Love By Chance (Chance Series Book 1)

by Blake Allwood

  Then, I sent the review to Kristine to review. I went into our blog and gave the restaurant my first-ever zero out of five stars. I pressed enter and sat back waiting for the fireworks to hit.

  After it was done, I went to Kristine’s office and asked, “What did you think of the review?”

  She glanced over and nodded. “It was harsh, but it was honest. That’s what counts.”

  “I need a drink,” I said.

  “You better watch your back for the next few days,” she responded. “This is the kind of review that puts restaurants out of business.”

  “Speaking of that, did you contact the health department?” I asked.

  She nodded again. “This isn’t their first infraction. They are doing a full investigation. I’ve already emailed the pictures to the investigator.”

  “I wasn’t joking,” she said. “You need to lay low for a while. How long has it been since you were home?”

  I looked at her surprised. “You think I’m in real danger?”

  “It’s possible,” she said. “I’d rather be safe than sorry. A week back home would do you good, and meanwhile, this could have some time to blow over.”

  “Maybe you’re right. I’ll see if I can get Elian to go with me. I’d like him to meet my parents anyway.”

  “This is the time to do it,” Kristine replied. “Take two weeks. If it hasn’t calmed down by then, I’ll let you know.”

  Kristine stood up and hugged me. “I’m proud of you. This situation sucked, but you did a great job with the review. Very respectful and professional.”

  “Thanks, Kristine,” I said. “It doesn’t make it easier that I’m the voice that shuts this place down, but I couldn’t ignore it either.”

  “Nope, you couldn’t,” she replied.

  The next day was a shit storm. The health department closed the restaurant down by noon, which caught the attention of the evening news. A reporter from the news channel contacted Kristine for an interview, but she declined for both of us. She told them if they wanted her to do so, she could contact some recent customers who’d commented on our blog to see if they would be willing to sit for an interview.

  As it turned out, most of them were willing, and the news channel set up a panel as each shared their experiences that evening.

  The next morning, I got a text from Elian asking if I was OK.

  “Yeah, but I’m going to head out of town for a while. Is there any way I can get you to come with me? Wanna meet the parents?”

  Elian wrote back a few minutes later. “Oh god, that really is scary isn’t it?”

  “You bet it is,” I responded, “but you owe me not one visit but two!”

  “Damn, I do, don’t I?” was Elian’s reply.

  “Oh yeah, baby, and I’m going to have my parents invite the entire Williams gang too. Turnabout is fair play, beautiful!”

  “When do I have to face the music?” Elain texted back.

  “Soon, but I’ll call home and see. Maybe this weekend or the following?”

  “Sure, I’m all yours. I can drive up from Dallas. Wanna meet for coffee this morning? I have a midmorning meeting but want… need to see you! I miss you so bad!”

  “Sure, meet you at my office in an hour?” I asked.

  “Sure, see you there,” Elian replied.

  I danced around my apartment as I called my parents. Mom answered in a sleepy voice.

  “Did I wake you up?” I asked.

  “Yeah, but I was about to get up. Everything OK, honey?” she asked.

  “Yeah, so you know, I’m coming home, but I wondered if I could bring my boyfriend, at least for a little while. I think you’ll like him.”

  I could hear shuffling in the background, and when my mom spoke again, I could tell I was on speaker.

  “We didn’t know you had a boyfriend, dear,” she replied.

  “Is he rich?” my dad asked, also with a sleepy voice.

  “John,” I heard my mother chastise, which caused me to laugh.

  “Sorry Dad, I don’t really know his net worth, but he doesn’t seem to be struggling any.”

  “Then sure, you can bring him,” Dad chortled.

  “What’s his name, honey?” Mom asked.

  “Elian, Elian Whitman,” I replied.

  “We look forward to meeting him,” my parents said in unison.

  “OK, I gotta go, y’all. We are meeting this morning for coffee before work. I really think you are going to like him,”

  “If you like him, honey, then we’ll like him,” my mom said.

