by Cassia Leo
“Great,” I say, reaching for the door handle so I can leave.
His large hand lands on top of mine. “Wait.”
My heart hammers against my chest, so hard I swear he can hear it at this distance. “What?” I say, my eyes focused on our hands, too afraid to look up at his face.
He slowly removes his hand from mine. “You need to know that Edward will be here tonight…for the opening.”
There’s a finality in his tone, but he also sounds apologetic.
The flush of attraction I felt a moment ago morphs into disappointment. “I know,” I say, tilting my head back to meet his gaze. “I had no illusions he wouldn’t be.”
His nostrils flare as he looks down at me. “I tried asking him to come another night, when we’re less busy, but he really wants to be here to support me. This being my first American restaurant, and all.”
I clench my teeth to keep myself from launching into a tirade about Edward’s idea of being supportive. “I understand.”
He doesn’t seem convinced by my words. “I have to be in the kitchen tonight, but I promise Ollie will keep an eye on him.”
I nod. “Thanks.”
He narrows his eyes at me. “Why does it look like you don’t believe me?”
I draw in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Everyone here, including Ollie, knows who Edward and I are by now. And if you think anyone is going to side with a hostess over a Michelin-starred chef, you don’t know this industry as well as I thought you did.”
He laughs at this. “Why would anyone need to take sides?”
“You really don’t know your brother, do you?”
“Not nearly as well as I thought I did, apparently.”
I stare at him for a moment, confused by this answer. “Why did he never talk to me about you? Did you guys have a falling out before he moved to New York? What happened?”
He rolls his eyes as he crosses his gorgeous forearms over his chest. “After A-levels, he decided he wanted to go to culinary school, like me. But he didn’t want to go to the same one. So, I moved to London, and he moved here.”
“And what? You never spoke after that?”
He shakes his head. “No, we spoke pretty often. Until I dropped out and opened my first restaurant. He was there for the opening, but after I got that first Michelin star, we sort of lost touch. Only saw each other occasionally at family gatherings.”
“Because he was jealous of your accomplishments?”
He shrugs. “Things got really hectic for me after that, and he was busy with school, so it was difficult to get our schedules to line up with phone calls and such.”
I nod as if I believe him, but I’m pretty certain we both know that’s a load of crap. “Well, I may not know your brother as well as you used to. But I’m fairly certain I know him a bit better than you do these days. And I’m going to tell you this now, so you’re not surprised when it happens. If he tries to humiliate me tonight, I will quit. I will walk out that door, and this time I will not come back. Do you understand me?”
He unfolds his arms and his expression turns grave. “I will do my best to make sure that doesn’t happen, but you have to promise me one thing,” he says, his hand reaching up to brush a strand of hair out of my face, making me shiver.
The serious look on his face softens as he seems to notice the effect his touch has on me.
“Promise you what?” I murmur as I focus on regulating my breathing.
“Promise me if my brother does anything to upset you tonight, you’ll allow me the honor of yanking his eyeballs out through his nostrils before you do. Can you promise me that?”
The half-smile he flashes me makes my stomach flutter with giddiness.
“I can promise that.”
We stand there for a while, frozen in the moment, his gaze roaming over my every feature until it lands on my mouth. I hold my breath as I realize this is it. Ethan is finally going to kiss me.
I know I should stop it, but there’s no way I can resist this man.
I close my eyes and part my lips ever so slightly, my breathing slow and steady as I wait for his mouth to make contact with mine. Just when his breath becomes a whisper on the tip of my nose, we’re interrupted by a knock at the door.
My eyelids snap open and I’m surprised to see Ethan looking down at me with a curious smile on his face. Did I imagine his breath on my nose? Did I imagine that entire moment? What if he never had any intention of kissing me?
He wiggles his eyebrows at me as if he knows exactly what I’m thinking, then he reaches up and swipes his thumb across the corner of my lips. “You’ve got a wee bit of drool just…there.”
