling in his stomach as he asked the question.

“The magazine with the article about the award,” answered Ed. A very bad feeling came over him as the thought that she might not have gotten the magazine occurred to him. He asked, “She did get the magazine, didn’t she?”

“No.”

“She’s gonna kill me.” Ed groaned and looked at the house knowing exactly what the reaction would be of receiving the trophy alone. It would have been viewed as a major insult without the article that explained the significance of the award. They had promised him that both would be delivered at the same time. The message from Cathy that the house was in an uproar made sense to him. Dreading the answer, he asked, “Did the magazine show up today?”

At the question, Bob realized that the staff didn’t have the full story about the trophy. Concerned about what Marguerite would do to Ed when he came in the house, he answered, “I took in the mail, but I didn’t look at it.”

As the men turned to go into the house, Marguerite came running out with tears streaming down her face. Running right past Bob, she tackled Ed forcing him onto the ground as she followed him down. Straddling him, she started covering him with kisses.

Shocked, Bob stared at his wife wondering what had happened to cause that reaction. He realized that Ed was lucky, the magazine had arrived and she was happy. Sitting on his chest as she continued to cry tears of happiness, she shook her finger in Ed’s face as she said, “I ought to kill you for this.”

She bent down and kissed him again. This time she delivered her kisses with much more passion as her emotions went through another shift. The past few minutes had been a roller coaster of emotions. The rapid succession of emotions from anger to shame to happiness to gratitude to love left her with little control.

From beneath her, Ed struggled to catch his breath. She had knocked his breath away when she had landed on top of him. Bob, seeing him strain to breathe, bent down and pulled Marguerite off Ed saying, “Let him breathe. You’re going to kill him.”

“He deserves it,” replied Marguerite as she turned to hug Bob. It was his turn to be smothered by her in her enthusiasm. Very confused by the turn of events, Bob did his best to hold her up. Shuana came out and helped him with Marguerite while Cathy helped Ed stand once he started breathing normally.