Yes, Chef

The howling whistle of the tea kettle made Aki leap back, and the two of them simply gazed at each other until Ben reached over and switched off the burner.

"Come on," he gruffly ordered, grabbing her arm as he was already headed to the stairs.

"Yes, Chef," she whispered against the back of his neck. Ben stopped partway up the steps and looked at her with a wry smile. "Look, it's either I say it now or at the most inopportune moment in bed," Aki reasoned.

"Aki, I never stopped loving you," Ben said, standing one step below her. He nuzzled his face against her ear while she held his head. "This isn't just going to be sex for me. This is going to be a second chance together. But if it's just going to be sex for you—"

"It won't." Aki's heart felt like it was pinballing around her chest cavity. "We both made mistakes. Me more than you, and nothing you say is ever going to change my mind about that." She pulled him into his bedroom, reveling in how perfectly familiar it all felt.

Ben's skin still smelled like freshly dried laundry hung out on a summer's day, just as she remembered. She unzipped his hoodie and gently pushed him onto his bed, yanking up his t-shirt and dropping kisses across his chest.

As his breath quickened, she knew he was waiting for her to get to his nipples. Gently kneading them and then flicking them with her fingers, she smiled mischievously when she saw him toss his head back in ecstasy. Ben sharply drew his breath when Aki decided to put him out of his misery and put her lips to his skin, alternately sucking and catching his left nipple between her teeth.

"Aki..." he exhaled, not knowing what he wanted to say to her. All he knew is he was as hard as agate and he needed to divert his attention to her body before he spilled in his sweatpants. While she straddled him and bent over his chest, he reached back and under her shirt and unhooked her bra. Then he wrestled all of it off to the tune of her giggles.

"Ben, I want to pleasure you," she protested as he got her naked from the waist up.

"Same, gorgeous," he muttered, flipping her onto the bed so that most of her body was pinned beneath his. As he grazed her stiff nipples with his tongue, then sucked harder and harder, Aki dragged her nails across his back.

"Please, Ben," she said breathily once he came up for air but kept twisting her taut peaks between his fingers. "My panties can only get so wet." He groaned as she pushed him up and then reached for his waistband. In seconds, Ben lay naked atop his unmade bedspread, dazed but exhilarated as Aki teased his cock in long, slow strokes.

When she took him into her mouth, inch by inch, Ben thought he would die right there. That is, until she cupped his balls and began fondling them while slowly moving her head up and down. One hand gripped his shaft like a vise, dragging his foreskin back while her tongue danced along his inner ridges.

"Oh my god, Aki," he moaned. The house was rapidly losing heat, but Ben's entire body was on fire. He tried to reach for her but there was only electricity where his brain used to be. She sucked at him, let him go with a pop and a sly smile, then waited for him to calm down before holding his gaze and taking him in again.

He was sure after she did this for the third time he wouldn't be able to control himself any longer, but then he opened his eyes to the ethereal sight of Aki taking off her jeans and panties. It was all he could do to point toward the nightstand.

"Thank you," she whispered as she rolled the condom on him.

"You just about killed me with your tongue and you're thanking me?" Ben slurred.

"I'm relieved you still want me," she smiled, straddling him before lowering herself onto his shaft. Ben let out a gruff laugh.

"Aki, you don't know how guys look at you. Everyone wants you. I'm the lucky one here." He gasped as she rocked her hips against his. "Christ, I thought I was going to be in charge when I brought you up here," he said, gripping her by her soft waist. "Shoulda known a boss would take control and then get on top."

All he could do was stare at her in awe while she ground her hips against him, then started to bounce as desperation washed over her beautiful face.

"Come for me, baby," Ben said when Aki furrowed her brow and began to bite her bottom lip. Her rhythm grew faster and faster until she finally cried out and grasped at her lover's shoulders. Ben then thrust his hips upward until he was lifting both of them clear off the mattress, only needing to do so a few times before he let himself fall off the edge.

As they each gasped for air, he pulled her to lie on top of him, her legs still spread to either side. He drew the corner of the comforter up with his toes, then grabbed it with his fingers and covered the both of them in the coziest of cocoons. The several seconds of silence while they held each other were pure heaven.

"We have to get up," he finally whispered, hating the words even as he said them.

