Season Two, cont.
The next four weeks brought changes and delays in our relationship, if you could call it that. I never really counted it as a relationship; I think I looked at it as an elongated pity fuck. Gale felt sorry for the black chef who took the time to see him as a human being and not just a celebrity and it was a 'safe' relationship: no competition. I accepted it as a potential sex relationship, telling myself that it was the best I could do. I should be thankful to have his attention and that I wouldn't let myself get used ... too much.
Each subsequent Sunday, I prepared lunch for us. Three Sundays, we picnicked somewhere out of the way but visually beautiful and our conversations strayed to personal territory. I was amazed at the amount of information that we shared with each other. He told me things that I'd never heard in the media. Two Sundays in a row, we had to end things early because of the production schedule but we managed to have a good time.
Robert Gant joined the regular crew and became Michael's lover. He asked to be called Bobby and seemed to have a natural connection with Hal. I found that he loved lemon-poppy muffins drizzled with honey and wasn't a great lover of pork. I didn't mind that. I usually didn't prepare much pork for the crew and stuck with chicken most of the time. The get-togethers that we had after that were as lively as usual, peppered by the regular cast: Michelle, Thea, Hal, Robert, Peter, Scott, Sharon, Randy, Jack and Gale as well as Fab, who was a love interest for Randy and Bruce, who played George, a wealthy pickle maker who had fallen in love with Peter's character.
It took me three days to compose and design the menu for Lindsay and Melanie's wedding and Jhonna helped me as usual, but I had to fashion a wedding cake as well. On the fourth day, we prepared the set and I retreated to a corner to take a nap while Jhonna handled things. I promised that I would let her take more of an administrative role toward the middle of the year and she had never let me down. I awoke to Gale's gentle rumble and the rough feel of his fingertips on my face.
"Hey, wake the fuck up!" I blinked and sat up, shaking the sheaf of sleep. "What are you doing sleeping on the job?"
"Sorry! Is everything all right?"
"Yeah. It's time to go."
I looked around to see that everyone was leaving and that Jhonna had packed everything up. "Wow! I slept that long?"