Take Out Chef

Chapter Eight

Chapter's song: kiss me by Olly Murs

Tom arrived after lunch. He acted as innocent as ever, but to be honest, I thought it was mean and unprofessional to leave Bryan, in the first day of school, no less. Bryan had been crabby all morning. To me. He was being extra nice and patient to everyone else.

However, I couldn't complain. Even bad-humored, he wasn't as bad as Nadia ─though I had feeling that no one was as mean as her.

Today was sort of boring. We didn't jump in the kitchen as almost everyone expected. Bryan and Tom gave us the basic notions of culinary history. Two hours before school finished, we were asked to pair up because we were going to start with one of the basic dishes: poached salmon. I looked around, and everyone had found their partner. Nobody wanted to pair up with me.

Surreptitiously, I glanced at Monica. She noticed that I was glancing at her because she shook her head with an apologetic smile on her face. She gestured to the girl next to her, I guessed she asked her first.

Awesome. I sighed. I was the odd one.

My stomach rolled as I doodled around on my folder over the counter.

"Simmons! Wake up!" I looked up and everyone was staring at me. A pair of turquoise eyes glared my way. "Could you pay attention? I told you to come here!" Bryan acted out as being annoyed at my lack of attention but as I approached him, a flicker of understanding flashed through his eyes. Like really quick. Nobody noticed it and I was pretty sure that I shouldn't have noticed either. But I did.

I could have hugged the guy. Bryan was super bossy, but he was kind, in his cold and obtuse way.

He gave me directions to poach the salmon. Everyone observed what I did. Bryan didn't miss a chance to correct every little detail he could. But then again, I was thankful for his intervention and complied as best as I could.

The class went on and everyone got to work. Two teams made a mess ─I had no idea how they managed to make a mess poaching salmon─ but Bryan was really patient. Thankfully, he made them clean afterwards. Tom walked around giving a comment or two but when his girlfriend arrived ─ignoring everyone─ he left the class.

Some of the girls were disappointed that he wasn't directing the course but Bryan was great. Much better than Tom. He seemed grave but he was also patient.

When the class finished, every team cleaned up their station. Since I had no team, I had to clean up everything by myself and ended up being the last one to finish. As I was drying the last pot I used, a loud bang on the counter made me yelp.

Andrew was the culprit. His right hand was still made into a fist. "I called your name twice."

"Sorry, I am sort of a day dreamer. My brother complains about it endlessly."

He shook his head with a small smile playing on his lips. I stared at the ring on his lip and wondered if it hurt. It seemed like it did.

"I just wanted to tell you that if the chef lets you, we can partner up tomorrow."

I blinked at him. His proposition surprised me.

"Aren't you afraid to be seen with a girl like me?" I raised an eyebrow throwing back the same words he said earlier.

His smile widened as he leaned both arms on the counter. "I like dangerous situations."

I cracked up at that. "I can tell." I placed the pot in its place. "Thank you," I said in a soft tone with a small smile on my face.

He nodded once before pushing away. "See you around."

Monica was right. He was a nice guy disguised as a bad boy.