Chef Charming (3 page)

“Very good,” Chef moved back
to the center of the lab, almost dismissing her comment.

“Tomorrow we will be further
exploring these regions through stews and other dishes,” Chef said, preparing
to dismiss class. “We will be reviewing knife skills and you will also have
your first quiz on the safety sheet and culinary terms. Please come prepared.”

-------------------------

She had not seen his
response to last night’s email until after the second class.

Dear Miss Sinc
lair:  Thank you for your apology, though it was
unnecessary. I hope you enjoy the class. ~Marcus

She could not possibly read
into those few words the battle that had ranged within Marcus over his response
. He literally had written and deleted over twenty
attempts. His first was along the lines of:
I
think I am losing my mind. When you walk in the room, I turn in to an
unrecognizable monster. You are the bane of my existence but I can’t imagine
coming to class tomorrow and not having you there.
Thankfully, he had not sent that one, but opted
instead for a safer, indifferent message.

She was checking her mail in
the studio, having
returned to finish
cleaning up. Jessica was going to get coffee with John and Calvin, their
neighbors in class. They promised to return to walk Rori back to the apartment.

Rori was surprise
d that he had even responded, but for some reason was
disappointed at the stoicism conveyed in it. She was not arrogant, but
was not used
to people disliking her. I guess I just rub him
the wrong way, she thought. Still not willing to let him continue in his total
dislike of her, she typed a quick response to his email:

Deaf
Chef, I am enjoying the class and learning a lot
.
Thank you for letting me
help
with the rice tonight. I hope, too, that Chef Hampton doesn’t tell you any
ludicrous stories about me. He, Carla, and I had a crazy experience at one of
our Bible study outings last fall. My part in the antics is quite embarrassing
to recall but I’m sure Jake will make them sound worse than they really were.
~Aurora

The new mail notice beeped
loudly
. He must have been sitting at his
computer, because his response was almost immediate.

Dear
Miss Sinclair, I am glad you are not letting my bad
moods affect your learning experience. I will be sure to pick Jake’s brain
about your ‘antics’. And outside of class, it’s Marcus, not Chef. ~Just Marcus

Aurora was optimistic
heading into class the next evening
.
Their secret emails gave her hope. She had not told anyone, not even Jess,
about the two brief computer conversations. It was almost as though they were
treasures she wanted to keep for her own.

Before class, Jessica joined
Rori in the studio.

“So Chef Charming is Jake
Hampton’s best friend,” Rori sighed. She was lazily painting a spare canvas,
wasting time before class.

“Isn’t that weird,” Jess said
. “I knew that they knew each other from college, but
didn’t realize they were close. Marcus must be the college friend Jake talked
about on the ski retreat.
The one that he got into all sorts
of trouble with.”

Rori had quickly laid out a
mountain valley scene reminiscent of an old fairy tale
. Glancing at the clock, she saw she had time to
outline a castle on one of the distant hills.

“
Wow, that looks nice,” Jess jumped off her stool and
looked closer. “It always amazes me how you can do that so quickly. It looks
like a fairy tale castle. Like where Prince Charming or Princess Aurora would
live.”

“Great,” Rori rolled her
eyes. “I’ll call it
Aurora’s Castle
. If I
even
finish it. I
really have a couple other pieces I absolutely have to finish for the show. I
don’t even know why I started this one.”

“Oh, I do,”
Jess
teased. “You’ve got
Prince Charming on your mind. Or is it
Chef
Charming
?" She ducked as Rori
threw a paint rag at her.

“That’s not funny,” Rori
said.

“I think it’s hilarious,”
Jess replied. “Seeing you thrown so off balance by the handsome chef is quite
entertaining.”

“Off balance is an
understatement,” Rori said under her breath.

“You are one of the most
content people I know,” Jess continued. “I wonder what it is about Marcus
MacRae that makes you so nervous. Have you ever reacted to a guy like this
before?”

Rori fell unusually silent.
Obviously, Jessica’s question had hit a tender spot, but Rori quickly gathered
her emotions back into check and laughed.

“Oh, all the time,” she
said. “I fall in and out of love almost daily. I should be over Chef Marcus by
tomorrow, when the next pretty face comes along.”

“Yeah, right,” Jess said.
She was curious about Rori’s reaction, but knew now was not the time to press
for the truth.

