18. Chapter 18
eighteen
M ax walked into the kitchen to find Luis barking orders at the kitchen staff as they scurried about, trying to please their boss. It was the night of the soft opening, and Luis was obviously on edge.
The dining room was filling up with all the friends and family of the staff, and thankfully, everything seemed to be going smoothly.
At least it was now.
They’d had a few glitches earlier on in the day that they had easily fixed. But that was exactly why they were having a soft opening. To find all the problems that could arise at the grand opening and deal with them.
“Luis?” he asked, approaching slowly. “Are we good? ”
Luis looked up at Max and blinked, as if he hadn’t seen him walk in. “Fine,” he said. “Go away.”
Max hesitated. Even though the kitchen was in utter chaos, he believed Luis when he said it was fine. He just didn’t want to leave yet.
“Stop avoiding people,” Luis said, taking a container of chopped onion from one of his cooks before shooing her away.
Max frowned.
“That’s why you’re in here, no? Because you don’t like the crowd?”
“I didn’t realize I’d hired a therapist,” Max muttered.
“Out of my kitchen!”
Max headed for the door. He wasn’t avoiding people . More like, person . But it was a fool’s errand, because as soon as he stepped out of the kitchen, he spotted her.
She was standing at the bar with Cara and Ethan, her head tipped back in a laugh.
She always stood out in a crowd with all that shining red hair, but even more so now in the tight black dress and high heels she was wearing.
Cara had told him they were going shopping, so he’d already braced himself to see her out of her jeans and flannel again, but the sight of her still stopped his heart. They’d been avoiding each other since the comedy show. But the more he tried to stay away, the more he wanted her.
It was super fucked up.
“Max!”
He pulled his eyes off Willow’s mouth and forced them onto Ethan standing next to her. He waved Max over with a look of jubilation on his face.
“Have you tried this?” he asked, handing Max a sample glass of beer as he got to the table.
“No. Is this the peach one?”
Willow smiled and nodded at him. “A peach ice cream milkshake IPA. We’ve named it Fuzzy Milkshake.”
Max smiled at her. “Clever.”
“Jer named it. He’s brilliant.”
Max rolled his eyes, put the glass to his lips, and drank down the hazy orange-coloured beer in one shot. His eyebrows shot up. It tasted exactly like peach ice cream.
“Wow,” he said. “This is delicious.”
Her pretty skin flushed a little. “Thanks.”
He tried to ignore her pink cheeks and focus on how amazing her beer was. Thank God she’d taken a chance and bought the brewery. They wouldn’t be able to keep this in stock.
“I’m gonna go sit with Natalie,” Ethan said, excusing himself .
Willow waved to Natalie, then turned to Max. “I really like your friends.”
Max nodded as he took a drink from the next sample, a dark lager that usually wasn’t his favourite type of beer, but honestly, this he could drink by the keg.
“He’s your biggest fan,” he said with a swallow. “This one’s great, too.”
She chuckled, then looked around at the room full of guests. “I know. I can’t believe I ever considered not doing this.”
He took another sample glass of a juicy IPA, drank it down, shook his head. It was unbelievable how talented she was. “You’re meant to do this.”
He meant for it to come across light and complimentary. But it came out serious. Too intense.
She stared back at him for a moment, then turned her pretty head away to look at the crowd. “Are you ready for this?”
“No.”
She laughed, and it hit him how happy he was that he didn’t have to do this alone.
He wanted to pull out everything he’d been cramming into his mental box of feelings and unleash it. What would be so wrong about admitting he liked her? And that he thought she was great? If she was single, he wouldn’t have thought twice about asking her out.
But she wasn’t single. And not only that, she planned to marry the fucking guy.
Still, he had this burning need to tell her. It was weighing on him too much. He was just about to let it out when the door opened behind them.
“Boss!”
They both turned to find Jer coming from the back of the brewery.
“I need you for a minute.”
“Sure,” Willow said. She flashed him a smile before walking past him and following Jer.
