Soufflés at Sunrise

by M. J. O'Shea

  Our grand prize winner gets a year of pastry training in Paris, a whole kitchen’s worth of top-of-the-line commercial tools and appliances, and a hundred thousand dollars for his or her own business.

  With stakes this big, we ask the one question on everyone’s mind: Do these chefs have what it takes to rise to the top? Or will they get Burned?

  “CHASE, FOR this challenge… you’ll be working with….” Diego drew a name from the bag. “Kai.”

  Of fucking course. It had to be random—they couldn’t have told Diego to blindly draw Kai’s name—but after the way they’d acted with each other last week and all of this week, the producers must’ve been having a collective orgasm. Chase, well, he wasn’t. He didn’t want to deal with how much Kai’d hurt him.

  After his win in the ice cream challenge, and Kai’s resulting tantrum, things had been awkward as hell between the two of them for days. Kai hadn’t offered an apology, and Chase wasn’t feeling generous enough to forgive him without one. The fact that they were competitors first, and anything else second, had been slapped in both their faces.

  At the condo, they ignored each other. It was surprisingly easy. Chase often went to bed first and was asleep by the time Kai came into the bedroom. In the mornings, Chase’s alarm went off first, and by the time he was showered and dressed, Kai was gone. They avoided each other in the shuttle and at the studio, and everyone else danced around the fact that the two of them weren’t talking.

  It was awkward for Chase just to look at him and know that as long as Kai thought he was the better chef, he and Chase were just fine, but as soon as Kai felt a little shaky about his superiority, well, then Chase was thrown to the curb. Yeah, that wouldn’t really feel good for anyone. Chase included. And he was going to have to deal with it all day. Hopefully they didn’t end up at each other’s throats. That wasn’t what he wanted to do in front of a bunch of cameras, even though that was exactly what the cameras wanted from him.

  Chase nodded at Diego and retreated to his workstation, Kai following. He didn’t look back to check the expression on Kai’s face. He didn’t want to see it. Chase wanted nothing to do with the challenge or with working near Kai.

  “So, unconventional materials,” Kai said. “What do you want to do?” His voice was tentative. Even a little sweet. Chase didn’t fucking care. He’d made it pretty damn clear how he felt about Chase getting anything he wanted.

  Chase gave him a long look. “I’m guessing they’ll have some meats up there, and maybe a few salty cheeses. Vegetables? Savory breads. I can’t think of anything else that would throw people off.”

  Kai nodded and gave Chase a shy smile, the kind of smile he gave him when they were all alone with each other, when Chase was in charge. Kai wasn’t allowed to be like that here. Not after the way he’d acted, for sure. Chase wasn’t interested in seeing it.

  “I agree,” Kai said. “I’m of the opinion we should steer clear of meats unless you can think of a good way to use them.”

  “Maybe ground up in a crust? It really depends on what’s available.”

  “What do you want our strategy to be?” Chase couldn’t believe how much Kai was fucking deferring to him. It should feel good. He was annoyed.

  “I don’t know. You’re the master chef at a big restaurant. I just make ice cream. What do you think we should do?”

  Kai winced. “Chase—”

  “How ’bout this?” Chase couldn’t deal with Kai’s conciliatory little tone. He’d opened himself way up, way too far, and then Kai had shut him down like that. It had hurt more than ending either of his long-term relationships. He’d shown Kai parts of himself neither of those other two had ever seen. He… well, he just trusted him. Or had. Chase didn’t even know anymore. “I think you should grab any vegetables that you think will lend themselves to a dessert when we get up there, and breads if there are any. I’ll go for cheese and meats if I see anything that will work, okay? We’ll come up with something with what we’ve grabbed when we get back.”

  “I can do that. You okay with that idea?” Kai asked.

  “It was mine, wasn’t it?” Chase snapped. Kai winced again.

  “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I’m so, so sorry.”

  “I’m not doing that. Not here…. Maybe just not. Get ready for the buzzer. Neither of us lost any time this week, did we?” Chase studied the worktop on their combined station. Better than looking Kai in the eye.

  Kai shook his head.

