Personal Chef

Chapter 4

"How was California?" I asked as I handed Shawn his plate.

I'd made him a Greek salad with grilled chicken.

"It was good. Three days without any carbs kind of sucked, though."

His girlfriend must be an amazing person (or amazing fuck) if he was so easily controlled by her.

"You should have texted me to make your food carb-heavy today," I said, "because what I planned is not."

Shawn groaned. "Can you maybe add some carbs to dinner? Or make me a real dessert? Please?"

"I'll make you dessert, but you'd better keep it on the down low from your girl."

He smiled widely. "It'll be our secret."

I finished cleaning up and left. It would be easier to come back earlier than usual tonight to make dessert and prep the breakfasts.

At the catering kitchen, I helped my dad make hors d'oeuvres for a function they had tonight and then looked through his recipes for something extra decadent for dessert. Everything he had on file made gigantic quantities, so that was useless.

"What's a rich dessert I could make on a small scale?" I asked him.

He thought a second. "Chocolate mousse. You could easily halve or quarter a recipe."

"If you were craving carbs, would that satisfy the craving?"

"Buy some almond cookies and crumble them on top. Or put them at the bottom of the cup before adding the mousse."

"Genius. Thanks, dad."

I popped in the office and chatted with my mom a bit before hitting the store.

An hour later I was at Shawn's getting ready to make the mousse. I had no idea if he was home or not. Usually I saw him, so I figured he was out. I pulled my AirPods out of purse and popped them in. I chose a playlist of dance music I'd recently made and started it up. As I cooked, I danced around the kitchen.

The mousse was in the fridge and I was trimming some green beans for dinner. One of my favorite funk/disco songs from the 70's was playing, and I was bopping my head along with the beat of the bass.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and shrieked. I turned around and saw Shawn standing there laughing.

I plucked out my wireless ear buds and set them next to my phone after hitting pause.

"Sorry. I didn't know you were home," I said, embarrassed.

"I just got in. What were you listening to?"

"Just a playlist I made."

"Can I see?" he asked, nodding over at my phone.

I'm a fairly private person, so having him peruse and possibly critique my music preferences bugged me, but I felt weird telling him no. I unlocked my phone and handed it to him.

I watched as he scrolled through the long playlist.

"I like it," he said. "Can you send it to me?"

"Um, sure," I said. "You're holding my phone. You can send it to yourself."

He did just that and handed it back to me.

"What's for dinner?" he asked.

"I changed tonight's menu since you said you wanted carbs. I'm making mushroom risotto, steamed green beans, and a salad."

"Nice. Dessert?"

"I made chocolate mousse. It's in the fridge."

He opened the refrigerator and looked. "You made two. You should have one with me," he said.