Don't volunteer me

I work with a bunch of women, guys too. I work pretty exclusively with a woman named Yolanda. Some days she is lazy and other times she actually gets some work done. She is close to another employee named Yvonne. It is when she is around Yvonne that her productively drops to below zero. I know Yvonne, I like her, she is getting married in August. I think she is twenty, I don't know for sure because altho we are genial to one another, she has never invited me to her house/apt. See, I don't even know where she lives. These two women know I am an excellent cook. I have brought stuff with me to work and shared and they rave about how fabulous I am. I already know this. Another lifetime ago I owned my own successful catering business and I was the head chef.

So. Back to Yolanda and Yvonne. This one day at work a few weeks ago, I saw Yvonne talking with Yo about her bridal shower and they were looking over a price sheet for relish trays, sandwich trays, fruit or veggie trays, meat and cheese trays. You get the idea. Some of these ran close to $50 and more. I asked who was throwing her shower. She said no one.

Red flag.

No one? I asked, "What about your aunts or your bestfriend or the girls you go to church with?" Nope. No one. I think she talked Yolanda into doing it. So Yolanda says to me, right in front of Yvonne, "Honey Bee, why don't you do the food? You're the bomb!" The first thing I said was, "WOW, thanks for volunteering me. I hate when people do that." I gave her a few pointers but said, totally serious, if she cannot afford these trays, she cannot afford to hire me to do her food. I am expensive because I am the bomb.

This seemed to bend Yolanda out of shape and she said, "Sheesh, but she's your friend." Well, arguing about this would have been lost on her since she's been to Yvonne's house and gets rides from her to work and they hang out. Not with me tho. Plus another thing, it would have been cruel to point out the absurdity of this remark in front of Yvonne.

I said, "If you want tips I'll be happy to share. That's the best I can do." i just walked away shaking my head.

Today as I was walking thru work I saw Yvonne and asked her if she straightened out her bridal shower food choices. She shook her head rather strangely and said that they were not going to do trays, they were going to do salads. Oh how nice.

A few hours later Yolanda shows up for work and says to me she is going to need my address for the bridal shower invitation. I say yeah. We're still working and a little while later Yvonne comes by and asks for the address too, I give it to her.

Not twenty minutes later as we're moving onto another phase of our work, Yvonne is tagging alone and Yolanda is yapping away and I'm not paying attention. She says, "Honey Bee, you can bring your chicken salad, that'll be good." "What chicken salad? Where? I make three different kinds, what are you talking about?" "To the bridal shower, your awesome chicken salad." I'm thinking WTF?

"We want you to bring the salad." "The Thai Salad? For you?" "Yes." Then Yolanda says there are going to be twenty people there. Oh for God's sakes. I said, "I'll think about it."

I didn't need to think about this. Out of the kindness of my heart have have shared food with my co-workers and they think this entitles them to invite me to a bridal shower with the sole purpose of getting me to bring the food. Guests do not bring the food. If it were a potluck party that'd be way different.

My Thai Salad is spectacular. It is also expensive. To cater this main dish salad for twenty women at a bridal shower would cost a minimum of $200. Like I said, she cannot afford. I also don't feel like I know her well enough to cough up all that money and time bringing food to a bridal shower I have no intention of attending.

IF SHE wants to pay to have me make the salad, she needs to hire me. Not invite me and my food. I am so pissed off at Yolanda. I told her before that I didn't appreciate her volunteering me or putting me on the spot and having to point out that Yvonne doesn't have anyone who can afford to hire me for her party.