Personal Chef

Chapter 7

Crazy as it sounds, I had a harder time deciding what to wear to the New Year's Eve party than I had preparing the food.

My mom told me I should dress up for the party since the work I'd be doing was minimal and I'd probably want to blend in instead of standing out as the hired help.

I had all the food prepped. There were several things that had to go in the oven, but I had virtually no cooking to do. My job would be to keep an eye on the dining room table and restock the food as needed. There would also be things on the coffee table that I'd monitor. Pretty easy. I could definitely wear something nice to do these tasks.

At my mother's insistence, I perused her closet. My mom and I were about the same size.

"What about this?" my mom asked, holding up a simple navy blue dress.

It had a v-neckline in both the front and back and the wide straps sat towards the outer edge of the shoulders. It cinched at the waist and fell right above the knee. It would probably be cuter if it were an inch or two shorter, but I had no time for alterations.

My mom pulled out some fuchsia pumps.

"You think?" I asked, holding them up next to the dress.

"Yes! Make a statement."

I was not one for making fashion statements. When I went to cook at Shawn's, I wore blacks pants and a white shirt. I had a bunch of each. It was my uniform.

I tried the outfit on and my mom declared it a winner. She steamed the dress while I showered at my apartment. I went back to the house to get ready. My mom did my hair in a nice simple updo and insisted I borrow some earrings and a necklace. When I looked in the mirror, I was pleased.

I drove with my mom to the catering kitchen and loaded up my SUV with the foods I'd made earlier. My dad was there finishing up the food he was preparing for their gig, along with two other cooks. My parents would be serving at that function. I wished I could be with them instead of at the event I was going to.

Shawn's party wasn't set to start for another 90 minutes, but I wanted to have plenty of time to get everything ready.

I was in the kitchen putting all the refrigerated things away when Shawn surprised me with a catcall whistle.

"You clean up nicely, Chelsea," he said.

I could feel my face turn bright red. "Thanks," I said without looking at him.

"Do you need help?" he asked.

"I just need to find room for everything," I said. "We may need to move some of these drinks out. Maybe put them on the balcony since it's cold?"

"Good idea," he said as he immediately started pulling beers from the shelves. "I have a cooler I can put them in out there."

He got the cooler from a closet and soon there was room in the fridge.

Kat came out a bit later. She was wearing a strapless black dress that accentuated her slim physique. Her long straight blonde hair cascaded down her back. Shawn was wearing black slacks and a black button down. They looked model perfect together.

"Oh Chelsea," she said with the tone I'd grown used to, "I thought you'd be wearing server's clothing. How cute that you dressed up. Nice shoes, too."

I felt my face turn crimson again. "I wasn't given instructions on what to wear and felt this would be the most unobtrusive."

"It's perfect," Shawn said. He then gave Kat a look. She shot a much fiercer look back at him.

"I'm going to go down to get the serving pieces out of my SUV," I said.