Personal Chef

Chapter 78

Before I knew it, it was Christmas. I was busy at the restaurant, and it felt like time just flew by. I couldn't complain, though. Business was great! I was clearing a decent profit each month. Because of this, I'd given all of my employees a raise. Roslyn and Paige both got significant increases. I was planning on taking some time off when Shawn toured the following year, since we'd never had a honeymoon, and they deserved to be well compensated for taking up the slack when I was gone. Paige was graduating in June and I knew she wouldn't be around forever, but she said she wanted to stay at the bistro through the end of next summer. I dreaded having to hire another manager, but I'd lucked out with Ros and might be as fortunate again.

My wonderful husband and I had a lovely first Christmas together.

We woke up on the 25th and made coffee, which we took to the tree in the living room where our gifts to each other were waiting. Shawn and I sat on the floor in our pajamas eating cranberry orange scones with our much-needed caffeinated beverages. We'd been up late the night before wrapping all the presents for his family. We had gotten my side of the family done weeks earlier since they had to be shipped to Vancouver, but we'd left his to the last minute. It had been so fun sitting at the dining room table together drinking wine while Christmas music filled the condo. We sang along to all the classics and got sillier and sillier as the night wore on. The little things like that were what I cherished the most about married life.

Shawn pulled out a small package. "You first," he said with a grin.

I unwrapped the box and opened it. Inside was a beautiful women's Armani smart watch.

We'd set a limit on how much we could spend. Or maybe I'd set a limit, and he had grudgingly agreed to it.

I eyed my husband. "How does this fit our budget?"

"It was free! They offered me a new watch for the upcoming ad campaign I'm shooting, and I asked if I could get one for you instead. You never said there was a limit on the value of this gift, just a spending limit."

Leave it to Shawn to find a loophole. I couldn't get mad at him because he was right.

"It's just perfect. It's lovely and much dressier than my Apple Watch. I can wear this out when we go nice places," I said as I admired the gift.

"My turn!" he said excitedly, as he grabbed a present with his name on it.

The paper was torn off and he opened the shirt box to reveal a Chelsea's Bistro shirt. My staff had begged to get shirts made for work and I'd agreed. I'd given each of them four shirts in different colors along with their holiday bonus. Shawn had admired them, so I'd had one made for him in my favorite sage green.

"Awesome!" he said.

He then pulled off the Blue Jays shirt he was wearing with his flannel pants and put it on. It wasn't exactly an Armani watch, but he seemed genuinely pleased.

We continued to open gifts. He'd bought me some lacy panties and a satin nighty and I'd bought him new underwear and socks. He fully admitted that his sexy gifts were as much for him as they were for me. He begged me to model and I did.  This led to a brief intermission in our present exchange since Shawn pounced on me and made me glad Santa was long gone and couldn't see how naughty we were.

We resumed unwrapping presents. I'd bought him some clothes, and he'd bought me a beautiful La Creuset soup pot I'd had my eye on months ago. I loved that he remembered, and I laughed when he insisted it had been in the clearance section and therefore fit the budget limit. We also bought each other some fun and silly gifts.

In the end I realized that he was a much better gift giver than me. I suspected that my resistance to get generous gifts also made me not as good at giving them. I decided that as a New Year's resolution I'd learn to pick out thoughtful things and try to ease up on my money issues. Not that Shawn complained, of course. He acted like each gift I gave him was exactly what he wanted.