All about him

Bundle of nerves...

Once he was back in office, he had back to back meetings and hardly had any time to breathe. It was evening already, and he checked his mobile for any messages from either of them.

"How's your friend?" Engin walked in to see him staring at his mobile again.

"Well I guess it's time you know. You might want to sit down first." Ferit put his mobile aside and relaxed in his chair.

"Ah things have moved on... spit It out now" Engin pulled a chair and sat down.

"This chef is Naz." He stated.

"Sorry who? Naz... Naz as in your secret friend from years ago" Engin only knew there was a girl called Naz, he was chatting with during their internship days but not that she was Demir's sister.

"That's interesting... Now I am interested to meet this chef. When are you introducing us?" Engin continued.

"What for?" Ferit frowned at Engin.

"I do want to meet this girl, who my friend is interested in." Engin knew there was more to it than Ferit was letting out.

"Interested? She is already my old friend, chef and business partner soon. There's no question about it." Ferit dismissed Engin's ideas.

"Not sure if you're convincing me or yourself. Never say never though, the list seems to be getting bigger from business partner to chef to friend." Engin winked and left as he knew Ferit would not tolerate him any further.

Probably he should not have told Engin. Now, he was going to tease him at every opportunity he got. He thought it was better to go home. He finally had a quiet night in. He turned on his favorite record and went to heat up his dinner. He got a text titled 'Stuffed Artichokes' and an ingredient list to go with it. He liked what he ate and texted 'Thank you. It tastes good.'

'From not bad to good... well done to me" She replied.

He wondered what she was doing to him and then sighed. Initially he thought he was attracted to her as she seemed mysterious but even after the recent turn of events, he was still bothered by her thoughts. It would be a dangerous path to go down and he was not willing to risk it. She was his friend and will continue to be, nothing further.

xxx

She came back home early evening after her shopping spree with Zeynep. Though she was not too keen on shopping, she realised it was Zeynep's attempt to make up for the lost time and could not refuse. She relied heavily on Fatos when it came to fashion advice. She was pretending to watch some documentary, but her thoughts were about him. He liked her food. She thought once the truth came out, she would be able to handle things better, but he seemed to drive her crazier. Was Fatos right in thinking she was falling for him? He almost caught her staring at his bare torso yesterday.

She needed distraction from him. She forgot about the restaurant due to all that happened. It was time to focus on that. She needed to research the local market, find suppliers who she can trust and carve out her menu. Also, do more research on her other idea, for which she would need to convince Manami and Ferit. Knowing Ferit, she had to make it watertight to even get a chance of consideration. There was a lot that needed to be done.

A week passed by and she was proud to tick most of the items she set out to do. She hardly met him this week as he was out most of the time and left notes for him to avoid messaging. She met Zeynep for lunch most days and managed to sneak in a few play dates with Bulut in her busy week. Things were going well, and she managed to keep him out of her thoughts.

Ferit left her a note that he would not eat at home that weekend. She visited a farm earlier that week as part of her research and liked what she saw. They kept things natural and she promised to return soon to pick some of their beautiful tomatoes. So, that was what she decided to do with her weekend. While she was busy plucking tomatoes, she missed a few calls from her sister-in-law. She called her back as soon as she saw them.