Chapter Eight: Part I, You can run but you can't hide.

The following week, an impromptu early morning phone call from Lærke woke Roz from her deep slumber. After blinking a few times to confirm it was in fact Lærke's name displayed, Roz answered barely getting in a groggy Hello. "Roz, you are not going to believe this," Lærke bluttered, "You know, I still get the feed from EATLDN, looking at it when I'm bored or can't sleep. Well, they just posted a really bad review about Fundament." This news completely jolted Roz awake as Lærke made this alarming declaration. Lærke began reciting the article's headline, 'Sous-chef at FUNDAMENT claims, 'Head Chef Mikkel Jensen refuses to serve loyal customers as well as throws out perfectly good food on a daily basis. What a combination!" Roz could not believe what she was hearing. Clearly Anthony had gone to the editor after their messy and catastrophic reunion. Overwhelmed by the intro to what was sure to be a lecherous exposé, Roz quickly got off the call with Lærke, and powered up her laptop to read the entire piece for herself. The article was filled with the snippets Preben had revealed to her, that she had then naively related to Anthony - except now, all those tidbits, the hearsay and farfetched folklore were presented as "fact" - overblown, twisted and exaggerated in the exact manner her review was packaged on her one and only EATLDN article.


There had never been a day since arriving in Copenhagen where Roz had just wanted to lock her bedroom door, curl up in the fetal position and wish the world away. But Roz knew she needed to get into the restaurant as quickly as she could to do some damage control before anyone had read the scandalous and inaccurate blog post. Roz had never ridden, parked and locked her bike more quickly than that day. As she entered the restaurant, she immediately locked eyes with Preben just as he was exiting Mikkel's office. He did not look happy. As she walked slowly towards him she could instantly tell that EATLDN exposé was now public knowledge.


"I didn't want to believe that you were working incognito again." Roz was startled but not surprised by Preben's attitude and angry accusations. "You know, I heard you in the cab that night, when you told Lærke about working undercover for that food blog in London. But stupid me, I believed you when you said you were just here in Copenhagen working as a server." Roz tried in vain to interject, "But Preben that's true." Preben wasn't having it as he continued with his allegations. "That same night when we all went out for the first time, I thought I was just telling my new English friend some stories about Mikkel. But you twisted my words Roz," Preben stated in a very harsh and hurtful tone. "Preben, listen to me, I can fix all this..." Roz pleaded but was cut off by Preben. "The whole time we have been together, our relationship has been fake, a lie. You were just some reporter using me to get dirt to write trash for that blog. What is there to fix, Roz? Considering this was your plan all along. I'm surprised you even showed up here today. Mikkel is thinking about firing me. He's going to love that you are here, you phony!" He gave her one final look of disdain before disappearing back into the kitchen. Roz's entire body felt frozen to the ground, but she somehow forced herself to knock on Mikkel's door. Not waiting for an invitation to enter, Roz slowly walked into the dimly lit office space- there Mikkel sat behind his desk, fixated on his computer screen. Once he realized it was Roz, he turned the screen towards her. Roz didn't need to see to know he was on the EATLDN site, rereading the FUNDAMENT article. Roz began rambling in the hopes that Mikkel would hear her side of the story, "OK yes, Mikkel, I did write one piece for EATLDN, but my words got completely twisted! But I didn't write this piece. I mean, Preben was jokingly telling me some funny far fetched stories about you and Fundament. And when Anthony unexpectedly showed up, I recounted the stories to him, just in passing conversation. Never in a million years would I think he'd go to EATLDN." Mikkel was listening, but then wondered, "There's something that you're still not telling me. I did a little digging on your friend Anthony, and made the connection. Your article in EATLDN brought down his family's restaurant. Anthony was coming here to take revenge on you, and guess what, the potential downfall of my restaurant is just an unfortunate consequence of your underhanded behaviour and the bad blood between you two." At that point, Roz realized how ridiculous her story sounded and slowly backed up towards the door. Mikkel opened the top drawer of his desk in search of Roz's pre-signed work contract. She took that opportunity to slip out of the office.


As Roz finally made it back to her AirBnB she already had her mind made up: she was returning to London. She tried to slip into her bedroom unnoticed so that Astrid would not hear her. But nothing got past Astrid as she called out from her home office space, "Roz? Back so soon?" "Yep, it's me. Not feeling well, going to lay down," Roz stated, trying to sound as normal as possible but again, nothing got past Astrid. "I guess you're feeling a little sick after the release of that EATLDN article on Fundament this morning." She had forgotten that Astrid started to follow EATLDN after Roz told her about the whole sordid history between her and the now notorious food blog. Roz let out a sigh of defeat and slumped down onto the couch in the living room as she declared, "Everything is ruined so I am moving back to London. The sooner the better." Astrid then sat down beside the one-shoed Roz and put her arm around her. "You are just running away again. That is no way to solve your problems. Problems that you created." Roz then tried to defend herself, "But this all has to do with EATLDN. They are a nasty, horrid, diabolical outfit, concerned more with readership than honest journalism." Astrid calmly listened then replied, "While that may be true, why were you not honest with Anthony from the beginning? How honest have you been about your role in all this? You need to face situations like this if you ever want to be considered a journalist with integrity." Roz wiped a tear from her eye and said, "You're right Astrid. Thanks." Then she stood, took off her other shoe, and made her way to her bedroom. Roz then opened up her laptop, logged into her once highly followed food blog for the first time since leaving London and began typing.


Hello my Roz Buds. Long time no chat...

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