  “Good. So you’re breads and veggies. I’m nuts and cheeses. And then you can grab any chocolate or dairy, I’ll grab fruits. Fine? The buzzer will go off soon. Everyone’s paired up.”

  Kai nodded again. Silently. Again.

  When the buzzer rang, Chase nearly startled, but then he was in motion. He didn’t look behind him for Kai, simply legged it over to the supplies table and looked over the offerings. There was cheese, just like he’d assumed, and vegetables and a huge loaf of sourdough bread. Like Chase suspected, there was an assortment of meats, both cooked and uncooked, though mostly it was dried Italian ham. Chase avoided that like the plague.

  In the snack section there was potato chips, corn chips, and a whole array of nuts. Chase put some of those into his tub and went for the cheeses. He quickly looked over the selection, then picked up some cheddar and a rosemary asiago, brie, and then grabbed some fruits he thought might go well with any of the things he’d chosen. It was going to be a seriously crazy-ass dessert. He saw Kai watching his basket and adjusting his own choices because of it. That impressed Chase. The guy knew how to be a team player, for sure. Chase gave Kai a look, and they both nodded. They had what they needed. They raced back to their station and unloaded their basket onto the workstation cutting board.

  “What the hell are we going to do with all of this?” Kai asked.

  Chase almost chuckled. It was pretty fucking crazy, after all. But then he remembered he didn’t really mean anything to Kai the second things weren’t going Kai’s way, and he slammed his smile down off of his face.

  “We’ll come up with something. We need a general form, though. Tart, pie, cake? What are you best at? I doubt we can show the judges another ice cream.”

  Kai thought for a moment, looked at what they had, and pursed his lips. “Let’s do a tart. All those chips will make an interesting crust, and we can start from there.”

  Chase nodded and went for the chips. “You want me to grind them?”

  “Yeah, and then combine them in the food processor with some of the dried fruits. We’re going to start to build our crust out of that.”

  Chase went to work. He might not trust Kai personally anymore, but he sure as hell trusted his instincts as a chef. If he thought it would be good to have a potato chip crust, then so be it. Potato chip crust was going to be what they had.

  Chase dropped the chips into the food processor and went for it.

  He hoped the end product wasn’t as crazy as it sounded.

  KAI WISHED Chase would just fucking talk to him. Yeah, he’d said words, but that wasn’t what Kai really meant. What he wanted. He wanted his Chase back, the one who’d giggle at him or joke with him, laugh when Diego said “salty” and somehow made it sound like porn. Kai wanted that Chase back, not the taciturn, unhappy Chase who was busily grinding chips into crumbs for a crust.

  “Hey, how are you doing?” Kai asked. He was busy mixing a custard together using beets and vanilla, eggs, and cream. He’d taken a few tastes of it. He thought it worked well, surprisingly well actually, but he could only hope the judges felt the same. At least it was a beautiful hot-pink color. He’d have to do some more tasting when he was finished mashing the beets to a pulp.

  “I’m doing fine. I’ll be finished with the crust in a few minutes.”

  Kai sighed. “That’s not what I mean, babe. How are you?”

  Chase looked up at him, incredulous. “Did you really just call me that?” he asked.

  “Sorry,” Kai muttered. “It just slipp
ed out. I got used to it.”

  “Right here? In the middle of the kitchen, with cameras around?”

  Okay, he caught him. Kai’d forgotten about the cameras, as impossible as that seemed. He’d been so focused on getting Chase to talk to him that the competition didn’t really matter anymore. He didn’t care if they won; other than wanting to stick around so he had more time to win Chase over again, he didn’t care about any of it. He just wanted to talk.

  “I guess I haven’t been very focused today.”

  Chase’s eyebrows snapped together. “Well, get focused. I really don’t want to go home, and technically this is my team. If you screw up, I’m the one who’s getting screwed.”

  Kai looked up to see a camera right in their faces, getting the whole thing. It could easily be edited to take out the part where Kai had said he wasn’t focused or anything else that didn’t sell the editor’s story.

  “I’m sorry. I’ll have this custard done in just a little bit. Do you want to start on the quinoa topping?”

