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“It’s about time you showed up.”
Derek resisted the urge to growl as Laura smirked at him from her place at the table. This entire thing was her fault to begin with; if only she had gone out with Matt and let him down easy, maybe Matt would still be his sous chef. But no, Laura had to be typical Laura and laugh in the poor man’s face. Derek probably would’ve quit too.
But Matt had quit and they really needed a new sous chef. Especially with the Restaurant Awards looming around the corner.
“We don’t need a new sous chef, Laura,” Derek said. “I already told you I could handle it.”
“Can it, baby bro. These seven sous chefs have been slaving over hot stoves for the past forty-five minutes. The least you can do is give them some helpful criticism. And play nice, because one of them is going to be your new sous chef.”
Derek glared at her and she just smirked as he took the empty seat between her and Erica. Terrific. Not only was he about to be subjected to questionable food at nine in the morning, but now he would have to listen to Laura and Erica’s commentary about which sous chef was the hottest.
This was going to be a long morning.
“Fine, but I’m not playing nice. I’m going to be one hundred percent honest.” Derek said, doing a sweeping look of the sous chefs. As he went down the line, his frustration mounted; all of the chefs seemed to wilt under his gaze. Derek snorted and rolled his eyes. If they couldn’t handle a pointed look, then they didn’t belong in a kitchen, and they especially didn’t belong in Derek’s kitchen.
There was some hope, however. The second to last chef, a large burly guy, returned Derek’s look with an unimpressed expression of his own. Derek didn’t know what he was going to serve, but he had hunch that it was going to be better than the majority of the dishes that he was going to eat this morning. Of course, Derek wasn’t going to let this guy know that, so he narrowed his eyes and waited for the sous chef to look away.
Satisfied, Derek smirked and looked at the last sous chef in the line. The smirk instantly dropped from his face. The last sous chef was ridiculously attractive. He had short buzzed hair and a mouth that Derek just wanted to take. His face and neck were dotted with moles, and Derek was pretty sure that the moles continued across his entire body. A body Derek wouldn’t mind getting better acquainted with in the near future.
Except—fuck.
No, this guy was a potential co-worker. And as cute as this guy was, Derek really didn’t want to turn into another Scott and Isaac. Personally, he liked Isaac a lot more than Scott, and on their own they were okay, but together they were a little on the annoying side.
But back to the ridiculously cute sous chef. He was fidgeting a little bit, nerves probably, and was looking around the table at the rest of Derek’s co-workers. When he finally looked at Derek, he blushed and smiled slightly, before quickly looking away. Derek was screwed. Eyes were his number one physical quality that he looked for in a guy, and the ridiculously cute sous chef had beautiful amber eyes that Derek could write sonnets about.
Derek had to get rid of him.
If this guy was going to work here, then Derek was pretty sure that he wouldn’t get any work done. The guy was already driving Derek crazy, and Derek couldn’t afford any distractions in the kitchen. He had several reputations to uphold, and this guy was already invading Derek’s mind, and Derek didn’t even know his fucking name.
He knew nothing about the ridiculously cute sous chef in front of him, but Derek just couldn’t shake the fact that he really wanted to know more about him. Hopefully, he liked guys. And hopefully, he liked guys like Derek. Derek knew that he could be gruff and abrasive, but Laura said that he was a softy at heart so hopefully he could open up to the sous chef.
Except outside of the kitchen. Because if Derek opened up to him as a co-worker, then he could almost guarantee that he would try to fuck the ridiculously cute sous chef over the stove.
And he was pretty positive that sex in the kitchen violated some health-code standard.
Derek was so mesmerized with the sous chef at the end of the line, he didn’t even notice that there was a plate in front of him. It smelled awful, and the sous chef, a short, delicate woman, was looking at him like she knew it tasted bad and she didn’t want him to say it.
“My name is Sophie, and what I have prepared for you is a succulent rack of lamb roasted in garlic and thyme. Enjoy.”
Well, she certainly didn’t sound very confident in presenting her dish. Derek stole a quick glance at Laura, who didn’t look like she was enjoying her lamb either. Derek smirked to himself; he hoped all of the dishes would be terrible. It would serve her right for scheduling this stupid sous chef thing.