“Help me clean up so we
aren’t late to class,” Rori said, laughing off her roommate’s teasing.

Marcus saw
Rori and Jessica enter about five minutes before class
time. He was unsure how to behave. That he was attracted to her was obvious to
him, but he needed to hide that from the rest of the world. Jake had tried to
feed him a line about there not being restrictions on adjunct professors and
graduate students, but it still did not feel kosher to Marcus. He was certain
Aurora Sinclair would have been shocked had she been privy to the conversation
Marcus had with Jake earlier that day.

“I know true, godly love is
not based on physical attraction,” Marcus
had
pointed out to his friend, “and that’s why I’m struggling. When I saw her, it
was like a movie special effect where everything else faded away.

Jake
had barely managed to hide his laughter form Marcus.

“And that has worked out so
well for you, now hasn’t it, Mr.
‘I’ve
Got This
Under
Control’?”

Marcus was willing to accept
the teasing because he knew Jake was trying to help
. He just wanted answers, or relief from this torment.

“Well, I’ve go
ne through my options,” he said, “and telling her she’s
not welcome in the class seems a little mean. Ignoring her hasn’t worked, so
being rude seems my best bet.”

“Again, how’s that working
for you?” Jake teased.

“Exactly,” Marcus groaned.

Jake turned the conversation
bac
k to Marcus’s original concern. “You
do know Marcus that there are stories in the Bible about men and women of God
who were attracted to each other. It’s not wrong to be attracted to her. And
maybe, just a thought, it may be God’s way of getting your attention.”

“Oh, H
e’s gotten my attention,” Marcus laughed. “Of course
now it’s about all I can think about.”

“I know
you, my friend,” Jake said, “and I don’t think there’s
a danger of you diving into an ungodly relationship based on a pretty face. The
fact that we’re having this conversation indicates you want to do His will.”

“Tell me what you know about
her
.”

“She’s getting her Master of
Fine Arts and graduates next week
. She
loves teaching children. Wicked sense of humor, very intelligent but so
free-spirited that she seems ditzy at times. Oh, and she is very strong in her
faith.”

“Way to bury the lead, bud,”
Marcus said
. “You knew I was asking about
her spiritual life, but thanks for the bio. She needs to hire you as her public
relations manager.

“My pleasure,” Jake turned
serious. “I will tell you this, Marcus
.
Carla and I like Rori.
A lot.
Don’t go any deeper into
this if you’re not sure. I don’t know the details, but I think something
boy-related happened to her in high school, so as delightful and pretty as she
is, she has very little experience in relationships. You are my best friend
but, I won’t like it if you hurt her or break her heart.”

“Understood,”
Marcus
said. Jake’s warning
only echoed the one inside his own head.

Unwilling to act on
his friend’s advice without more debate, Marcus
decided the only way to protect him, and Rori, was to adopt the veneer of
indifference. He hoped she would realize it was a thinly veiled act, but he
obviously did not know her well. Those closest to her would counsel him against
such a tactic. Rori was such an open and carefree person that the thought of
subterfuge of this sort, even for logical reasons, was outside of her
understanding.

“I thought I did better last
night,” she
said, bemoaning Chef MacRae’s
obvious irritation. “Why does he hate me so much?”

“
At least he’s not picking on you tonight,” Jess
pointed out. “He’s just ignoring you.”

“Exactly,” Rori was
meticulously chopping and slicing
vegetables.
They
had been assigned
Chinese cuisine tonight and
were preparing their ingredients to put into the pressure cooker. 

Almost every culinary region
on the planet had a traditional meat
dish
combined with vegetables that was typically slow cooked. Marcus was introducing
the students to the marvel of a pressure cooker that reduced the hours-long
process to less than an hour. The class would be taking their quizzes while the
stews cooked noisily on their stations.

“He really didn’t like my
slicing skills,” Rori
sulked, recalling
the looks and sighs the chef leveled at her when he walked around the room during
their preparation time. He stopped and helped several of the other students,
all women she remembered, but at her station, he just shook his head and moved
on.

“He didn’t say anything,”
Jess reminded her.

“Not with his mouth.” Rori
continued her pout. “But with his eyes he did. I can’t catch a break. I’m
beginning to think I should just drop the class.”