"And waste all this heat we generated?" Aki drawled. Her breath was steamy against his collarbone.

"Remember the last time we just lay here and we almost lost the condom inside you?" Ben reminded her with a smirk.

"Dammit." Just then, Aki's stomach loudly growled.

"Shit, it's past lunch and I didn't even feed you," Ben worried aloud, grasping her arms to push her off him.

"Can't we cuddle together for longer?" she asked. "We haven't done this in eight months. I just want to be with you, Ben." When another growl punctuated her sentence, Ben understood he wouldn't be able to get some food in her without an incentive.

"Let's do it this way. I'll clean up and grab the comforter. You take the sleeping bag downstairs. I'll make you some lumpiang hubad the way my grandfather used to make whenever we visited Manila. You build a fire and stay cozy and warm while I cook, then we can cuddle in the sleeping bag all afternoon long."

"Aren't those the pretty egg rolls you make at the restaurant?" Aki played with the hair that nudged Ben's left ear. "I don't want you taking so much effort."

"No, that's lumpia. We'll just have the filling part in bowls like a stir-fry," he compromised. "No wrappers, rolling or frying."

When he brought it out a half-hour later with a side of arroz caldo chicken and rice soup, Aki wrinkled her nose.

"Ben, it smells incredible, but why do you have to be so goddamn fancy all the time?"

"We're going to be together for the rest of today and all of tomorrow," he told her as he laid bowls and spoons out on the coffee table. "And if you had any idea of what I'm planning to do to you, you wouldn't protest being fed ahead of time."

A little thrill rushed up his spine when Aki let out an audible sigh upon taking her first bite.

"Tell me something," she started after several spoons into the arroz caldo. "I know I wasn't fair to you the night I found you and Ty at the restaurant. I said something about the drugs and alcohol being the reason you never had a relationship last very long, and I'm sorry. But is that the reason why?" She paused to swallow. "Because if I'd ever dated a guy who could cook like this and looked like you..."

"I've found women say that a lot but the hot chef thing wears off when it sinks in that they're dealing with a real person. With real faults." Aki flinched in guilt, which wasn't Ben's intention.

"Baby, we need to move past this," he said, putting down his bowl of lumpiang hubad. Both of us do. You're never going to know how bad I feel about not getting to know your dad."

"You know, Ty told him about the drugs," Aki admitted.

"And?"

"And it didn't matter to him. He asked if he was clean at that point, and that's all there was to it. I wish I were that easygoing and wise."

"Your dad was in a place where he knew it wasn't worth it to waste any more time," Ben pointed out. "It took me a while to get clean. I couldn't have met him in time." He picked up his bowl again and took a bite of the spicy shredded vegetables and beef.

"But that doesn't answer your question. None of my previous relationships worked out for the same reason they don't work out for anyone—I hadn't met the right person yet. When you meet that person, lifestyle changes don't feel like compromises. Ty and I were so good at hiding how high we were half the time that I don't think other people on staff noticed. Of course, that's probably what most addicts think."

"I didn't notice and I don't think Nell did either," Aki said. "You were functioning alcoholics. But now, all these months later, do you ever feel the need to...?" Ben looked up with raised eyebrows.

"Oh, no, oh my god, no," he asserted. "Why would I? I'm in a job I love with working conditions I love, and I'm getting paid a shit-tonne more money than I've ever seen in my life. And I have the sexiest boss ever." Aki grinned, then unsuccessfully tried to stop her smile from turning into full-fledged guffaws with her mouth full.

"You oughtta see this chick," Ben went on. "Sometimes I just wanna hike up her pencil skirt and bang that ass at the expo window."

"That sounds like a giant health code violation," Aki deadpanned. "But seriously... neither of us can or should leave the restaurant. How are we going to be together?"

"We could continue not making eye contact like we have been all this time." Ben gave her that half-cocked smile that made her hungry for more than chicken and rice soup. "Arrive separately..."

"Leave separately."

"And maybe fix the schedule so we're there together as little as possible?"

"I hate having to sneak around," Aki said, taking some of the dishes to the sink. She ran the water only to find it was already ice-cold. "But I don't want anyone to think you're not talented enough to deserve your position on the merits."

