Miss Annabelle had been wandering around the kitchen while we all worked. When we had begun plating she went into the back and brought out a clipboard. She looked at me and winked. "I wanted to look like a real judge." Everyone placed their plated dishes on the middle counter and stood back to let Miss Annabelle walk around. She would turn the plate, looking at it from all sides, make a few notes on her clipboard, and then take a small taste. Sometimes she would go back for a second taste, but Luke told me that didn't necessarily mean she liked it, she could just be trying to figure out one of the ingredients. It seemed like her judging was going on forever, but a look at the clock and it had only been about 10 minutes.
"Come on Miss Belle, you're killing us." Justin had sunk onto a stool, Samantha leaning against him.
"Okay. I think I figured it out. Max and Erin, I loved the apricot glazed pork chops. Your plates were neat and tidy and the portions are perfect. I was hoping for something a little extra with the presentation though. It lacked…pizzazz." Max and Erin both frowned, but then turned to smiles. Erin leaned up to Max and whispered something. Max's smile faltered a little until he caught me looking at them. "Er told me to go with the apricot glaze, and said that if Miss Belle praised it in the judging I would have to bring her to see that new musical coming to town. She was reminding me that she won." Erin laughed. "Take the win however you can Sang." Mark leaned in and kissed her gently before Miss Annabelle continued.
"Justin and Samantha, I'm pleasantly surprised. You two don't usually do well with the presentation aspect." Samantha smiled and said "I know, we always rush it. Too excited to be done with it I think. We tried really hard this time to take our time." She had grabbed Justin's hand as she spoke. Miss Annabelle nodded. "I can tell. Your presentation is by far the best I have seen from you yet. I would say it almost beats out the other two teams." Uh oh, that didn't sound good for Luke and me. "However," Miss Annabelle continued "I think you rushed some of the cooking to make sure you had enough time to work on the plating. Your onions were a little undercooked, too crunchy for my taste." Justin gave a small smack on Samantha's butt. "I told you Sammy." She just smiled in return, so he must not have actually been mad.
"Now, my dear Lucian and Sang. I must say you are a wonderful team. Those other two have been cooking together for a few years and have yet to find the compatibility in the kitchen that you two have." Luke looked down at me smiled and winked. He had his hand around my waist and the other one was tucked into his pocket. "I love that you used the mango powder in the tomatoes Lucian. Nice touch." Luke nodded his head to me. "It was actually Sang's idea." I blushed at the mention and the way Miss Annabelle smiled at me. "I knew I liked you right from the start. Let me guess, the biscotti teepee was your idea too?" I nodded but had leaned in closer to Luke, to try to hide my blushing. Miss Annabelle clapped her hands together and laughed. "It was a close call, but Lucian and Sang definitely won this round." Max and Justin both made a harrumph sound and threw the towels they were holding to the ground. They were both smiling though. Luke lifted me up and twirled me around. "Look at us go Cupcake! Our first cooking date and we won!"
Miss Annabelle was still laughing when she said "If that was your first cooking date, I can't wait to see what you can do next time. Let me know when you two want to come back for your free class." We all started to clean up our sections in between tasting everyone else's dishes. Between the snacking we had done throughout the class and now filling up on the final dishes, I was stuffed. Luke looked at me as I rubbed at my stomach.
"Full Sweetie?" I nodded and leaned against the counter. "Ok, we will take a rain check on dinner. How about we have some sneaky fun instead?" That caught my attention.