Chapter 17 #3
On the long table I saw a display of food.
It was a buffet with multiple plates of ready to eat delicacies.
When I say delicacy, I’m not joking. Though they were just simple food – salads, pastas, pizzas, sandwiches, and a variety of rice.
But the chef must be some kind of magician.
He had successfully transformed the most boring everyday cooking into exotic mouthwatering meals with clever and beautiful plating.
I felt my stomach knot with hunger when I saw a variety of proteins – grilled chicken, steaks, smoked salmon, boiled eggs and pan-fried tofu. All of them were presented in ridiculously gorgeous arrangements as well.
“What is this?” I gasped for air. I didn’t know what to think of all this.
“I don’t really know what you prefer to eat, so I got the cook to whip up a bit of everything. I hope there’s something that takes your fancy.”
“You did all this for me?” I couldn’t believe how much the display touched me.
“No, my cook did.”
I scanned the room but couldn’t see any sign of cooking nor was there a proper kitchen. “How?”
“Yeah, I borrowed a food truck and had my chef prepare everything there.” Kai gave a wave of his hand, as if borrowing a food truck and having a chef were no big deal.
“I recognize the guy.” I said, after a closer look at the chef.
“Yeah, he’s some TV chef who works part time at one of my kitchens.”
One of his kitchens?
“You mean your chef from one, one of your restaurants?” I asked. Kai nodded gently. “Wouldn’t that affect your business?”
He laughed as if I had said something hilarious. “No, our kitchen is well-staffed so they can do without their head chef for a couple of hours.”
“So, he isn’t really part time then?”
“Oh no, of course not. He’s the head chef and the main consultant for my restaurants, the European ones at least. But it gives him the freedom to do other stuff like being on TV. You know, that also helps with the visibility of my restaurants, so why not?”
“As well as the freedom to cook up a feast for you on demand,” I teased as I waved my finger around the room like a magic wand.
“This is nothing for Marcus.”
Yes, that was his name. Marcus the TV chef. What was his surname again? He’s British, that was the only thing I could remember about him. I felt a little embarrassed that I couldn’t recall his full name.
“Please don’t tell me you host some of your parties in this thing?” I looked over at Kai, hoping to not give away my thoughts.
Dirty thoughts had been crossing my mind far too frequently lately and I could totally see this as one of his private sex parties on the move.
“This?” He seemed a little baffled by my words and I didn’t feel like I had asked anything too difficult to answer. “I just bought it this morning. You like it?”
I shook my head. “You just went out and bought an RV, just like that?”
The sound that came out of me wasn’t one that I recognized. When you live in New York, nothing surprises you because freaky things happen all the time and nothing ever shocks you. Kai had done just that.
But Kai was well ahead of me in this little game of his.
“No, silly. I didn’t go out and buy it. I was at the hospital all morning.”
“Obviously.” I glared at him, wishing he’d just come out with whatever little nugget of information he was about to drop on me.
“My PA did all this.”
Duh. Silly me.
“Still, you organized all this just for,” I paused for two seconds, couldn’t bring myself to say the word me , “lunch?”
“Again. No, not really. My PA did most of it.”
It sounded like we were both in denial. “That’s just semantics, Kai. You paid for it. You asked for it. You did this.”
I couldn’t believe that he would do something so nice for me.
He denied that he had anything to do with it, and perhaps, in his mind, he really thought that he had no part in this. But he did.
Still, it was the thought that counts. It didn’t matter if his PA organized most of it. This had to be the most romantic thing that anyone had ever organized just to have lunch with me.
“Why did you do that though? You could just get me a box of salad, a sandwich and a coffee.”
“Well, Siti said you never had lunch. I’ve seen how busy you are. And I can’t bear the thought of you being disturbed by your colleagues, or patients at the hospital’s cafe or in the cafeteria during the very little time that you called lunch time.”
He took a bite of a chicken wrap before he continued. “Don’t get me started with eating in front of your desk. Oh, don’t get me wrong, you have a nice office. Still, it’s a little depressing to see you eat at the desk where you discuss your patients' pussies and dicks.”
“Shut up! That’s rude.” Though I never thought of it that way, I now felt a little grossed out about my own desk.
“I think you deserve a little quiet time all to yourself. Well, kind of with me as well. Have I answered your question?”
Yes, he definitely did. A little too well.
“That was really sweet of you.”
“Not really. It was a little self-serving. I wanted to spend some quiet time with you too.”
I settled on a bowl of salad and some boiled eggs.
Too many carbs would make me sleepy, and I couldn’t afford to have a foggy head for the procedures later.
Besides his chicken wrap, Kai ate a pizza with some smoked salmon.
We sat beside each other and in the middle of the RV, at the table.
Marcus, the British TV chef – I really couldn’t recall his surname and was too embarrassed to ask – served me sparkling water that I requested.
I felt a little put out having a famous chef waiting on me.
I only hoped that he didn’t feel the same way.
We sat quietly during our lunch. I couldn’t think of anything to say to Kai apart from thank you. If it wasn’t for the awkward celebrity chef waiting at the corner of the room, I would have ripped Kai’s clothes off to show him how much I appreciated his gesture.