Ben watched her hips sway through the living room, into the kitchen, and then back again. It was beginning to feel jarring whenever one of them left the sleeping bag, but he was confident that between their body heat and the fireplace, they'd have enough warmth to get them through the night. Maybe they'd even have a little extra.

"What are you doing?" Aki asked him when she saw him unzipping the sides of the bag.

"I always have something sweet after a meal," he murmured, laying her down and undressing her from the waist down. Before Aki could protest, Ben was holding her thighs apart and devouring her like he hadn't eat at all that day.

Aki whimpered as her boyfriend's tongue twirled inside her, then moved higher up until she was gasping his name. A few more seconds of him rubbing and licking her clit was all it took for her to scream while her legs shook around his shoulders.

While she was still breathless, she could feel his hands pushing her shirt up.

"Baby?" she whispered while trying to grasp his forearms, her eyes still half-closed. They flew open the second she felt his lips lock around her right nipple, giving it a hard flick. Aki's fingers reflexively tangled themselves in Ben's hair while he sucked on her until her legs were writhing while wrapped around his bare waist.

"Please," she begged him, her calves sliding up his back.

"I thought you were the boss," he said in complete seriousness.

"You're the boss now," she whispered, pure fire in her eyes. He grinned while slipping her shirt over her head, then detangling her hair from her feather earrings. God, he loved it when those earrings were the only things she had on.

"You sure about that?" he mumbled while leaning down to trail a line of kisses from her neck to her shoulder. "I can be a bit of a tyrant. You wouldn't dare argue with me, would you?"

"No, Chef," Aki moaned as Ben pinched her left nipple between his lips. It caught him off-guard and he began to chuckle in spite of himself.

"Stop that," he ordered her.

"Yes, Chef."

Ben's face dropped to hers while his body bobbed with laughter. While his eyes were shut for a moment, Aki tried to mentally capture the image of him lying naked on top of her, the both of them happier than they'd been in months. She wanted this moment etched in her memory forever.

***Epilogue, 9 months later***

"So the big thing Paul and I did in law school was go to a pub on Thursday nights—a lot like this one—where they had trivia nights," Don Murrell recounted, seated across a large table from Aki, Ben, and Tyler. It was an early October evening, one year after his close friend's passing.

Aki and Tyler had had a traditional memorial ceremony with the tribe that afternoon, but asked a few of their dad's close friends to join them afterwards in a hole-in-the-wall in downtown Ottawa.

"We'd just wanted to hang out and watch sports but we got interested when we found out they were playing for cash. We got more interested when the other folks there thought they could make easy money off a Black guy and a Native guy, who, I'll admit, dressed like slobs most of the time." The table tittered and Ben leaned down to Aki's ear while giving her hand a little squeeze.

"Thanks for bringing me," he whispered. "I love getting to know your dad like this." She beamed and brushed her cheek against his.

Their plan to hide their getting back together from the restaurant staff had lasted about three weeks after the snowstorm. Ben's townhouse complex got its backup generator up and running by the time he and Aki woke up the following morning, and Ottawa businesses regained power in the coming days.

But Aki decided she didn't want anyone to be indispensable in case of another emergency where they'd be short-staffed. Ben started training Letti and other cooks to expedite while he took their place on the line.

"Two koshari, two pulao, one bunny chow on order!" Letti shouted from the window, relishing not standing in front of a hot stove for once.

"Yes, Chef!" Ben barked.

"I don't care what you say, Cardoso, hearing that will never get old," Letti winked. Ben smiled at his friend and reached back toward the heat.

"I'll put it on a plaque for yo—argh!"

Aki had been passing through the kitchen on the way to her office when she heard him holler, then hold out his shaking left hand. He grabbed the handle of the cast-iron pan, she realised as she bounded over to him, turned him toward the sink, and ran the burn under cold water.

"Rookie mistake," Ben mumbled, embarrassed.

"It'll be okay, baby. It doesn't look bad, but you're off the line for the rest of the night," she replied, completely forgetting herself. When Aki turned off the faucet and looked up, she was at a loss at why half the staff was staring at them. Then she realised Ben's right hand was on the small of her back.

"Everything alright, baby?" Letti smirked. "I'm assuming that's what we're calling our colleagues now?"

"You owe me a hundred bucks," Tyler told Ben. "I bet your ridiculous cover-up would last a month and you clowns couldn't even make it that long."

