Personal Chef

Chapter 71

"I want to throw a party to celebrate us getting engaged," Shawn said as we drove back to Toronto on Friday morning.

"You mean an engagement party?" I asked with a laugh.

"That's it! Can we do that?"

"I think typically engagement parties are thrown for a couple by friends or family, but I guess we could throw one. We'd need to stipulate that there's no need for gifts so that it doesn't look like we're doing it for presents."

"C'mon Chels, would anyone think that? It's not like we can't buy anything we want," he said.

"True, but I still like the no gift thing. When we get married we can ask for donations to a charity in lieu of wedding gifts."

"I'm kind of happy to see it's not just me you're weird about getting money or gifts from," he teased.

"Maybe it's a little quirk of mine," I said. "I accepted this gorgeous ring without hesitation, though."

"It looks damn good on your finger."

I held it up and admired it. "It sure does."

"So back to the party, we could do it in early December at our place. String lots of lights but have it before we put a tree up so it's not too Christmassy?" he said.

The mention of stringing lights made me think of something. "Or we could have it at my bistro. I could pay my staff double to work it."

"That's a fucking fantastic idea!"

"Do you have many commitments in December? New single dropping? Trip to Europe?" I asked.

"Next single drops in the middle of November. It's only a remix so it'll pretty much promote itself."

I knew this, of course, but I wasn't sure of the timing.

"So we'll close the restaurant to the public and invite up to around forty of our friends and family to celebrate with us. Since it's far enough in advance, maybe I can convince Drew and Lainey to visit. My parents will already be here."

"Forty is going to be tough. That's twenty each. We're looking at only our closest friends if we have to keep it that small," he said.

"I only have a handful of family members and our friends are mutual. You'll get to invite way more than just twenty."

He seemed relieved by this.

The rest of the drive we talked about the months ahead. He had several appearances coming up that I couldn't accompany him on. Not that I was too upset about missing a chance to be in the limelight. Having cameras flash at me wasn't my thing. I didn't love that he'd be gone a lot, but at the same time I was now secure enough in our relationship that it didn't worry me.

We got home mid-morning and I quickly changed into my work clothes. I gave Shawn a quick peck on the lips before getting ready to leave.

"I probably won't come by today since I have a phone conference with Andrew and then another with my label," he said.

"And you're probably sick of me after several days of seclusion in a tiny cabin!"

"Never!" he said before pulling me in for a much bigger kiss than the one I'd given him.

"I'll miss my ring today," I said sadly as we walked to the door.

I wasn't wearing it because I had a ton of baking to do. I wasn't about to risk taking it off in the busy kitchen, so it was safer to just leave it at home. Plus, we hadn't shared our big news outside of our families and closest friends, who had all reacted the same way. They'd been overjoyed but not very surprised. Until we made some sort of announcement, I wasn't wearing my ring outside our home. Shawn was talking to Andrew about how best to break the news to the public during their call later.