Staci hung up the phone and left the coffee shop, feeling a million times better. As she walked back to Times Square and her hotel, she felt the weight of that bracelet Remy had given her. At the concierge desk, she slipped the bracelet off her wrist and put it in a envelope to be delivered to Remy’s room.
She wasn’t over what had happened by any means but shewas in control again and she knew that she was headed in the right direction.
TWO HOURS LATER REMYGOT the text he’d been waiting for. He hadn’t been able to find Staci anywhere in the city and he suspected that when he did find her she wasn’t going to be in a mood to listen.
Which put him in a really bad mood. But he tried to shake it off as he walked upstairs to the meeting room where he found Jack waiting outside.
“What’s the verdict?”
“The judges want to talk to you,” Jack explained. “If they agree to let you stay I’ll need some extra filming time with you and I’d like to include an interview with your father.”
“Why?”
“He’s the reason you were pretending to be someone else, right?” Jack asked.
“Yes, but I don’t think that has anything to do with the show. My parents didn’t even know where I was. I needed to disappear.”
“And you did, which was great for you and of course our good luck that you can cook but you still misrepresented yourself,” Jack said.
“My dad won’t do it, Jack. I know the man and he doesn’t think much of reality TV,” Remy said.
“Okay, go and see the judges. I’ll try to think of an angle...but your dad disapproving of what we’re doing might work.”
Remy just shook his head. The room he entered was a board room with a large dark wooden table in the middle and several large armchairs set around it. On the wall were black and white photos of iconic New York City landmarks.
“Have a seat, Remy,” Hamilton said from the head of the table.
Lorenz and Greg were seated on either side of him. The men were all dressed in suits and had very serious expressions. As they should, Remy thought. He pulled out a chair at the end of the table directly across from Hamilton and sat down.
“We’ve had a long talk and we can see why you did it,” Hamilton said. “To some extent we even admire it.”
“Thank you, Chef,” Remy said.
“It’s our decision that you can remain in the competition,” Lorenz said. “We haven’t spoken to the rest of the contestants yet. You will have to go on camera and explain what you were doing and why. Jack will have Fatima explain that we’re giving you a second chance.”
“Thank you so much,” Remy said. “And again I’m sorry for what I did.”
“We accept your apology. If you will move down here by us, we are going to call the rest of the contestants in for you to explain the situation to them. We have to give them a chance to adjust to this news before we all go to Ramsfeld’s tonight.”
“Do you think it will affect the competition and the elimination challenge?” Remy asked.
“Not on our part but we want your peers to have a chance to hear the news and discuss it. Then we can move on.”
Remy nodded. He was as ready as he’d ever be to face the remaining chefs. “Is Staci with them?”
“Yes, she is,” Hamilton said. “She said it didn’t matter to her what name you used, she was still going to beat you.”
Of course she did. Leave it to Staci to pull her defenses back around her and start showing the world her game face. He wished she would have at least let him explain privately what had been going on, instead of just assuming he was lying to hurt her.
Pete got up and left the room and Remy could onlyassume it was to get the otherPremier Chefcontestants. He hadn’t expected to feel nervous but his palms were sweaty and he realized he’d rather have a cook off against every single one of them than have to tell them he’d lied to them.
He suspected more than one of them might want him kicked out of the competition. “Why did you decide to let me stay?” Remy asked.
“Your skills,” Lorenz said. “We started this competition to find the best chefs in the country and highlight them. We’ve been surprised in each series how many good chefs there are around the country. To a certain extent you are the epitome of that.”
“What do you mean?” Remy asked.
“The Cruzel family doesn’t cook outside of New Orleans but brings Michelin judges to their part of the world. You’re the head chef at a three-starred kitchen, that counts for a lot. And you didn’t have to go to France or Britain or New York.”
