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)
I was way more nervous than I ever expected.
All of my three years of hard work had been leading to this: to having a career that I loved, that was with the man I’d had feelings for since… well, it felt like since forever.
And to be honest, even before I’d had feelings for Michael, I had wanted to work in his restaurant. I would go there with Brooke and watch the chefs doing their thing, and we’d get to sample some of the food, and it felt like the coolest place in the world to me. I knew that the restaurant had fallen on hard times since the whole… divorce thing, and I wanted to make it be the place that it had been when I was a kid. That place that I’d loved so well. I just knew that I could convert it into that magical place again, for everyone else. I wanted people to see what I had seen in it, what I still saw.
Culinary school hadn’t been easy by any means. It had been a struggle to keep up. But I had worked my ass off and I hadn’t given up. That wasn’t who I was. I never gave up on anything that I wanted, not ever. Sometimes this had caused problems as a kid, like when I wanted a toy and my parents said no.
But when it came to things like my culinary career? It was a benefit. No matter how tough the going got, I was tough, and I got going. And now it had paid off - top of my class, baby.
I could’ve - and probably should’ve - applied for a position at a successful restaurant as a sous chef or something. A way to build my reputation and experience.
But I just didn’t want to wait. I wanted Michael, and I wanted to work at his restaurant, and I wanted to turn his life and the life of this establishment around. I wanted to work here. With Michael. At this place.
So why wait? Why would I go somewhere else when I could just go there and get started right away?
Now, though - now I had the interview. I was going to go in and see Michael for the first time in three years. And I was… well. Panicking? Is a strong word?
But yeah I was fucking panicking.
This could be the most important interview of my life. I couldn’t afford to screw it up. I also couldn’t screw up showing Michael that I wasn’t just a kid anymore. Romantically or professionally.
I spent forever in my room, going over my choices. The part of me that had been yearning for Michael’s touch ever since I was a teenager wanted to dress in more revealing clothes, but I wasn’t there for a date, I was there to get a job. I picked my best tailored dress pants, sensible shoes, and a blouse with a dark green tie that brought out my dark eyes and dark hair.
And, well, if the pants and the blouse hugged my curves nicely and showed them off, and I did my hair up… that was just fine, wasn’t it? Nothing wrong with adding a little hint of seduction to it all.
The entire drive to the restaurant, I coached myself in my head on my answers, how to show Michael that I was the person who could turn his restaurant around. I also practiced a few flirtatious things to say, ways to show him that I was available for the taking.
I used to do that all the time when I was little. I would daydream about marrying Michael, although of course being younger those daydreams included things like Brooke living with us and we owned two magical ponies.
Yeah, I know, laugh at me, I laughed at myself too when I remembered that. Magical ponies, fucking hell.
Of course, no offense to Brooke who was my dear friend and always had been, but now that I was an adult and actually understood relationships and all - I didn’t want her living with Michael and me.
I wanted him all to myself.
Also as much as I loved Brooke, I thought that living with her wouldn’t be a good idea. We were great friends but not quite compatible in a roommate situation. It was why I had been glad she’d chosen not to live with me while I was at culinary school, although her reason had been that she was going to be bringing boys home all the time and I needed silence to study which, was also totally fair.
Sometimes, I wanted to tell her - was so tempted to tell her - that Andy would jump at the chance for her to take him home. But Andy would kill me if I had told her that. So, I kept my mouth shut. Let my brother sort out his own romantic mess.