I knew exactly what she was doing. Because I remembered that night, and what happened too. Once the restaurant had closed and we’d locked the doors, we’d made love on one of the tables, passionate and wild, high on the excitement.
That memory used to be one that I’d turn to fondly, and of course I didn’t look back and think that it was bad now. It was good, I was happy at the time. But I no longer looked back at it and get hard, I no longer look back at it and get turned on. It was just another memory, like when I was in high school with my girlfriend from then. Sure, at the time I had feelings and it meant something, but now… now it didn’t.
In fact… if I did want to think of a memory that got me going, that got me hard, it was the scorching night with Stevie in my office.
God that had been so hot. I kept telling myself that it was a mistake, that it was wrong, but that didn’t stop me from thinking about it, from craving her.
Virginia I simply… didn’t. She didn’t mean anything to me anymore.
Virginia kept talking, smiling in that teasing way of hers, trying to reach out and touch me on the back of the hand or the arm, asking me about how I was doing, and eventually trying to bring up Theo’s show.
That last part made me angry. I couldn’t deny that. But in a way I was glad that she had come here.
I was glad because it showed me that I didn’t actually have any feelings for her anymore. It showed me that I didn’t need her, that I didn’t want her in my life.
It was a huge relief. A weight off my shoulders that I hadn’t even realized that I was carrying. In fact, it wasn’t just that I wasn’t interested in Virginia. It was also that every time I thought about her, instead my mind replaced it with an image of Stevie. It was Stevie that I wanted, Stevie that I was drawn to.
Actually, it used to be my fantasy that Virginia would come back. I stared at her as she kept talking, using her hands to gesture. I wasn’t really listening to what she was saying. I knew that I was going to stand firm on this and not change my mind, so what was the point. But it gave me a chance to study her.
Once, I would have done anything for her to be here. Not like this, exactly. Not pitching Theo’s stupid show idea. But crawling back to me, begging me to take her back, saying how I was the best thing that had ever happened to her and she was sorry, she’d been crazy to hurt me, she’d made a mistake.
I had never quite decided, in those fantasies, which way I would go. Sometimes I would rant at her for a moment and then take her back, and we’d make passionate love, and all would be well in the world. Sometimes I’d just tell her coldly to get out, and that I didn’t need her anymore and that it was too late.
Now, I didn’t care.
She could be here to apologize and to try and make it all right and I honestly wouldn’t care. I didn’t want to get back with Virginia, the way that I had once longed for. In fact, her coming here like this was kind of pathetic. I knew that she didn’t want to get back with me, that she didn’t really care for me. She was trying to trick me and seduce me into doing what she wanted.
I wondered briefly if Theo knew that this was the tactic she was taking, or if he even cared. He might have encouraged her to do it, might have been laughing at me right that moment, or he could think that I’d cave to Virginia immediately with no real work required.
“So,” Virginia asked, wrapping up the long spiel that I hadn’t even been listening to. “What do you think?”
I smiled politely at her. “I think my point still stands. Neither you nor Theo are getting your hands on this restaurant. That includes filming at it. But by all means, feel free to order something to eat. On the house.”
The look on Virginia’s face was priceless.
12
Stevie
Y’know, I didn’t really think of myself as a violent fucking person but I just might murder Virginia Madison.
I hated her. I’d hated her from the moment Brooke had called me crying and I’d learned what she’d done, cheating on Michael with Theo. I’d had to help nurse my best friend’s broken heart and watch as Michael struggled to be strong when what he clearly wanted to actually do was break down.
Now she was back and in the restaurant, Michael’s restaurant, the restaurant he’d told her to stay away from—and hamming it up at Michael as if she still actually cared.
I could stab her with a fucking steak knife, honestly.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, poor Brooke was in a complete tizzy.
Brooke’s relationship with her mom hadn’t been so hot the last few years. Understandably so. They’d been close but when your parent cheats on your other parent with the guy you viewed as your older brother-slash-uncle figure… it hurt, no matter what way you sliced it.