  I skipped through my morning routine and decided to spring for a cab instead of taking the little scooters to work like I usually did. When I got to the coffee shop, I could see Elian in the window. He was talking to some muscle-bound, dark wrestler-looking guy whose voice was so loud I could hear him before going into the shop.

  When I walked in, the man turned around and upon seeing me, sprang to his feet and lunged at me. If Elian hadn’t been right behind him, I was sure I’d have been beaten to a pulp. Elian grabbed the muscle man and literally shoved him past me and out the front door.

  “Go the fuck home, you idiot!” Elian yelled at the man.

  “Not until I put that busy body’s mouth in the back of his throat!” the man yelled back.

  “If you lay a hand on him, it will be last time you see that hand!” Elian said with a force that rocked both the man and me.

  “Just ‘cause you are fucking him doesn’t mean he can go making up lies about my restaurant and getting me shut down!”

  “He didn’t shut your damned restaurant down, you idiot. Your damned girlfriend did that, along with your inability to hire reliable staff.”

  The man eyed Elian with pure anger, but Elian was also a force to be reckoned with. The man didn’t challenge him again but peered into the coffee shop window where I and the rest of the patrons stood watching and said, “This isn’t over, pipsqueak. He can’t protect you all the time.”

  Elian flipped the man around and punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground. In a voice that was so low I could barely hear it, Elian said, “Don’t you ever threaten him again. Do you hear me?”

  The man lunged up and appeared to be ready to hit Elian back, but something shifted in his gaze, and he backed off. Locking expressions with me again with an angry glare, he flipped me the bird.

  Elian rushed back into the coffee shop and to my side. “Are you OK?” he asked.

  “No,” I replied, “not really. Who was that man?”

  “He was the owner of the restaurant you reviewed.”

  “Why didn’t he hit you, Elian?” I asked, glaring at him with suspicion.

  “Because he is my cousin, and if he hit me, he’d have the entire family after him.”

  It took only a moment for the information to digest. “He is your Alverez cousin?” I asked while my arms came up in a stop pattern, warning Elian not to approach me.

  Elian averted his gaze and responded, “Yeah, he is my Alverez cousin.”

  “Shit,” I said and walked to the door.

  “Wait,” Elian said, but I beelined it to the office. “Wait, he’s an idiot! We all know he is an idiot. Don’t take it out on me!”

  I turned back to Elian as I came to the edge of my office building.

  “I’m not taking anything out on you. I just found out the worst review I’ve ever done on a restaurant was on the cousin of the man I’ve been sleeping with. And not only a cousin, but a cousin that is more like a brother. You two live in the same building, for God’s sake. I bet you even spent the evening with his parents last night, didn’t you?” I accused.

  Elian slowly nodded again, but continued to stare at the ground.

  “Did you know my ex left me because his fucking mother was out to get me? Did you know that I’ve mourned the loss of a man who turned against me for his family when I didn’t do a damned thing wrong? No, you didn’t know that because I haven’t told you, and you know why I didn�
��t tell you that? Huh? Do you know, Elian?” I forced myself upon Elian with my finger poking into his chest.

  Elian shook his head ‘no.’

  “I didn’t tell you because you are so fucking close to your damned family. Why didn’t you tell me that I was reviewing your fucking cousin’s restaurant, you idiot? Why would you put me between you and them?” I asked incredulously.

  Elian tried to pull me into his arms. “Oh, no, you don’t get to touch me. You don’t get to see me or come around me again, Elian. I‘ll not be put back in that spot, not by you, not by anyone.“ I could feel my face had gone from emotional to stone cold. “I don’t ever want to see you again.”

  Elian’s face was full of panic as he once again tried to move toward me. I put my hand up and said, “Ever,” then turned and walked away.

  I went into my office, closed the doors and blinds, and cried for a full hour before Kristine finally came to my door and knocked. “I’m coming in, Martin,” she warned, and then opened the door.

