Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 81113 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81113 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
She was like a drug, and holy shit was I addicted. One hit was all it took, like pure damn heroine.
But I never should’ve taken that hit. I never should’ve even kissed her. Stevie was a determined woman but I should’ve known better than to let her have her way in this. She was young, she thought she knew what she wanted, but me? Really? She couldn’t really be happy with me.
And fuck, I’d taken her virginity. Her first sexual experience and it had been with the father of her best friend, how fucked up was that? I felt like a complete scoundrel, a cad, the kind of man that I’d always looked down on.
I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel, staring out into the darkness, only minutes from home. Maybe… maybe it would be best to just sell the restaurant and find a job working for someone else. Maybe in the food business or maybe going back into tech. It was clear as crystal that I wasn’t capable of making good choices anymore.
Maybe it was just time to give up hope and accept that I was a failure.
Before I made any other awful mistakes.
Chapter Ten: Stevie
The new menu was going well, and that was about all I could say for things going well in my life.
Okay, so that wasn’t strictly true. Professionally, things were going fine. The staff seemed to respect me and even like me, especially the other line cooks. Even if Cameron kept annoying the fuck out of me with his antics.
The asshole was always slacking off or trying to look good for his tables at the expense of the kitchen, promising them the moon, and he never stopped making these innuendos at me and trying to hit me up. As if I was just standing around and not, y’know, busy calling out orders and making food and listening to everyone around me and being the boss. I would be doing ten things at once and the idiot would be trying to talk to me. What was he, blind as well as stupid?
Business had increased. I could see that. We had steady reservations now, but… it wasn’t up to the level that I had hoped for.
And the clock was ticking.
I knew that I was a perfectionist. Someone else could probably be satisfied with how things had picked up so far. But I wasn’t. I was ambitious and goddammit I knew that things could be better than this. I’d hoped for a bigger turnaround, and in two weeks, this was a pretty good one but… it wasn’t enough.
Michael had agreed to give me a month. This was two weeks in. That meant my time was half over, I had only two weeks left, and if I didn’t do as well as I’d said I would be… if I didn’t pull off the miracle that I’d promised…
Michael could decide that I wasn’t really working out and fire me.
Speaking of Michael, things had been… awkward, ever since that night.
It shouldn’t have been. Dammit, that night had been everything that I’d dreamed of, no, more so, but apparently I was the only one who thought so. Michael had been avoiding the kitchen and avoiding me, barely showing his face, sticking to his office and then sometimes checking the host stand to see how we were doing on reservations and so he could look out over the restaurant and see if anyone looked unhappy.
Clearly, he wanted space, and well, I couldn’t exactly leave the kitchen regularly so I just… stayed there. In my territory. While he stayed in his.
I felt so disappointed I was sick with it. It twisted in my stomach, slithering and cold, like a snake.
We were in the middle of a lull after the seven p.m. rush when Brooke poked her head in.
Oh, no. I’d been kind of avoiding her too, if I was being honest. She was my best friend, she could read me like a book…how was I supposed to hide from her that something was going on?
My entire time having a crush on Michael, I’d had no idea how Brooke would respond to it. Honestly I’d… avoided thinking about it. I loved Brooke. She was my best friend and always had been. If she found out and rejected me, or Michael, or both of us for the decision… I didn’t know how I’d be able to handle it. Hell, I didn’t know how Michael would be able to handle it.
Surely Brooke would want us to be happy though, right?
Ugh. It all just made me feel even more sick inside.
“Hey!” Brooke walked in, avoiding the line cooks and pulling me aside. “You got a sec?”
“Watch the potatoes!” I yelled at Steph, one of my sous chefs, and then I nodded at Brooke. “Yeah, what’s up?”
Brooke led me over to the side, near the dishwashing station. “We’re going out tonight. Girl’s night out.”