“She didn’t tell me that she was coming!” Brooke hissed at me, her voice cracking a bit. “She didn’t tell me, and now she’s going to want me to go out there and make nice and say hi and play big happy family.”
“Honey.” I left the oven, directing Steph, to take over, and grabbed Brooke by her shoulders, leading her over to a quieter corner. “I need you to breathe, okay?”
Brooke took a few deep breaths and I nodded reassuringly. “There you go. Now, remember, you don’t owe her anything, okay? I know that she’s you’re mom and it’s hard to think of yourself as able to stand up to her but… she chose to walk away from the family, to walk away from you, okay? You don’t actually owe her any time. If you don’t want to sit down with her then you don’t have to.”
Brooke nodded, calming down a bit. I was glad to see it because I was a little busy freaking out myself, even if I couldn’t show it the way that Brooke could.
“Can you check on what’s happening?” Brooke whispered. “Let me know what’s going on?”
“Of course.” I nodded, squeezed her arms, then slipped out of the kitchen to see what was happening.
From the door that led into the kitchen, I could just see the booth where Virginia and Michael were sitting.
I didn’t think that he would go back to her—he knew better than that, surely, didn’t he? He knew that she was no good for him, didn’t he?
Michael wasn’t stupid. He wouldn’t be that stupid.
My stomach twisted viciously as I saw Virginia reaching across to touch Michael’s arm. Michael politely moved his arm away and my stomach unknotted just a little, but not completely, since Virginia didn’t seem to take this as a setback and kept smiling at him and flirting with him.
Could she actually want to get back with him? I mean, I could personally see why she’d want to, because I also wanted to be with Michael. I had always thought that Virginia was an idiot for letting him go in the first place.
But after everything with Theo, would she really then leave all of that to go back to Michael after she’d made it so very clear how little she thought of her now ex-husband?
I didn’t trust it. She had to be doing it to use Michael, she had to.
And there was no way that I was going to let Michael go back into Virginia’s clutches, or let him slip through my fingers. Especially not for someone who had been so awful for him. If it was another woman, someone who captured his attention and his heart then… as much as it sucked and as much as I’d try to fight for him, I also couldn’t judge him, or the woman.
But this was Virginia. This was the woman who’d done him dirty and proven she didn’t care about him the way he deserved.
It was time to take drastic measures.
I went back into the kitchen. Brooke was looking around like she was considering walking into the freezer and just freezing to death rather than going out into the dining area again.
“Hey.” I moved her to stand in front of the ticket dispenser. “How about you cover for me for a little bit? The dinner rush is dying down and you know how to supervise the kitchen. It’ll give you something to keep you away from your mom, and I’ll let you know when she’s gone and the coast is clear. She can’t fault you for being busy, can she?”
Brooke gave me a huge, relieved smile, her shoulders slumping. “Thanks so much Stevie, you’re a gem.”
“Great. I’ll just be in the back for about a half hour, okay? I gotta take care of this. Text me if you need me, I don’t want you to have to leave the kitchen unsupervised.”
This was a bald-faced lie, actually, since I wouldn’t be in the back at all.
No, I was going home.
I left Brooke in charge and then gave a quick word to my other cooks to give her a break and let her call out the tickets. Brooke had grown up in this restaurant and so she knew how things worked, and I knew I could trust her to keep an eye on things and not mess it all up. Especially since we were winding down.
Then I snuck home.
My apartment wasn’t too far away from the restaurant. I was able to get home in record time, especially this late at night, and dashed into my room. I was glad that my brother was out—the last thing that I needed was Andy asking me why I was dashing back home in the middle of the shift. I had no real explanation, no excuse I’d be able to give him.
