Take Out Chef

Chapter Eleven

We stopped with the chef making fresh pasta. I always wanted to learn how to make it from scratch, but for whatever reason, it felt daunting. Plus, I didn't have the equipment nor the time to do it. I followed his hands as he shaped tortellini and my mouth watered at the sight.

"Try one." Bryan reached out for one tortellini and offered it to me.

"It's raw." I frowned at him.

The lines of his eyes creased as a boyish smile tugged on his lips. "It's the best way to eat it." My heart skipped a beat at his smile, the way he looked so happy, so different from the last couple of weeks.

I grabbed the tortellini. It felt smooth and warm. I placed it in my mouth. The pasta was so soft that you might think that it was already cooked. Nonetheless, the intense flavor surprised me. You could taste the olive oil and the cheese packed inside. It was completely different and definitely divine.

"Oh my God." I clasped a hand on my mouth after I stopped chewing. "That was amazing." I looked at Bryan and the chef in front of me. "What have I've been missing all my life!"

They both chuckled, and Bryan's laughter filled the room. "Wait until they're cooked." He glanced at his chef, "Mark, save us a plate, will you?"

Mark nodded, "of course, chef." He bobbed his head in a sort of respectful gesture.

We kept jumping from station to station and each and every time, I was amazed. I tried different dishes, from fish to steak, until we arrived with the pastry chef. She made the most delicious cheesecake I'd ever tasted. By the time we finished the tour, I was completely full, but I'd never tasted food as delicious.

It was almost midnight when we left the restaurant. "Did you create all the recipes?"

The car jolted as he stopped in a red light. "I didn't do it by myself, but yes, I tested each and all of them."

The red light turned to green and he accelerated, but for some reason, I couldn't take my eyes off him. He was so passionate, so in love with his work, it was astonishing.

Bryan was so different from what I imagined.

"You'll be working along those chefs in a few weeks," he said with a small smile as he made a turn.

"Wow. I still can't believe that this is my life now. It's so different from what I thought I'd be doing a month ago." I stared out the window where the lights blurred as we rode beside them.

"What happened when you finished high school? I saw that you had good grades. You could have entered college." We reached a fancy neighborhood. Of course. You had to be rich to have two restaurants.

"My mom passed away. Seth was ten and Juno had a hard time supporting us." I shrugged. "We couldn't afford college."

He drove towards the last house of the street. It was a two-story house. It looked too modern, like different cubes blocked together. He parked in the open garage it had on the side and I suddenly felt small and awkward all over again.

Suddenly, being back at home ─even with Mr. Gomez─ didn't seem so bad, after all.

Bryan unlocked the door and opened it, letting me pass through before him. Biting my lip, I stepped inside. My feet froze. "You have a pool inside your living room." Even with the light off, the water formed soft waves that glimmered under the moon rays that seeped through the windows as they rippled.

"I do." I wasn't looking at him, but damn, he sounded smug.

That's so cool. I stayed quiet as he closed the door and passed beside me.