I shove his hand away, feeling utterly mortified. “I should get back to work.”
He chuckles. “Good luck, Alice,” he says as I open the door to find our brace-faced line cook, Warner, standing there. “And don’t forget that, if tonight goes well, we can start using you in the kitchen soon.”
I push past Warner, not bothering to acknowledge Ethan’s declaration. When I arrive in the dining room, the other hostess who will be working with me tonight is trimming leaves on the plants behind the reception desk.
Lily grins when she sees me, but her smile vanishes as I get closer. “Your face is really pale. Are you not feeling well? You really shouldn’t come to work if you’re sick.”
I blink a few times and put on a stiff grin. “I’m fine. I just…I found out my ex-boyfriend will be here tonight.”
She scrunches up her pert, freckled nose. “Yeah, I heard Edward was coming. But maybe he’ll come in later in the evening. It’s not like you’re working until closing.”
“I am working until closing. Aren’t you?”
She looks at me like I’m crazy. “You know I never work past eight. I have to go home to nurse Aaron.”
My shoulders slump as I realize I won’t be able to ask her to cover for me if I want to leave early.
Sliding my phone out of my pocket to look at the time, I see it’s a few minutes past four p.m. We’ll be opening the doors at six p.m. This means Ethan scheduled Lily for a four-hour shift on opening night. And I have to work from three to midnight?
Tonight’s dinner service is considered a soft opening, since we’ll only be serving dinner and we haven’t invited any big food critics. Tomorrow, we’ll begin opening the restaurant earlier for lunch.
We may get a few mid-level food bloggers and influencers tonight, but the bigger ones will wait to read everyone else’s opinion before they decide whether Forked is worthy of their platform. The “hard” grand opening will happen in a few weeks.
Maybe making me stay an hour past closing is Ethan’s way of testing me, to see if I can handle the stress of long hours. It’s almost as if he doesn’t believe I’ve worked countless twelve-hour-shifts in a busy kitchen. If he wants to see what I’m capable of, I’ll show him.
On the upside, focusing on work may help me forget the embarrassing thing that just happened in his office.
The soft opening is off to a great start. Any stage-fright I felt before the doors opened melts away as I begin interacting with the customers. Despite the fact that the hosts and hostesses are only supposed to help the servers if they’re overwhelmed, I find myself having to fulfill drink orders and assist the diners with wine selections multiple times to cover for the servers’ understandable first-day jitters.
Their fumbles remind me of my first day working with Edward. I try to push thoughts of him out of my mind, but every minute that passes, I know I’m only getting closer to his arrival. Like helpless prey being slowly reeled into a spider’s web.
Edward’s reservation for tonight’s dinner wasn’t on the phone reservation list or our online booking system. But I knew Edward wouldn’t feel the need to reserve seating at his brother’s restaurant opening, so I purposely placed a “RESERVED” sign on the corner booth. No one had to ask who it was for.
Despite occasional thoughts of my ex’s imminent arrival, I man
age to stay on task. When Ethan pops out of the kitchen around seven p.m., I’m certain this is it. Edward must be arriving soon.
But Ethan seems drawn like a magnet to a table near the window where an older couple have just been seated. They engage in an animated conversation full of laughter and lots of head-shaking.
“Who are they?” I whisper to Lily as she looks up a reservation on the computer for a couple of college-aged women who just walked in.
“Who?” she says then, addressing the couple, “You’re all checked in, but you’re a few minutes early. So, you can have a seat over there until your table is ready.”
I wait until the women are seated before I motion to the couple Ethan is speaking to. “Them.”
Lily squints at the couple. “I don’t know. Must be important if Ethan left the kitchen for them.”
Just then, Ethan pats the man on the shoulder and heads back toward the kitchen. I want to look away, but even the way he walks is attractive. His lean body moves in long, purposeful strides. Something about the serious look in his eyes makes me want to grab his face and kiss him.
