Personal Chef

Chapter 47

After Shawn left, I called Drew to check on Lainey. I desperately needed some happy news after all the crap I'd gone through with Shawn. He told me that the contractions she'd been having weren't real. They'd gone to the hospital in the middle of the night but had been sent home. He promised to call me as soon as she was really in labor.

I got back to work and lost track of time. Late that afternoon, Paige knocked at the door before using her key to open it.

Paige was working for me. She had school in the middle of the day, but she was going to work in the mornings before classes. Once I was open all day, she'd switch to working evenings. She was essentially an assistant manager, but she'd fill in wherever she was needed. She'd learned how to operate the espresso machine so that she could work the coffee bar and had quite a bit of experience waiting tables. If the bistro actually got popular, she'd work as a hostess.

"Hey, Chelsea," she said as she walked in. "I figured you'd be here."

"I'm always here these days," I said with a laugh.

"What this," she asked, peering into the big box Shawn had brought.

"It's a birthday present. They are still-life photographs from Hayden's gallery," I said.

"Oh. I didn't know that he was still giving them to you," she commented.

"You knew Shawn bought them?"

She nodded. "He bought them ages ago. Hayden told me after he'd done it. They were supposed to be a gift for opening the restaurant."

"Want to help me hang them?" I asked.

While we worked, I told her about Shawn's visit and how weird it had been.

"You two are in this strange limbo where you are still in love but can't be together. I can't even imagine how that feels," she said.

"It feels like shit," I told her. "And it really bothers me that he waited so long to contact me when he got back, and then when he came to see me, he knew he had a flight to catch and couldn't be with me for long."

"You did tell him to give you space. Maybe he was doing that. This separation obviously hurts him, too."

"To me it felt like I was low down on his list of priorities."

"I think it's probably the opposite. You two haven't spoken since he left. Maybe he was afraid to reach out, and getting drunk gave him the courage," she theorized.

I sighed. "Is it crazy that sometimes I just want to be mad at him because that would be so much easier? He's doing the right thing with the baby, so I can't hate him for it."

"You can hate him a little for accidentally ruining your life. I think that's allowed."

It took us a while to figure out the spacing, but once they were hung up, the photos looked amazing. Shawn had been right about which wall they'd look best on.

Paige had dinner plans with Hayden, so I walked home to my apartment and made myself some Thai peanut zoodles for dinner. I smiled as I thought of Shawn's zoodle song and then burst into tears.

Around ten o'clock, Drew called and said Lainey's water broke. They were headed back to the hospital since baby Price's arrival was imminent. I wished them good luck.

It was actually perfect that the baby was almost two weeks early. Sure I was busy with the restaurant, but I could theoretically fly out there tomorrow, see the baby, and catch a red-eye home the following night. If I went to work early in the morning, and did on paperwork on the flight, I'd really only be missing half a day of work. I decided to do it.