  She pulled the chair from across the desk to sit next to me and pulled me into her arms. I thought my tears were spent, but as soon as I was being hugged by my friend, the tears began to fall again. “I know,” she said. “Just so you are aware, there is a video of you, the meathead, and Elian online. There are already over a thousand views. I’m guessing this is going to go viral.”

  “God, I hate him,” I said through snot and tears.

  “Oh, honey, there are over a thousand people who hate him. By tonight, it is probably going to be a million people who hate him.”

  “Not the meathead,” I said to her. “Elian. I hate him for letting me fall in love, then putting me between his fucking cousin and my business.”

  “Oh,” Kristine said but didn’t say more.

  “What,” I replied. “Why did you just say ‘oh?’”

  Kristine scooted back a bit but left her hand on my shoulder.

  “Well, honey, didn’t you have an agreement that if Elian was involved, he’d back off?”

  “Yeah, but we didn’t have an agreement that he’d feed me to the wolves.”

  “No,” she chuckled. “But would you have been upset if he’d have told you? Wouldn’t that have come off as him trying to influence you?”

  I didn’t want to answer. I wanted to be mad. I didn’t want to think I was wrong about this. I’d ended things with Elian and that hurt me to my core.

  “I’m going to go home to Austin today I think, Kristine. I’ve already booked the flight.”

  “Good,” she said. “I’m going to go with you back to your apartment to keep an eye on you in case the meathead comes back. Then, I’ll take you to the airport. I’ll feel better when you are on a flight out of Fort Lauderdale.”

  I sighed, then laid my head down on my desk. “I can’t catch a break with men, Kristine. I think my heart is broken more this time than it was after Peter.

  “I’m sorry, sweetie. This never gets easier,” she sighed.

  Kristine was good to her word. She drove me home, helped me pack, shut down my apartment, and finally drove me to the airport.

  “Have a nice vacation, honey, and don’t think about all this stuff. It’ll work itself out,” she said.

  We hugged outside the terminal. “We love you, dear Martin. All of Lauderdale loves you. Everyone is on your side with this one, and when you get yourself back together, we will want you back. Do you hear me?” she asked.

  “Yes, of course,” I replied. “I’m not going to let the meathead, or his cousin, chase me away. I love Fort Lauderdale, too.”

  “That is what I wanted to hear,” Kristine said with a smile. “Now, go enjoy your childhood home. Find a cute boy to hook up with. I hear they make them cute in Austin.”

  “Are men all you think about, Kristine?” I asked.

  “Duh,” she said. “Of course not, I also obsess over food.” We both laughed and hugged again before I turned to go into the terminal.

  “See you in a couple of weeks, beautiful,” I said over my shoulder before the sliding doors closed behind me.

  When I exited the terminal in Austin to meet my parents, I was greeted by a yelling hoard. Not only were my parents there but also Janice and my sister, Trish. I was grabbed into a bear hug all at once. When they let me breathe again, my dad reached over, took my luggage, and threw it into the back of their Explorer.

  “Hop in the middle,” Trish said. “That way we can all harass you.”

  “Sure, thing, sis. While I’m doing that, why don’t you fill me in on that new guy you are dating,” I said with a mischievous grin.

  My sister gave me an evil glare, and then said, “Oh, he is nothing compared to yours. Bringing home the goods to meet the parents, huh?” She punctuated the last word, letting me know I was on the spot this time. Her expression changed, though, when she saw the terror on my face.

  “Martin, what happened?” she asked.

  I shook my head. “I’ll tell you when we are in the car. No one’s coming to meet the parents.”

  We all loaded into the SUV. Janice put her arm around me and encouraged me to tell what was happening. After I told everyone about the events that morning, the entire vehicle full of people were quiet.

  Finally, my dad said, “Son, I know you’re angry with this kid, but I for one am glad he decked the other guy in the face. I would have had to go kill him if he had laid a hand on you, and your mom and I already got plans for next week.”

  I put my hand on my dad’s shoulder. “I’m sure you would have, Pop, but I didn’t need to be pulled into another family drama. It seems I have a knack for finding those.”