But whatever Laura ate, Derek would have to eat too, so hopefully it wouldn’t be that bad.
Derek stole another glance at the cute sous chef. He was still looking anywhere but at Derek, instead looking at Sophie and her rack of lamb. Maybe the sous chef thought Derek was cute too. Wouldn’t that just be terrific.
But first things first, everyone was looking at him and he realized that he had yet to taste Sophie’s lamb.
As expected, it was disgusting.
“This is terrible,” he said as he managed to swallow the lamb. “The lamb is way overcooked and there is entirely too much thyme on this. I have no idea where you got your degree from, but you need to go back and start over, because this is honestly the worst rack of lamb I have ever had.”
Derek grimaced as he pushed the lamb away from him. If that was any indication of how the rest of the dishes were going to taste, he had a feeling it was going to be a long morning.
***
He was right.
It had been a ridiculously long morning filled with really, really bad dishes. So far Sophie’s rack of lamb was the worst, but whoever made the lobster bisque was coming in at a very close second. And Derek didn’t even want to talk about the Pork Loin.
Hopefully the big burly sous chef could break the trend with the fish he was passing out. Derek couldn’t tell what kind of fish it was, but it looked a lot better than the stuff that Derek had to put in his mouth that morning.
Speaking of putting things in his mouth, Derek had kept his eye on the cute sous chef throughout the morning. He was still avoiding looking at Derek, but Derek caught him stealing glances at him when he thought Derek wasn’t looking. So, he probably was attractive to Derek. Which was understandable. Derek knew what he looked like, and he wasn’t above using his looks to his advantage.
Maybe he could convince the ridiculously cute sous chef to get coffee with him or something.
But before Derek could think about any of that, the burly sous chef was standing at the head of the table, presenting his dish.
“How are you guys doing? My name is Arthur and I’ve prepared baked rainbow trout with kosher season salt, paired with sautéed vegetables. Please enjoy.”
Oh terrific.
Derek hated trout. It was the worst fish ever. And this guy’s trout was awful. He honestly had no idea how it had gotten into the kitchen, because it certainly wasn’t on the menu. And predictably, the trout was as mediocre as everything else he’d eaten that morning.
Derek had a choice to make, he could give semi-glowing reviews about the trout and hope that his co-workers bought it. They knew that he didn’t like trout, but maybe they would like it enough to agree with him. It was a long shot, but Derek knew that if he didn’t say something positive about this trout then the ridiculously cute sous chef, who was still avoiding his eyes, would come in with whatever he had cooked and would knock everyone’s socks off.
Derek knew a good chef when he saw one.
Derek knew a cute guy when he saw one.
And the last sous chef was both.
So, trout it was. Even though it was really gross.
“It’s not terrible,” Derek lied. “I think I would’ve liked the trout to be a little more buttery, but considering all the garbage I’ve had to swallow this morning, it’s almost delicious by comparison. Almost.”
Laura looked at him with a knowing expression on her face. Of course, she would see through his entire plan. No doubt she had seen the way that Derek and the cute sous chef had been avoiding looking at each other throughout the morning. She probably knew exactly what Derek’s plan was. Thankfully, she kept her thoughts to herself and resumed eating her trout.
“I didn’t like it,” Erica said. Scott and Jackson nodded in agreement, much to Derek’s dismay. He thought he'd be able to count on his co-workers to back him up.Then again, he had been a little bit of a dick earlier in the morning. “I thought it was a little too rubbery.”
“I think all the seasoning took away from the natural flavor of the trout,” Scott added. “It would’ve been better if he played off the flavor of the trout instead of trying to overpower it with spices.”
Derek rolled his eyes. Leave it to Scott to choose now to decide that he was a food connoisseur.
“I liked it,” Isaac said, looking at Derek and smiling. “I thought it was yummy.” Derek knew there was a reason Isaac was his favorite.
Unfortunately Erica and Scott had all but ruined Derek’s plan, by being completely honest about the trout. The thing was, Derek agreed with them. But as he stole another quick glance at the cute sous chef, who was rocking back and forth on his feet, Derek knew that he had to get the trout into his restaurant.