He shook it off, looked away. Maybe this was the universe’s way of telling him to fuck off and leave the beautiful engaged woman—that he was tripping all over himself for—alone. He scanned the room before his eyes found Adam’s, then Chelsea’s. They were staring at him from across the room, mouths agape.
Had they noticed him staring at Willow?
As his eyes narrowed, they quickly averted their gaze. He scanned the rest of the crowd, wishing he could just retreat to his office until the entire night was over. Being in crowds of people was something he truly despised.
“Max? ”
“Yes?”
He spun to find Luis out of the kitchen, smiling and waving at his wife and kids, who were sitting in a booth in the corner of the dining room.
“We’re all set. I’m going to send out the waitstaff—what’s going on over there?”
Max turned, expecting the worst, but calmed immediately when he saw Adam on one knee in front of Chelsea.
Fuck, he hoped she’d say yes. An eternity passed before she started nodding emphatically and Adam finally stood, pulling the ring from the box and sliding it on her finger.
Luis let out a low whistle. “I can see that diamond from here.”
“I bet a Martian just said the same thing,” he said, getting a laugh from Luis. “Go ahead with the waitstaff.”
He moved his way through the throng of people, finally giving Adam and Chelsea a hug and congratulating them, but a flash of red caught his eye. He turned to find Willow standing in the room’s corner, looking a lot less jubilant than everyone else. Maybe Jer had run into some problem?
He made his way back to her, bracing himself for bad news. “Everything okay?”
She gave a solemn nod. “They seem thrilled. ”
He glanced across the room, then back. “I’ve never seen Adam happier. And I’ve never seen you look so down.”
Willow shrugged. “I’m just in my head, I guess.”
“What is it?”
Willow glanced back at everyone surrounding Chelsea and admiring her ring as she held out her hand. “I just wish . . .”
She trailed off, then her voice dropped to a whisper.
“I wish Shane had given me a ring.”
Anger surged through Max’s veins. That fucker had treated Willow so shitty. She deserved a ring. She deserved the entire world.
“Why did you say yes?”
She looked up at him with those sad eyes. “I wanted to say yes. I just wish he’d act like he actually wants to marry me. He never wants to set a date. He brushes me off when I try to talk about our wedding. Adam seems like he’d rearrange mountains to marry Chelsea, and I can’t even get a ring.”
“Are you really gonna marry that guy?”
She looked up at him, met his stare, shrugged.
“It’s okay to have standards, Willow,” he said. “Just because you love him doesn’t mean he should stop trying. It’s okay to demand more. ”
She gave a little smirk. “You think I should demand a ring from him?”
He shook his head. “I don’t think you should demand a single thing from him . I think you should tell him to take a fucking hike. But from someone else, someone who treats you right, yes. Expecting a ring is pretty standard.”
Her eyes went sad, and he felt like shit. He hated she was sad, but he couldn’t stop the words from coming out anymore. She needed to know that she deserved more than to be let down repeatedly.
He took a deep breath and cracked open the mental box, and out poured all the emotions he’d been stopping himself from feeling.
“Willow?”
She turned to him with a shake of her head, as if she was shaking off all the disappointment she’d dealt with from her fiancé. “I don’t want to talk about Shane anymore.”
Max nodded. “Okay,” he said, shifting his thoughts. Maybe now wasn’t the best time. He’d tell her later.
“Luis is sending the food out. Do you want to eat with me?”
She smiled. “Sure. I was going to sit with Cara, but I think she’s leaving soon.”
Max pulled back. “Why? ”
Willow rolled her eyes. “She doesn’t like when you’re in her business.”
“Because she’s up to no good?”
Willow laughed. “Come on,” she said, walking to the table where Cara sat with Jer’s weird friends.
He let it go, vowing to get to the bottom of it later. In the meantime, he’d try to enjoy the night, and after everyone left, and they were all alone, he would finally let Willow in on the feelings he’d been boxing up inside since their first conversation.