I yanked off my clothes and ransacked my underwear drawer. Even though I’d never been with anyone intimately before, I’d stocked up over the last three years on some gorgeous lacy lingerie. Baby dolls, lacy bras, the whole works. Part of it was because I liked the feeling of confidence, knowing how good I looked underneath my clothes, even if nobody else knew. I could look at myself in the mirror and feel good about myself, a little secret boost, just for me.
The other part of it, though, the part that I didn’t want to admit fully to myself at times… was that I was also buying things to wear to show off to Michael.
Hmm. The black negligee I got with the built-in push up bra should work nicely. I put that on, and then the rest of my clothes on top of it—and then I heard the front door.
Ah, great. Andy was home.
I quickly did my hair and makeup, nothing too crazy for work—I didn’t want my coworkers asking questions—but definitely nicer than the no-makeup, ponytail look I usually went for in the kitchen because I was running around all day.
I hoped that I could just walk past Andy without him noticing, but I heard a wolf whistle as I tried to slip through the living room, and winced.
“Where are you going all dolled up?” Andy asked.
He was lounging on the couch, looking exhausted but in a good way, like he’d just come back from a party or spending the night with someone. I wanted to tell him that stuff like that was why Brooke didn’t trust him when he asked her out, but I figured this wasn’t the time.
“None of your business,” I replied, putting my shoes back on and grabbing my car keys.
“It’s always the older brother’s business,” Andy said.
I rolled my eyes. This wasn’t the time for a lecture about my being an adult and being able to make my own choices. I had to get back to the restaurant before too much craziness went on without me, but damn did I want to.
“I heard through the grapevine that you’re flirting with one of the servers in the restaurant,” Andy went on.
Oh fucking hell. Brooke couldn’t keep a secret to save her life, she must’ve fucking told Andy that I let her think I was into Cameron. Or, well, she didn’t know that I had just let her think that.
“You shouldn’t believe everything you hear,” I told him. Having Cameron be a bit of an alibi for myself to Brooke was one thing but I didn’t want my brother or a bunch of other people thinking that there was something between me and that idiot when there wasn’t. Cameron wasn’t a bad guy, at least as far as I could tell, but no fucking way did I want people thinking I’d bother sleeping with him, of all people.
“See you later,” I called over my shoulder, ignoring Andy’s attempts to ask me more questions as I hurried out the door.
When I got back to the restaurant, Brooke took one look at me and grinned. “Got a hot date tonight?” she whispered.
She sounded so enthusiastic and eager for details. I wished that I could give them to her, if only to distract her from her mother being there.
“Something like that,” I told her. “How’d everything go while I was gone?” Looking around, the kitchen seemed to be running smoothly, with things starting to wind down for the night.
“Oh everything was great, nothing to worry about!” Brooke poked me in the shoulder. “So, who is he?”
“What?”
“Your date, who’s your hot date, why’d you get all fancy?” She grinned at me. “It’s Cameron, isn’t it? He’s been sniffing around you for weeks.”
“I noticed.” The guy was far from subtle about it.
“Be careful,” Brooke warned me. “He’s a real Casanova.”
“I’m going to be fine,” I promised her. Because, you know, I wasn’t actually going to be doing anything with Cameron. “I can handle myself around a guy like him. I know how they work.”
Brooke relaxed a little and I squeezed her hand. “Hey, how are you feeling?”
“Better.” Brooke sighed, glancing through the door out to the dining room. “Mom left about ten minutes ago. I think she tried talking to me, I could feel my phone vibrating in my pocket, y’know? But I just stayed in here.”
“You don’t have to talk to her if you don’t want to. Go on home and have some ice cream or something and read a book before bed, calm yourself down. Take a nice bath.”
Brooke hugged me. “You’re the best.”
I felt a twinge of guilt in my gut at that. Yeah, I was the best… except for that bit about sleeping with her father behind her back.
Though I did feel guilty, though, it wasn’t enough to make me stop or change my plan. I saw Brooke off, and then supervised the shutting down of the kitchen. Soon, Michael was the only one left in the restaurant besides me.
