Chef Charming Read Online Free

traitorous best friend thought.
    Thankfully, Jessi ca picked that moment to arrive. She had purposely
left work early so she could be there for Rori as she braved the lion’s den, as
Rori had termed the food lab. The auburn hair and ruddy complexion Marcus had
inherited from his Scottish ancestors lent itself to the imagery. Jessica
suspected that Aurora Sinclair was slightly, if not more than slightly,
infatuated with this tall handsome chef.
    “Did I miss anything?” Jess
whispered to Rori who was patiently watching the pots begin to bubble, ready
with the uncooked rice.
    “Nope.” The one word answer conveying volumes to Rori’s friend.
    “That bad,
huh? ” Jess put her backpack away
and slipped on her chef’s coat. 
    “Yup,” came another one-word
response.
    Jess pulled Rori’s chef coat
from the hook at their station, urging her to put it on . Obviously, she had been too distracted when she got
here to remember it. Jess was surprised that Chef had left the gaffe slip.
Although her experience with him had shown his kinder, gentler side, after last
night she thought that his mood in this class would be different.
    “Thanks,” Rori mumbled as
Jess handed her the coat. The culinary
department provided inexpensive coats for the students to rent, finding it lent
them an air of professionalism. Of course, Jess had her own more expensive one.
Rori teasingly called her a culinary snob.
    “Wow,” Jess was now
beginning to be concerned. “Three one-word answers. He has you rattled, doesn’t he? And
don’t just say, ‘Yes,’ or I’ll bop you!”
    Rori grinned as her natural optimism won out. “Ok, how about,
‘yes, he does.’ Is that better?”
    The f riends both glanced at the door as Chef Hampton
finished giving his friendly advice. Trying to appear stern, but still finding
the situation hilarious, Jake had to duck as he left the room, barely missing
the hard sesame roll Marcus had playfully launched at him.
    “Get out of here . I can handle this on my own.” Rori heard the cryptic
remark Marcus made to his friend.
    “Sure,” Jake called through
the open door, picking up the pastr y and
tossing it back to Marcus. “Let me know how that works out, will you?”
    As Marcus turned around, he saw Rori watching him. Hopefully she did
not know that she was the topic of conversation.
    S lightly embarrassed at having appeared to be
eavesdropping, Rori blushed and tried to look busy, cleaning up an already
spotless station. She wished she could keep her art area this neat. It never
failed, though, as the best-laid plans dissolved into chaos when an inspiration
hit her and she struggled to get it on canvas as fast as she could. Sometimes
it was hours later before she realized she had created total pandemonium out of
her orderly intentions.
    As the rest of the class
filed in, Chef MacRae called them to his
station. 
    “Tonight we are going to
explore the different spice profiles common in cuisines from around the world,” he explained. “Each pair of you will
choose one of the spice profiles to highlight. The baskets on the side table
have the necessary ingredients, recipes, and a description of the region’s
cuisine. Since Miss Sinclair so graciously came early to prepare our rice, she
and Miss Johnston will be allowed to choose their
cuisine first. Ladies.”
    “Let’s get Moroccan,” Jess suggested as they stood before the table. Rori had no
opinion on the matter, still smarting over the inflection in Chef’s voice when
he said, graciously. She wondered if she had imagined it or if the rest of the
class knew he had it out for her.
    “Fine .” Rori shrugged and helped gather their
supplies. 
    Great, thought Jess . One word again. This was going to be a long night.
    “Thank you, John and Calvin,” Chef nodded to the two young men at the
station next to Rori and Jess. They were the last pair to share their dish as
the class time was approaching an end. Chef MacRae had asked each group to