“None of you know what you’re talking about,” Derek growled. “There’s a reason why you’re all waiters and sous chefs. That was decent trout.”
Laura cleared her throat at the word ‘decent’.
“Dude, the only reason you’re the head chef is because Laura is your sister, and no one else wants to have to deal with all that cooking,” Jackson said. “Personally, I’m fine with being a pastry chef. But the trout wasn’t that good. Deal with it. There’s still one more dish left. Why don’t you focus on all the reasons that you’re going to hate it?”
Laura chuckled to herself and nudged Derek with her knee. He was screwed.
Derek pushed the trout away from himself and glared at Jackson. Normally, he was totally on board with Jackson’s brutal honesty, it was great when Derek was yelling at Scott, but now Derek really wished that Jackson had at least backed him up.
Just this once.
Now the ridiculously cute sous chef was passing out his dish, and—oh, it was carbonara.
As much as Derek hated trout, Derek loved carbonara. It wasn’t his favorite dish, but it was definitely top ten. And this carbonara looked and smelled delicious. And the ridiculously cute sous chef passing it out looked delicious as well.
This was bad. Derek had to act quickly, or this guy was going to be his new sous chef.
“Hi, I’m Stiles, and what I have for you today is—”
“Stop, just stop,” Derek interrupted. “That is honestly the worst looking Pasta Primavera I have ever seen. I don’t even want to eat it, it looks so bad.”
Derek winced as a hurt look flashed across the ridiculously cute sous chef’s—Stiles’ face, and Derek felt terrible. But it was better this way. It had to be. However Derek was not expecting what happened next.
“It’s actually a Creamy Bacon Carbonara, asshole,” Stiles shot back. “And for the record, it’s supposed to look like that.”
Derek swooned on the inside. Not only was Stiles ridiculously cute, but he could cook, and he called Derek out on his bullshit. He couldn’t be any cuter if he fucking tried. Laura chuckled as she continued to eat her pasta, and Derek glared at her because he knew she was just loving this.
Derek did glanced around the room and the rest of his co-workers were looking at Stiles like he was the best thing since sliced bread. Isaac and Scott were both looking at Stiles like he hung the moon, and Jackson was looking at him as if he couldn’t believe that someone other than himself had stood up to Derek. Meanwhile, Erica was looking at Stiles like she wanted to take him to her room and never let him out, and Derek would be damned if he let that happen.
He saw Stiles first.
“As I was saying, what you have in front of you is a Creamy Bacon Carbonara,” Stiles said. He was still glaring at Derek, but Derek was pretty sure Stiles was just mad that he had been interrupted. At least that’s why he hoped he was glaring. “It’s a little bit different that the classic version; there’s double the bacon and you’ll notice that the sauce is composed of extra whipping cream and butter instead of eggs to give it that extra hearty taste. Enjoy.”
Derek did just that. As the rest of his co-workers complimented Stiles on his carbonara, Derek was busy cleaning his plate. Stiles’ carbonara was so good and Derek really, really needed to have more of this in his life. If Stiles could cook other food like this, then he could pretty much have Derek’s heart. This carbonara was without a doubt the best thing that he had eaten all day.
“I enjoyed it as well.” Derek heard Laura say. “What did you think, baby bro?”
Derek frowned, he hated it when Laura called him that. She could really kill the mood when she wanted too. He noticed the knowing expression on her face and his frowned deepened, because she already knew what his answer was going to be. Derek had never been good at hiding anything from her. She knew he had a huge crush on Stiles, and she knew that he had a crush on Stiles’ cooking.
Derek looked down at his clean plate and then back up at Stiles’ hopeful expression. Judging by the stellar reviews that Stiles had received and the fact that no one had any carbonara left on their plates, Derek had a feeling that he was going to be seeing a lot more of Stiles in the near future.
Just his luck.
“No comment,” Derek said.
His plan failed, but oddly enough he wasn’t too upset about it.
He could get to know Stiles and his Creamy Bacon Carbonara later.