The Wrong Door

The restaurant was trendy and ill-lit. Laura stumbled towards the Ladies. She’d left her glasses on the table and her napkin was tucked into the belt of her little black dress. The passage was even dimmer than the restaurant. She came to a door and pushed through.
+++++White kitchen light blinded her. Her arm was seized in a fierce grip. A sweating chef, cross laced like a white parcel, pulled her over to a table covered in white plates.
+++++‘You plate the salmon, I’ll drizzle the sauce.’ He barked at her, handing her a pair of tongs.
+++++‘But I’m………’ she pulled away.
+++++‘Shut-up, we’re running late. Just get on with it.’
+++++The chef pushed a tray of steaming salmon steaks towards her. She hesitated. He swore, wrenched the tongs from her hand and hipped her roughly aside.
+++++‘Fucking agency staff.’ He snarled, shifting salmon with one hand, pooling sauce with the other. His back was eloquent.
+++++Her free arm was seized by a waiter.
+++++‘Come on, Table 24 has been waiting too long. You take the lambs. I’ll do the veg.’
+++++The waiter smacked two warm plates into her hands, each with a pair of lamb noisettes staring up at her. He pushed her through the doors ahead of him. She stood before her new lover on Table 24 in her little black dress with the stained napkin at her waist.
+++++His eyes widened.
+++++She took a deep breath.
+++++‘Sacrificial lamb, Sir?’ she enquired.
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Vivien Jones lives on the north Solway shore in Scotland. She is a semi-professional early musician along with her husband, Richard. Her short stories and poetry have been widely published and broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and Radio Scotland – her first themed collection of short stories, Perfect 10, was published in September 2009 by Pewter Rose Press.

Her first poetry collection – About Time, Too – was published in August 2010 by Indigo Dreams Publishing. In August 2010 she won the Poetry London Prize, her work chosen by Michael Longley. She has been awarded a Writer’s Bursary from Creative Scotland for her next project on the theme of women amongst warriors. For more information visit www.vivienjones.info.