her son. “Okay Sam?”
He put his hands up. “Okay! Okay!” Impatiently he ran his hands through his hair and looked uncomfortable with where the conversation had gone.
*
That Saturday night, Montgomery’s looked sensational. The huge scale of vases filled with white lilies and palm fronds created a totally different feel. The impact of 150 people dressed in white was simply amazing. A welcoming cocktail greeted guests on arrival on the front deck. As they stepped through the front doors, there were waiters with trays laden with a spectacular array of canapés.
In one corner of the restaurant, an oyster bar had been set up. Piled high on a bed of ice, freshly shucked, plump and sweet, they were swimming in their own ocean juices. With just a squidge of lemon and a good grind of pepper, they still carried the sharp tang of the sea.
Floating around as an invited guest, Chilli also saw the need to play hostess, revelling in catching up with Sam and Jason’s friends, some she hadn’t seen for quite some time. Eventually she became engaged in conversation with a gorgeous, blonde, blue eyed, rather tall, young man.
He spoke as if he knew her. “Hi, how’s it going? Good to see you again.”
She knew the face but couldn’t place him. “Yes, you too. It’s a good party isn’t it? Are you enjoying yourself?”
“Yes and loving the food. Your son’s doing a great job.”
Chilli knew he wasn’t one of Sam’s friends, but he acted as if he knew her.
He continued, “I told Dad I was coming to Montgomery’s, and he said if I happened to see you to make sure I said hi from him.”
The penny dropped. This was Jeff Bryson’s son Trent, who she had met at breakfast a few months earlier. Really how could she not have recognised him, when he was a blonde younger version of his father?
“Well make sure you say hi back. I was jogging through Dockside last week and ran into him. The Abbracci is sensational isn’t it? I can imagine that you all get a lot of enjoyment from it.”
Trent nodded and smiled. “Yes we do. We’ve been talking about taking it to the Whitsundays and cruising around up there.”
“How fantastic for you!” She noted that he kept glancing over her shoulder. Turning, she followed his gaze, but didn’t notice anything in particular. She turned back to him. “Now tell me, how do you know Jason and Sarah?”
“A couple of years ago Sarah and I both worked in a pub together in London. Later when we returned home, we caught up again and we’ve been good friends ever since. I like Jason, he seems like a good bloke.” Barely taking a breath, he gestured with his wine glass. “Do you know who that is?”
She glanced in the direction he indicated. “Which one in particular?”
“The one in the white dress, God she’s beautiful.”
Chilli wondered if he realised he was thinking out loud, and couldn’t help but smile. “They’re all in white, but if you mean the little one in the halter, that’s my niece Tiffany.” She did indeed look gorgeous in her Marilyn Monroe dress with halter straps, pleated skirt and a huge diamante buckle at the waist. With her curvy figure and lustrous hair, she was particularly glowing tonight and Chilli had noticed that Trent wasn’t the only admirer she had this evening.
Glancing back at Trent, she was aware that he didn’t appear to be able to tear his eyes away.
“Come and I’ll introduce you.”
For dessert, mini ice-cream sundaes were served in cocktail glasses. They were very grown up sundaes with grown up blueberries, Vienna almonds and wicked dark chocolate sauce.
Remembering Sam and Miranda’s version of a wedding cake, Jason had asked that Sam create something similar for them. As was Sam’s specialty, he steered away from a normal celebration cake, and constructed one using his favourite small biscuit of the moment. Tonight’s cake was constructed from soft macaroons with delicate rosewater butter cream. These too, were piled high on a silver platter with white rose petals scattered throughout.
During speeches, Chilli glanced towards Tiffany and noted that Trent hadn’t left her side since first being introduced.
Glancing around, she was able to see that Montgomery’s was indeed fast becoming successful. It wasn’t going to be a fly by nighter! In the last 14 months, the revues in the newspapers and magazines had been truly outstanding.
Two days ago, a national gourmet magazine had contacted Sam and set up an interview for the coming week. That was worthy of a celebration, being noticed by a magazine of that calibre and being read Australia wide.
And last week a revue had stated; ‘By our calculations, Montgomery’s is the hottest spot in Brisbane at the moment. Sam Montgomery rocks our world. He seems to have a gift of creating dishes of unusual design and taste without apparent effort. The only issue we have is, when is he going to open for dinner in the evenings? We want more of Sam Montgomery.’
It made them realise that in the next few months they did have to rethink the evenings. It was only good sense and timely to increase business. Their plan had always been a steady and slow growth. In Rob’s words; ‘to crawl before they could walk’. Rob would be so proud of them all, but especially of his son. It pleased Chilli to see that Sam had a lot of his father in him.
She felt quite happy and content to go on her one month’s trip to France. Between Sam and Miranda, Montgomery’s was in excellent hands, they had well and truly proven themselves.
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