  At least they were embracing the unconventional ingredients thing the whole way. No point in half measures. There was barely anything in the entire dessert, if they could even call it that, that vaguely resembled anything traditional. Kai hoped they hadn’t taken the challenge too far.

  “Yeah, that’s fine,” Chase snapped. “I can get that done as soon as I’m finished with the crust. Do you want to slice the sweet potatoes and get them in the oven?”

  Kai nodded. “Are we going to sell this dessert as vegetarian?” They were one of the few teams that hadn’t grabbed a meat.

  Chase shrugged. “I don’t see why not? It’s going to be. Hopefully if it’s a complete disaster, then at least we’ll have that.”

  Kai sighed. “That’s fine.”

  He waited for a while until Chase had the crust pressed into the pan and was working on a quinoa crumble topping. “You didn’t come into the room until really late last night,” Kai said.

  “What the hell?” Chase snapped. “Why are you bringing this stuff up here? Are you trying to get us chucked into the bottom two?”

  He nearly flinched at Chase’s tone. “You won’t talk to me at the condo. What’s my choice?” Lesson learned, Kailua Chin. Don’t hurt the sweet boy. His not-so-sweet side would sure as hell come out.

  “If I say that I’ll talk to you later, will you knock it the fuck off and get to work?” Chase asked.

  Kai sighed. “Sure. I’ll stop.”

  “Thank you.” Chase nodded shortly. “Then I’ll talk to you tonight.”

  CHASE HATED judging. Especially when it was a dessert he wasn’t sure about, and he sure as hell wasn’t sure about his and Kai’s weird vegetarian beet pie. On paper it was a great idea, sweet and colorful and somewhat berry flavored, but he hoped it didn’t come out as a total disaster. Each component worked on their own, but he and Kai had run out of time. They hadn’t gotten to test how they’d taste together.

  Diego sauntered in just like he usually did. He’d been running around during the cooking time with the cameras, making comments on people’s creations. He didn’t say anything to Kai and Chase, but maybe that was because the cameras were too busy watching him and Kai fight with each other. It was annoying, to say the least.

  “Chefs, there truly was some very unconventional things going on in the kitchens today. The judges were surprised and sometimes very pleased by the work that you did. Other times, they were confused and disappointed. Obviously someone is going to get Burned. Hopefully it won’t be you!”

  Diego called each team to the judges’ table, one at a time. When it got to him and Kai, they walked up slowly.

  “There was some tension at your cooking station today, wasn’t there?” Basil asked.

  Chase nodded. Tension? How ’bout animosity and sexual frustration and hurt enough to drown both of them? They were lucky they’d turned out more than a pile of crumbled potato chips.

  Kai spoke. “We had a rough time at first, but then I think we settled into working with each other, and it got a lot better near the end.”

  “Well,” Nicolette said. “I can definitely tell that your team had its issues. Your dessert didn’t show that harmony at all.”

  Chase felt a huge pit in his stomach.

  Diego continued, “I agree. Separately, there was nothing wrong with the parts. Your crust was salty, sweet, and chewy, your custard filling was a beautiful color and had great flavor, and the crumble topping was more chewiness with a good flavor, but the layers didn’t match together at all. It was like you each had your own tasks but didn’t work together to create one dessert. Does that sound like what was happening today?”

  Chase couldn’t think of a more accurate depiction of what had gone down at their cooking station. They’d been so awkward and disjointed—mostly his fault, honestly. Kai had tried. Chase just couldn’t bring himself to try back. He hadn’t been the one who’d ripped Kai apart in front of the other people, after all. It wasn’t his fault.

  “I can see that,” Kai said.

  “Thank you for your efforts, gentlemen.” Diego said. They returned back to their spots.

  Chase stood in his spot and worried right up until Diego called the bottom two.

  “There were a couple of odd desserts tonight, and a few close calls. Can I have Breon and Al come forward? Your team had the lowest score.”

  What? Chase was shocked.

  “Chase and Kai, this was a close one. You two were very, very lucky you’re not right where these two are standing.”

  Kai nodded. Chase did too. He was more relieved than he could say.