“No
!” Jess insisted. “I’m going to make you stick it out.
You need to be forced out of that dungeon, especially this week and next.” Jess
knew that pressure of the looming art show was only going to increase with each
day. If her friend did not have something specific that required her out to
leave the basement studio, Jess was afraid she was going to find Rori curled
into a ball, unconscious from not eating or passed out from only breathing
paint fumes.

Jess’s
exclamation was loud enough to attract attention,
apparently, as Chef raised his eyebrow in inquiry.

“Everything
al
l right, Your Highness?”
Chef
grimaced as he wished desperately he could change his choice of words. I sound
like a bully, he thought.

“Yes, Chef,” the roommate
s answered in unison. Of course, with the tension of
the evening so far, the singsong sound of their answer gave Rori a terrible
case of the giggles. Chef’s frown deepened, but he left them alone the rest of
the evening.

The stews were delicious and
those in the class that had never seen, much less used, a pressure cooker were
congratulating themselves. The Spanish stew that an older couple who were
taking the class for fun was Rori’s favorite. 

John Liu insisted the
Chinese red stew she and Jess had prepared was the best, and it did in fact
garner a nod and ‘Not bad,’ from Chef Marcus. Or Chef high-and-mighty-Marcus,
as Rori was referring to him in her mind by the end of the evening. It was
starting to irk her that he singled her out for either pointed criticism or
total ignoring. There was no in-between. She was starting to think she had
imagined their secret email conversations.

“Well, t
hree down, nine to go,” the weary artist sighed as she
and Jess left the building. Her roommate had insisted that she not go back to
the studio tonight.

“God will take care of you
getting your pieces done,” Jess had
encouraged
her. She added playfully, “If you need help, I can always throw something
together, too. It’ll be great! Everyone will say, ‘Wow I love Aurora’s work,
except that one piece that looks like a two year old did it,’!”

“That would probably be
their favorite piece,” Rori moped.

“That attitude is exactly
why you will not be going back to the studio tonight,” the roommate turned
dictator insisted. “Ice cream and coffee it is!” Calling out to their
classmates, “Hey, John and Calvin, come with us. We’re going to go drown our
sorrows in coffee and ice cream.”

“I will gladly come to your
rescue, Princesses,” John bowed deeply, his mysterious Asian eyes twinkling.
“However I may assist you, I am yours to command.”

John’s friend, Calvin, who
was one of the college’s most promising wrestlers, swept a deep bow alongside
his friend. Slated to try out for the Olympics this summer, he knew his size
intimidated many of their classmates. Rori and Jess had both had him in several
classes, so they knew he was in fact just a big softie.

The girls laughed and each
took the arm of one of the knights-in-shining armor and headed for the café
across from the main campus boulevard
.
The tall red headed man observing their interplay turned and slammed the lesson
plans on the desk in his office. Papers scattered, leaving the office in a
state that matched his mood.

“Jake,” Marcus held his head
in his hands and spoke into the phone
. “I
need help. I know it’s late, but can I come by and talk to you and Carla?”

“No problem, bud,” Jake
could hear the e
xhaustion in his friend’s
voice. “Kiddo’s asleep and coffee’s on.”

“I don’t know why she gets
under my skin,” Marcus leaned his head back in the comfortable overstuffed
chairs
in the Hampton’s den. He missed
the secret smile between the young couple. 

After Jake visited the class
the day before, t
hey had discussed the
situation at length. Instead of laying their theory out to him, though, the
young couple wanted Marcus to come to his own conclusions. It may be more
painful this way, but Jake wanted the realization to be internal. He knew from
experience that being forced into a relationship just because everyone around
said, ‘Oh you make a cute couple,’ could be a big mistake. Carla agreed that
Rori was a perfect match for Marcus, but neither she nor Jake wanted to get in
front of God’s will and guidance.
Patience,
they had both decided.

“I find myself being
purposefully mean to her,” Marcus
agonized, “but I can’t seem to help myself.”

“Tell you what,” Jake
offered, “I will come help teach tomorrow night
. It’s pasta night anyway, right? We both know my pasta making skills
are far, far superior to yours, what with the Italian heritage and all.”

“What good will
that do
?” Marcus was thinking
that was the worst idea ever. Having his best friend observe his terrible
behavior towards this lovely young lady would only mean he would have to endure
chastisement for hours afterwards.

“That will allow you to
ignore her," Jake explained.
“I’ll
do the demonstration and then we can split up the class for closer interaction.
You just be sure to take the opposite side of the room.”