Okay. He one-upped me on that one.
Bastard.
The instructor let a small chuckle slip from her lips. “Okay, ladies . . . and gentlemen . . . follow me into the kitchen.”
As she walked, she gave us a brief intro into the class and started rattling off everything we were going to make.
“We’re going to start with our smoothie. I like to call it the woman’s . . . or man’s . . . happy skeleton blast! We’ve got spinach and flax seeds with a bit of molasses and other goodies.”
Gus dropped his mouth open. “I’m not drinking that shit.”
Hitting him on the chest, we walked up to a cooking station and looked at everything set out.
“What is this stuff?” Gus asked in a whispered voice.
With a shrug, I replied, “I have no idea.”
“If you boys need any help, I’m more than happy to assist.”
Glancing up, there was a woman who looked to be a few years older than me. Her tits were practically spilling out of her shirt. She stood there waiting for our response.
“Julian, please head on over to your station. Kilyn will be here soon to help out.”
Claire looked at me and winked. “Kilyn is my assistant. She’s notoriously late. She can help you boys out.”
With a nod, I smiled.
Clapping her hands to get everyone’s attention, Claire kept talking. “After we make the smoothie, it’s on to the eggs benedict.”
“The what?” Gus mumbled.
Oh. Shit. I think I signed up for the wrong cooking class.
“We’ll start with the hollandaise sauce.”
“The what?” Gus asked with a panicked look. “Holiday sauce? Which holiday is coming up? Thanksgiving, right?”
I looked down at the ingredients Claire set at our station on a blue tray.
Eggs, lemon juice, butter, salt, and pepper. That seemed easy enough.
Leaning over, I said, “Dude, don’t worry. We’ve got this shit. I cook with my mother all the time.”
He moaned and scrubbed his hands down his face. “I’m hungover, I’m surrounded by hot women, and now we’re baking desserts for the holidays! It’s too much. I’m on overload.”
Claire continued to talk. “After we make the hollandaise sauce, we’ll make the eggs benedict. Then we’ll finish it off with a creamy strawberry crepe.”
Gus and I snapped our heads and looked at each other. “French shit? What the fuck did you get us into, dude? I’m telling your mother you brought us to a French cooking class!”
“Shh!” I said as I pushed his shoulder.
“Don’t worry, boys, you’ll have help as soon as Kilyn gets here. She is our crepe specialist. Makes them all the time.”
I forced a smile. Great. Just what I need. Some old French woman yelling at me while trying to tell me how to make fucking crepes.
“Okay, let’s heat up those pans and get our butter melting.”
Gus placed the wide pan on the small portable stove as I took the butter and dropped it into the pan.
“If you feel like getting fancy, clarify the butter by skimming some of the milk solids off. It will make the sauce thicker, but less rich.”
Claire looked at what I was sure was a holy fuck what did she just say look on my face.
She was about to say something when the door to the kitchen flew open and someone came running in.
“Shit! Sorry! I thought sneaking in that yoga class might be a mistake and it was!”
I kept my eyes focused on the butter as I tried to figure out what the hell I had to do to skim the milk.
“Dude, I found the woman I’m going to marry,” Gus whispered to me as I looked at the girl next to me to see what she was doing with her butter. I gave her a grin as she smiled back.
“First time?” she asked.
Taking in a deep breath through my nose, I nodded and said, “Yep. It said breakfast. I thought fried eggs or something.”
She gave me a huge smile and replied, “You won’t find Claire or Kilyn cooking anything easy like plain eggs.”
Gus hit me on the arm. “Dude, I’m serious. I’m in love.”
Looking back at him like he was nuts, I shook my head. “What in the hell are you talking about?”
Gus pointed with his mouth to the floor. “Dude, my future wife is standing next to our French chef.”
Looking over to Claire, I watched as a girl was bent over pulling her hair into a ponytail. When she stood back up, our eyes met. My mouth dropped open at the same time as hers.
“Holy shit,” I whispered as Claire called out to me.
“Dark-haired dreamy man in the back, stop staring at Kilyn or your butter will burn.”
Kilyn.
Her green eyes sparkled as she shook her head and made a tsking motion with her finger and winked. Walking up to us, she grinned and my breath was taken away. What in the hell? That hasn’t happened in one hell of a long time.