‘I suppose so. I’m just being impatient. Come on, let’s get changed.’
They moved towards the changing rooms, but just outside the lounge area they heard a cry that sounded like someone in pain. After a quick glance at each other, Jay pushed through the door with Rav hot on his heels. As Jay stopped short in shock, Rav bumped into him. To his surprise, Louis was lying on the floor clutching his groin in agony. Standing above him with her hair escaping from her plait and her face bright red was Chloe.
‘Are you okay?’ Jay asked her, even though Louis was the one on the ground.
‘I am now,’ she said defiantly and then looked down at Louis. ‘But if you try anything like that again, a knee in the groin will be the least of your worries.’ With that she stepped around them all and stormed out of the room.
Jay and Rav looked at each other in astonishment.
‘Did you see what she did? You’re my witnesses,’ Louis gasped from the floor.
‘I didn’t see anything.’ Jay turned around to follow Chloe out of the room.
She was sitting on a chair in Reception. All her defiance had gone and she was trembling as she held her head in her hands.
Jay crouched down before her, but far enough away so that she didn’t feel he was invading her space.
‘Are you okay?’
She nodded numbly.
‘Want to talk about it?’
She held her head up and he could see that she was close to tears.
‘He caught me alone in the room, came on to me, and told me that if I was nice to him he’d make sure I got through to the next round.’
‘That’s disgusting,’ Jay said, appalled at Louis’ behaviour.
‘Isn’t it? And when I said no, he tried to take what he wanted anyway. But his loafers were no defence for my boots. And once I’d caught him off guard, I gave him a good knee in the nuts, which is when you came in.’
‘That must have been really scary.’
‘For a few minutes it was,’ Chloe said. ‘But I’ve trained in some of the toughest restaurants and there are a lot of chefs who behave like him, so over the years I’ve learned to defend myself.’
‘You shouldn’t have to though.’
At the sound of footsteps, they both looked up, to see Louis with his bag and his coat. He cast a brief, worried glance at them and scuttled out of the door.
Rav joined them. ‘Well, at least he’s gone now.’
‘Are you going to report him?’ Jay asked.
Chloe nodded her head. ‘Oh yes. I’m not going to let him get away with this.’
‘If you want some moral support while you speak to the judges, I’d be happy to come with you.’
‘That will be wonderful, thanks.’
‘And I’ll come too,’ Rav agreed. ‘We may not have seen the actual assault but we’d trust you over Louis any day.’
‘Thanks guys, I really do appreciate it.’
* * *
The three of them walked back into the kitchen area, where Angela and Philip were still huddled over their notebooks, obviously discussing the outcome of the day.
Chloe cleared her throat.
