Personal Chef

Chapter 10

Shawn had instructed me to meet him and his manager at a restaurant not far from his condo. I got there five minutes early, but saw they were already seated. Both men stood as I approached the table, and Shawn pulled out a chair for me. As he pushed it in, he whispered in my ear, "You look lovely tonight, Chels."

I'd put in quite a bit of effort. If I was possibly getting fired, I was going to go down looking good. I'd borrowed another dress from my mom, this one a snug beige wrap-around. I paired it with black pumps. I'd blown my hair out and had then curled it into soft ringlets. I even spent more than five minutes on my make-up.

I couldn't help but take note of how handsome Shawn looked tonight. He was wearing a black button down shirt with tiny polka dots and incredibly snug dress pants.

"How have you been, Chelsea?" Andrew asked after the waiter had taken my drink order.

"I've been well, thank you. Yourself?"

Andrew smiled. "Everything's great. You're probably wondering what this meeting is about."

That was an understatement. My gut told me it was something bad. In fact, I'd concocted a whole scenario in my mind.

I knew Kat had issues with me. She didn't like me, and she didn't like my cooking. She also didn't like Shawn spending so much time with me. He'd told me that himself. Kat and Shawn had just had a fight. The conclusion I jumped to was that she wanted him to fire me. I'm sure he wasn't lying about her wanting him to move to California, but I sensed there was more to it. Maybe she knew Shawn and I had gotten friendlier. Maybe this was a way of asserting control. Maybe he told her he wouldn't move, and the compromise was that he'd get rid of me. I obviously didn't know the particulars, but I was sure of the end result.

I didn't say anything, though. I just nodded.

The waiter returned with my glass of red wine. He went over the specials and left us to look at our menus. Andrew was apparently waiting until we'd ordered to get down to business.

I took a long sip of the smooth merlot. I wasn't going to hold it against Shawn if I were fired. I was confident that he liked the food I'd prepared. Of course he'd choose Kat if he was forced to pick one of us. She was his girlfriend; it made perfect sense.

The waiter returned again and we placed our orders. I'd decided on lobster ravioli in a pesto cream sauce. As soon as the waiter retreated, Andrew spoke again.

"You know Shawn's going to be recording his next album in California soon, right?"

"I just recently found out. That's great!"

It suddenly clicked. The easiest way to fire me was to just tell me I was on leave while he was gone and then say my services were no longer required. It hit me that I'd probably never cook for Shawn again after he left to record the new album. I'd probably see him because he was friends with Ben, but it would be a rare occurrence.

Shawn looked at me and touched my arm. "Are you okay? You look sad."

I shook my head. "I'm fine. But look, if you want to let me go, just do it. Don't use the recording trip as an excuse."

Shawn and Andrew looked at each other. I instantly regretted blurting that out. I'd promised myself I'd be calm and composed throughout the dinner, no matter what they said.

"Chelsea, what are you talking about?" Andrew asked.

"I, um, assumed this dinner was about firing me."

Shawn's jaw dropped. "Why would you think that? You know how much I love the food you make. And Jesus, we've become friends. Why would I fire you, especially without any warning?"

I suddenly felt very stupid. I wasn't about to reveal my entire convoluted thought process that got me to the false conclusion.

"Sorry, I just had a feeling."

Andrew chuckled. "The reason we're meeting is because Shawn wants you to come to California. He wants you to cook for him and for the other people staying in the house, myself included for part of the time. I'm here to go over the proposition with you since you'd need better compensation. We're asking you to uproot your life for a month and to cook for more people. You deserve a lot more money for that."

I now felt even stupider than before.

"What do you say, Chels?" Shawn asked, his hand still on my arm.

I was having trouble wrapping my brain around what Andrew had just proposed. My initial reaction was relief, though. I also felt some excitement about the prospect of spending a month in California.

"I think it sounds great, but wouldn't it be easier to just hire a temporary personal chef who is local?"

"It's not about what's easier. I want you. You know what I like and don't like. You adapt foods to however I'm leaning in terms of diet. You just get me. Also, everything you've ever cooked has been delicious. It has to be you."

I was incredibly flattered by his kind words. "Thank you," I said, blushing.

Andrew threw out a figure in terms of pay. It made me gasp, but I couldn't talk them out of it. This bonus would bring me very close to being able to open a restaurant.

Our dinner was lovely. We spent the rest of the night making small talk while leisurely eating our food. When we were done, Shawn walked me to my car while Andrew went back to Shawn's condo to start making my travel arrangements.

"Your mom and dad will be able to manage without you?" he asked as we walked to the parking garage.

"They'll make do. They hired two people recently and they are working out well."

We got to my car and stood by my door.

"What about Ben?" Shawn asked, looking down at his shoes. "You've been together a while. Will it be hard to leave him?"

Funny, leaving Ben had not crossed my mind until Shawn brought it up.

"It's only a month."

Shawn looked at me. "Are you two serious?"

Honestly, I had no idea how to respond to that. Serious? What did that even mean? We were exclusive. We saw each other frequently. We enjoyed our dates. But we'd not yet made an official commitment to each other and we were still not having sex.

"Chelsea?" Shawn asked after I hadn't answered.

"I'm not really sure."

He gave me a puzzled look. "Maybe you should run it by him. I don't want to cause any friction between the two of you."

"I think he'll understand. Besides, he has school, and the trip will be close to his finals. Maybe he'll be happy to have more time for studying."

"It's your call."

I clicked my key fob to unlock the door. "It's funny you're so concerned about me and Ben having a short separation when you and Kat have had a long distance relationship for over a year. You make it work, and this will be nothing in comparison."

A thought hit me like a ton of bricks. Would Kat be there at the recording house? Was she one of the people I'd be cooking for? She wanted Shawn to move to California to be closer to her, so it made sense that they'd spend every possible minute together while he was there. Fuck. What initially sounded like a pretty awesome job opportunity now sounded like it could be hell.

Shawn sighed and ran his left hand through his hair. "Kat and I broke up."