I let out a soft sigh and, before I can tear my gaze away, he glances at me and winks.
Did he seriously just wink at me?
He knows I was staring at him. He knows I wanted him to kiss me earlier. He knows I’m hopelessly attracted to him.
“Are you okay?” Lily asks as she grabs a couple menus off the built-in shelf beneath the surface of the reception desk.
I nod, unable to speak as my throat constricts with shame, and she sets off to show the two young women to their table.
My vision blurs as I remember that mortifying moment a few hours ago when I thought Ethan was going to kiss me. How could I have been so stupid? Just because he complimented my ass at the hotel doesn’t mean he’s attracted to me. Or that he sees me as anything more than an employee.
“Hello, Alice.”
The sound of Edward’s voice turns my blood to ice, shocking me out of my embarrassing thoughts.
I turn to the group of four people standing in front of the reception desk. My eye twitches when I find Edward standing arm-in-arm with a slim, lavender-haired woman who can’t be older than twenty-two. The couple standing behind them are engaged in conversation and oblivious to me.
I swallow the lump in my throat. “Edward.”
As much as I hate to admit it, the man looks good. His hair is combed back in a neat quiff, and he’s wearing a slim-fit gray suit with a matching waistcoat. His outfit looks like it cost more than my pay as an intern at Le Cordon Bleu for an entire term.
“Good to see you working again,” he says with a smile that makes the hairs on my neck stand up.
My nostrils flare as I attempt to take deep breaths and stay present. But the last time I saw Edward begins replaying in my mind, and I find myself unable to speak.
In times of stress, humans have three responses: fight, flight, or freeze. And my brain has decided fight-or-flight will not cut it today.
Edward is saying something, but I can’t hear him. It’s as if someone has turned the volume up on the background conversations and the scrape of utensils on dinner plates.
“Alice?”
The music playing through the overhead speakers seems to blare in my ears: “A Sunday Kind of Love” by Etta James. The low hum of traffic outside suddenly gets much louder. The sound of a loud car horn makes me flinch, as if it’s right next to me.
“Alice!”
I blink my eyes at the sound of my name being shouted, and I’m almost surprised to find Edward still standing there. “Good…” I squint my eyes at him. “Good to see me working again?” I finally manage to force the words out. “Good to see me working again? Is that what you said to me?”
The smirk on his face disappears. “I was only making small-talk. Can we be seated now?”
I clench my jaw to keep from losing my cool, but it does nothing to calm the rage burning inside me. “Don’t you dare try to pretend you’re happy to see me working again. If it were up to you, I’d still be unemployed and broke.”
He cocks an eyebrow as if he’s bored with me. “This is quite unprofessional, don’t you think?” His eyes search the restaurant for another host or hostess. “Surely, there’s someone else who can seat us.”
“Is this your ex?” the lavender-haired girl asks Edward, pointing a skinny finger in my direction.
“Is it that obvious?” he says, rolling his eyes.
They both chuckle in unison, and there’s such familiarity in the way they relate to each other. This isn’t the first time they’ve done this. This strange woman and Edward have probably been laughing at me in unison for months.
“Is everything okay?” Lily asks as she finally returns to the reception desk.
“No, it’s not,” Edward replies. “I might have to drop a note in the suggestion box about this one,” he says, nodding toward me as if I’m not there. “Can you please seat us, dear?”
Lily looks at me and I wonder if my face is as pale now as it was when I left Ethan’s office earlier. “Are you okay?” she asks, ignoring Edward’s request to be seated.
I can tell her everything is fine and allow her to seat Edward and his party. Or I can let everyone know what an abusive bastard he is. But is this really the place to air our dirty laundry?
Finally, I turn to my slim, lavender-haired replacement. “It’s only a matter of time before he chews you up and spits you out, too,” I say, just as Ethan arrives at the reception desk with a mixture of anger and trepidation in his eyes. “I’m going on break,” I tell him.