  “Al and Breon, both of you are good chefs in your own right, but together, the magic just didn’t happen. The aim of this challenge was to make a dessert, and what you served us today was more like an appetizer. We all know the combination of figs, goat’s cheese, and pastry is a classic, but it’s not going to win you the Burned title. Al, your pastry saved you today. Breon, I’m afraid you’ve just been burned.”

  Tommy told Chase he’d done an awesome job playing up the spat on camera as he was walking out of the kitchens, sweaty and tired after the challenge and judging were long over. Chase nearly punched him.

  KAI KNEW where Chase was. He’d known ever since he heard the door to the roof close hours before. Chase hadn’t come down. Nobody else went up. It was just him up there, and it was Kai’s chance to try to make things right, but he was scared. For the first time in his life, he was scared to deal with someone he was dating… or had been dating. He didn’t even know what was going on with him and Chase anymore, but it was time to man up, stop being a stupid child, and go fix things. Whatever he had with Chase was worth saving. Or trying to save, at least.

  All Kai knew was that he missed him. He missed his face in the morning, the way it felt when Chase held him, his laugh, hanging out alone, his kisses. Fuck. Kai missed everything about him, and he couldn’t believe one small mistake could’ve made him lose it completely. He wanted Chase back in his life, back in his bed, and not just some distant guy who was only polite to a point because he has to be. It had been a few days, but it felt like five hundred years.

  Kai raked his hands through his hair but didn’t put it up. He knew Chase liked it down. Maybe it would help. Right? He didn’t change out of his warm-ups and tank top. He wanted to look as approachable as possible so maybe Chase would forget he was once a massive asshole to him.

  Kai walked out into the hallway of the building and up the stairs. He took them one at a time, practicing in his head what he was going to say. He didn’t know how to tell Chase how it had pulled him apart when all those people got to see the Chase only he saw, how it had felt like everyone could see his insides.

  The deck was quiet other than the distant sounds of the street far below. Kai didn’t have to look for him. Chase had his favorite spot on the roof and he barely deviated from it. Especially when they’d had a rough day and were lucky not to have been kicked off the show. Breon.
Kai still couldn’t believe Breon was gone. He was someone who could’ve won it. He was a brilliant chef. Kai would miss him. They’d promised to keep in touch.

  Chase. This is about Chase.

  He didn’t have the mental power to concentrate on more than one problem. Not until he told Chase what he was feeling and hopefully got some relief.

  Chase was where Kai knew he’d be, curled up onto his favorite cushy deck chair, staring at nothing.

  “Hey,” Kai said quietly.

  Chase looked up but didn’t answer.

  “Is it okay if I sit down?” Kai asked.

  Chase still didn’t answer for a minute, just looked at Kai with big, sad eyes. Kai didn’t want to assume; he wanted to wait for Chase to give him permission. Chase finally nodded.

  “I wanted to say a few things to you,” Kai said slowly. “I’ve wanted to for days, but this is difficult for me. I guess I didn’t realize quite how much you mean to me.”

  “What can you say?” Chase asked quietly. “Do you have any idea how much that hurt when you pulled me down like that?”

  “I’m really sorry I snapped at you,” Kai muttered. “I didn’t mean to.”

  “I just… it hit me really hard. I hate talking about this shit.” Chase looked down. Kai hoped that wasn’t all he was going to get out of him.

  “I’d had a bad day and I was jealous, okay? You won, you deserved to win, and I felt like shit.”

  “So you… told me I was arrogant?” Chase choked out. “Like, I realize that’s not some huge insult in the grand scheme of things. Clarissa’s said way more awful things to me in the past few weeks. But you….”

  “You trusted me.”

  “Yeah, I mean, with that stuff. The stuff we were doing. Nobody’s seen that side of me before. I really thought you were—”

  “Nobody’s seen that side of me before either,” Kai said quickly. “I didn’t even know I had that side until I met you. Do you have any idea how important you are to me?”

  “You didn’t treat me like I was important. You treated me like… like I was only someone you wanted to be with as long as you were better than me. I just… I just don’t know what to do with that.”