He was in his office, and I was glad that Brooke had told me her mom had left—otherwise I’d be fucking terrified of going there to see Michael with Virginia. She didn’t deserve him, and it honestly would’ve broken my heart if I’d seen them together again.
I quickly put together a new dessert recipe: a lemon and strawberry cheesecake with limoncello infusion, chocolate chips, and a chocolate graham cracker crust.
This was a dessert I’d been working on for a while, trying to find just the right balance between the lemon and the strawberry, and not letting the chocolate element overwhelm everything. My kitchen had been a mess the last few days as I’d worked on it. I always tested things in my own kitchen first before subjecting the restaurant to them.
Once I made the dessert, I set it aside, then went to knock on Michael’s door.
“Come in,” he called.
I entered, forcing myself not to touch my hair or try to fiddle with my appearance. I looked good, and once I got my chef’s coat off and he saw my lingerie underneath… I shivered in anticipation, my gut starting to heat up as I imagined all the ways he could touch me.
Michael looked up as I entered, his expression cautious, guarded even. Fuck. I’d forgotten, with the whole Virginia thing, how he’d been avoiding me for the last couple of weeks. Right.
“You got a minute?” I asked. I tried to keep my tone casual.
Michael nodded. “Sure, what’s up?”
“I’ve got a new recipe, a dessert, I was hoping that you could try it and see if it’s something we want to add to the menu.” I gave him a soft smile.
Michael nodded, getting up. His lips quirked up into a smirk. “You just can’t seem to stop coming up with ideas, can you?”
“Oh, I’m always full of new ideas,” I said, unable to stop a bit of a purr from entering my voice.
Michael gave me a heated look, and I felt myself melting a little. It was so easy for him, all he had to do was give me one look and I was ready to beg him. I had touched myself in the days since we’d fucked and my fingers or even a toy just weren’t the same thing, weren’t as good, as having his fingers or his cock inside of me, stretching me wide.
He stared at me as if he could read my thoughts, as if he knew I was already aching for him, and for a moment I wanted to just forget my plan and kiss him right there, slide his hand into my pants, beg him to fuck me again.
But no…no fuck dammit I had to do this right.
“Lead the way,” Michael murmured, his voice like sin, and I swallowed hard, nodding, leading him back into the kitchen.
“Here you are.” I handed him the plate and a fork. “It’s been giving me fits, getting the balance of everything right, but I think I’ve figured it out.”
Michael took a bite, and the noise that he made was…oh God. I could feel myself getting wet, my stomach going tight, aching all the way up my spine for him.
“Divine,” Michael assured me. The way he said it, looking at me, his gaze hot and heavy, made me wonder if he really meant the cheesecake.
“How did it go?” I blurted out.
Michael gave me a look of confusion. I cleared my throat. “With Virginia, I mean. I saw that she came tonight… Brooke was really upset, so I talked her down. She still feels betrayed, I think even more so because Virginia doesn’t seem to understand what was so wrong about what she did.”
“Ah.” Michael got a hard look on his face, and I was glad that I wasn’t the one on the receiving end of his wrath. “She wanted to try and convince me to let them shoot an episode of Theo’s show here. As if I’d ever let that happen.”
“I hate to play devil’s advocate but… it would be good publicity for you, if the restaurant was featured on an episode. It’s airing nationwide, and all that.”
Michael snorted. “I’m not interested in that kind of publicity.”
Well. That I didn’t expect.
13
Michael
Stevie looked concerned as I told her that I wasn’t interested in, well, that.
She also looked… fresher, tonight. A little different. Normally after a long day in the kitchen she looked tired and who could blame her? I certainly couldn’t. But right now she looked like she was ready to go out afterwards, her hair done up, some sophisticated eyeshadow on. She looked amazing, mature, ready to go from business to sensual, and it was driving me fucking nuts.
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