  My mom chimed in and said, “Well, honey, if you are in the middle of a breakup, I declare we must stop by Billie’s Ice Cream Stand and grab some breakup ice cream on the way in.” All the occupants of the SUV cheered, including me.

  Long ago, Mom had decided ice cream was the only way to cure a broken heart, and if either I or my sister had issues with a love interest, we always ended up at Billie’s Ice Cream Stand. The tradition had become so synonymous with breaking up, my sister and I often teased each other about needing to go see Billie when we’d had a bad date or when a love interest didn’t share our feelings.

  The ice cream was amazing as usual. Mom always ordered for us when we were broken-hearted, and the recipe for heartache was always the same: two scoops—one chocolate, one vanilla sitting on top of a brownie and coated with every version of chocolate sprinkle, syrup, hot fudge, and lavished with whipped cream. She would send the concoction back until the whipped cream was so high that the poor kid serving us had to balance it precariously to get it out of the service window.

  Basically, break up ice cream meant if it didn’t scrape the bottom of the window when they brought it out, it didn’t have enough whipped cream.

  Damn, I missed my family. Janice was being really quiet, which meant she was up to something or had something serious to tell me.

  Of course, I couldn’t finish the ice cream behemoth. I never could, but I did my very best. As always, I felt guilty throwing it away, so I snuck beside the building where the kids at the window couldn’t see me and tossed the remainder into the dumpster.

  When I came back around, Trish was smiling at me. “You were always afraid of the kids working here. What were they going to do, give you a mean look?”

  “I don’t know,” I said with a smile. “I just thought, after Mom scared them half to death, forcing them to put every ounce of whipped cream in the place on my Sundae, that I should’ve eaten it.”

  “I don’t think they give a damn,” she said, continuing to laugh at me. Then, she put her arms around my neck. “I’m sorry, brother. I was really hoping you’d met the right one this time.”

  “Yeah, me too. I kinda thought I had.” As we hugged, I said, “He was so fucking hot, Trish. SO FUCKING HOT!”

  She pulled back took my hand and drew me away from my parents, and we both almost fell down the hill beside the parkin
g lot from giggling so hard.

  “Maybe you can make him do penance or something, especially if he was that hot!”

  “You have no idea,” I told her, “but no, there is no future there. I won’t get mixed back up into a family situation again. I think the only man I’m willing to date from now on has to be an orphan.”

  “Little orphan, Big Pete,” my sister said, causing us both to burst into another fit of laughter.

  When we joined back up with our parents and Janice, everyone had finished their ice creams and were ready to go. I reached over and put my arm into Janice’s and asked, “You gonna tell me what’s going on?”

  She stiffened up in surprise. I could see she was thinking about denying it, but she sighed instead. “Damn, you could always read me like a book. That sucks, Martin, it really does! Thank God I never have to face you in court. If people could read me like you do, I’d never win a case.”

  I put my arm around her shoulder and asked her again what was up. “I’ll tell you tomorrow when you take me out to breakfast,” she said with a sigh. “I do have to tell you something, but I want it to be when we are alone.”

  I agreed, and we all piled back into my parent’s SUV. On the way back to my parent’s house, Janice’s phone kept dinging, which she ignored.

  “Are you going to look at that?” I asked.

  “I’m absolutely not going to look at anything right now,” she said and her expression halted any other questions.

  When I got back to the house, I hugged Janice goodbye, and she agreed to pick me up early. I was exhausted, so I hugged my parents goodnight, telling them I was worn out from this morning’s insanity.

  Before I went upstairs, I turned around and said to them, “I know y’all are worried, and I appreciate you not asking more questions, but you might as well go search for my name on Google and watch the video. It is going viral, so it’ll be spreading through Facebook eventually anyway. At lease you’ll see for yourself what happened.” Before I could turn to go, my dad stepped up to me and pulled me into a hug. Then, he whispered where my mom couldn’t hear.