"Cover-up?" Maryanne asked from the dining room door, waving her serving tray. "I don't get it. You were together, then you broke up for some reason, now you're back together? We know you guys. Why'd you think you needed to hide your relationship?"

"Ahhh, well..." Aki stammered. Ben shoved his hand back under the running water if for no other reason than not wanting to look at his staff. Maryanne shook her head, understanding the answer to her own question.

"No, no, I got it," she said. "Aki, if you think it's bad form for bosses to consensually fuck their employees, let me tell you about what Nell and I were doing after she split with her wife.

"Holy shit, what?" Letti spit out.

"Why do you think she left so early all the time and left Tyler and Ben to lock up?" Maryanne retorted.

"And here I thought she had a crush on me," Aki said, dazed.

"Oh, she did! We both talked about you all the time," Maryanne clarified. "She said it was a shame that you weren't at least bi and—"

"Alright, we don't need to get into—" Aki waved her hand.

"No, no, Maryanne, please finish that sentence," Tyler pressed.

"Okay, everyone," Aki said sternly enough to silence the chatter in the kitchen, "While I'm relieved that no one is going to think less of either Ben or myself for... fraternising... despite our roles here, we need to treat his burn." She grabbed her boyfriend by the arm and led him to her office where she kept a first-aid kit.

"Yeah, treat that burn, baby!" Letti shouted after them.

Once in her office, Ben dissolved into giggles.

"Yes?" Aki said, firmly shutting her desk drawer once she had the first-aid kit in hand.

"'Fraternising' was not the F-word I thought you'd come up with, but good save," he said, only to get a glower in return.

"Oh, come on, babe, you'd have a way easier time if you took things a lot less seriously," he told her. "I know you weren't here that long before leaving, then coming back, but you had to have noticed the staff is pretty casual."

"Hey, you were also worried everyone would think you didn't deserve your job because you were dating one of the owners," Aki pointed out as she applied the antiseptic on his palm.

"Yeah, I was," Ben flinched. "But I'd forgotten how young most of us are, and how we're more friends and family than co-workers. No one's going to think you're a bad boss because you're sexually harassing me outside work."

"Watch yourself, Cardoso," Aki half-warned him. "Or I won't sexually harass you that much anymore."

Ben was relieved they didn't have to be concerned any longer about running into one of their staff while out on the town, which made it a lot easier for them to know each others' lives. He brought her to his parents' home for dinner, which was organised chaos considering his four siblings plus their spouses and kids were also there.

For Aki, the shouting and laughter—not to mention the conversations splintered with both Tagalog and English—was such a switch from her family's quiet meals.

"So this is where you learned how to cook," Aki whispered to him in the middle of the pandemonium around the table and in the kitchen. "Your mom's adobo is even better than yours."

"I mostly learned how to cook from my training in Toronto," he admitted, tenderly placing his hand on her knee. "But you're right, she taught me how to make the meals I'm best at."

Ben was also happy to be included more in her life, especially learning about her parents' tribe and their friends, such as that night at the pub. He listened with keen interest while Don told his stories about Aki's father, not noticing how his girlfriend's eyes were only on him.

"So anyway, there we were, and we'd turned down the trucker-looking white dude who kept pestering us to play against his team. We'd turned him down three times when Paul finally said sure, we were in."

"And then you wiped the floor with them," Tyler predicted.

"Oh no, your dad wouldn't let me," Don said. "Not at first. That shrewd jackass played dumb for the first two rounds until they upped the bets, then he went all Alex Trebek on their asses and wiped the floor with them." The table roared.

"But somehow, he convinced them we'd just gotten lucky and that we'd have a rematch the following week. Those dudes were hungry for punishment or something, because they paid for all our books that semester."

"Are you really having fun?" Aki whispered to Ben while everyone laughed.

"Totally," he smiled. "But I have questions. How do you say 'I love you' in Ojibwe?" Aki's face shone.

"Gizaagi'in," she replied.

"Gizaagi'in" Ben repeated. Then he put his mouth closer to her ear, trying his best to feign confusion. "Thanks. I tried to look it up but all I could find was wiidigemishin. Do you know what that means?" He was relieved to hear his girlfriend gasp.