Ethan and Lily exchange a look, then he follows after me.
“I’m fine. Go tend to your brother,” I say, pushing through the swinging door marked “Employees Only.”
The staff corridor leading to the break room and Ethan’s office is empty, and he uses the opportunity to grab my arm to stop me.
“What happened out there?” he asks, and I can’t tell if the anger in his face is directed at me or his brother
I shake my head. “Nothing. I just need a break. I’m fine.”
“You’re obviously not fine, Alice,” he says, letting go of my arm. “Talk to me.”
“No. You have to work. I don’t want to distract you with this. It’s stupid, petty ex-boyfriend stuff. That’s all.”
He shakes his head now. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what happened between you two. Ollie came in the kitchen a few minutes and told me it looked like you were about to faint when you saw Edward. That doesn’t sound like petty ex-boyfriend stuff to me.”
Warner bursts through the door and stops when he sees us. “I was just going to take a break. Should I leave?”
“Go to the break room,” Ethan says.
“Yes, Chef,” he replies as he squeezes by and disappears through the door just past us on our right.
“Let’s go to my office,” Ethan says.
I hesitate a moment, remembering what happened in Ethan’s domain earlier. But when he turns around, looking confused as to why I’m not following behind him, I realize I can’t keep this in any longer. He has to know what happened with Edward.
He closes the door when we’re in his office, but this time I take a couple steps backward, putting some distance between us.
“Should we be worried that Warner keeps seeing us together like this?” I ask, thinking about the promise I made to my father that I wouldn’t get involved with Ethan.
“Don’t worry about Warner,” he replies dismissively. “What happened with Edward? Tell—” He stops himself, and with a clenched jaw he seems to consider his words carefully. “Tell me everything.”
“Everything?”
He narrows his eyes at me as if I’m testing his patience. “Not the sex stuff. Just tell me everything that led to the breakup.”
His discomfort is charming, but my amusement fades quickly as I remember what he’s asking. “Are you sure you have time for this?”
&nb
sp; His face relaxes as he considers his response. “I don’t have time for this, but I do have time for you.”
A surge of emotion rises inside me, making me feel warm and more complete than I have in months. I take a few deep breaths as I think of where I should begin.
“I think it all started when a local influencer came in to the restaurant and asked for me by name,” I begin, recalling how the attention from this internet celebrity seemed to grate on Edward’s nerves and caused a huge fight between us later that night.
“He was jealous they didn’t ask for him?” Ethan inquires.
I shrug. “Probably, but it wasn’t the first time that had happened. Maybe it was just one too many times for him. After that, he spent a couple weeks alternating between calling me his pretty little—” I stop as Ethan holds up a hand to keep me from continuing. “What?”
“I don’t want to know what nicknames he called you,” he says, with a visible shudder.
“Okay,” I say, trying not to laugh. “Um… Well, he spent a couple weeks alternating between being very nice to me and ghosting me. We went three days without a single word spoken between us. Not a single call or text exchanged. And when I would ask him what his problem was, he would say he was going through some stuff he couldn’t talk about. Or he was stressed. Or some other lame excuse.”
Ethan looks uncomfortable. “I’m getting major wanker vibes. Can we skip to the breakup? This is…too much for me.”
I press my lips together to suppress a smile. “Right. The breakup.” I take a deep breath and place one hand on the back of the chair next to me for support. “Obviously, you know how it works. We didn’t know the Michelin reviewer would be there. They’re supposed to be anonymous.”
“That’s what I don’t understand. I didn’t find out about my stars until after they were awarded.”
I purse my lips. “That’s one of the things that’s kept me up at night. Edward knowing about the anonymous reviewer should have tipped me off immediately,” I say with a soft sigh. “But I was so caught up in trying to make sure it was the best service of my life, the truth about what was going on didn’t dawn on me until he went out to chat with the reviewer after the first course.”
