Personal Chef

Chapter 18

Over the next few days, Shawn and his team spent more and more time in the studio recording. Often they'd only break for meals and would be up half the night working. This meant I was alone a lot. I didn't exactly mind. It was kind of nice having free time to sit by the pool, read, or watch movies.

One night I was awoken by the sounds of doors shutting. I looked at my phone. It was 3:27. Everyone must have just gone to bed after another late night in the studio. Unfortunately, I couldn't get back to sleep. After laying in bed for half an hour, trying to force my body to get back into sleep mode, I gave up and climbed out from the warm covers. I put on some leggings and a sweatshirt and went down to the kitchen to bake something. I figured that as long as I was up, I should be productive.

Since I had plenty of time to let dough rise, I decided to make cinnamon rolls. I made the simple yeast dough and took the glass bowl it was in and set it in a pan of warm water to help with the proofing stage. I then made myself a cup of coffee which I took out on the patio.

I was more than a bit surprised to find Shawn already out there, playing guitar. He stopped and turned to me as I closed the door.

"Not sleeping tonight?" I asked him.

He shrugged. "Sometimes after a tough recording session I'm too wound up to go to bed."

I sat down on one of the cushioned chairs across from him and sipped my coffee.

"Why are you up this early?" he queried.

"I woke up when everyone else went to bed. Once I'm up, I can't fall back asleep. The plus side to this is that you'll get a good breakfast."

"All of your food is good," he said as he started strumming lightly again.

"Thank you."

"I'm sorry Kat was so rude to you about the enchiladas. We had quite the fight about that."

I started to feel uncomfortable with the direction this conversation was taking.

"It's okay if she doesn't like my cooking."

Shawn chuckled and set his guitar down by his side. "The fight was about you, but she used the food as an excuse. She knows everything you make is delicious."

"Dinner the other night wasn't particularly healthy. I'm sure that bothered her," I said.

"Yeah, it did. Or actually that's the excuse she used to complain. That was why she tried to get me to fire you before we came to California. She said you weren't the right personal chef since you make too many things that she felt weren't healthy enough. I refused and she broke up with me."

I felt a blush creeping up my neck into my face. I didn't realize that was why they'd split up before the trip.

"If you had needed to let me go, I would have understood," I told him.

He looked at me with a confused expression. "She can't tell me what to do. I love your cooking. If I want you to stay, that's my choice."

"I don't want to come between you and your girlfriend," I said. "If you had another fight after dinner the other night, then I'm obviously causing problems."

At first I'd wondered if they were still together after she'd stormed out. He'd gone to see her yesterday and was gone for hours, so I suspected something was still going on.

"She's ridiculously jealous. It bugs her to see how much everyone likes you and to listen to them heap praises on your cooking. And I suspect she's sensed that maybe I have looked at you a certain way that isn't exactly professional."