Chapter 16 Daniel
DANIEL
I’d never realized how suffocating our dining room was until I had to share it with my parents, wife, daughter, and the man I secretly admired, who was busy serving us lunch.
Feeling like I’d snap any minute now, I reached a shaking hand to my wineglass, which I emptied in three long gulps.
Thankfully, the others were too busy engaging in a conversation to even notice my unhealthy drinking habits, as this was my third glass already.
“So?” Claudia turned to my mother, a big smile on her face as she watched Mom take a bite from the salmon meunière Elliot had cooked. “Isn’t it just the best, Evelyn?”
Putting her fork down and cleaning the corner of her mouth with a napkin, my mom cleared her throat. “I’ve had better,” she said, pretentious as ever.
Snob.
“Oh, come on. You have to admit it’s delicious. Elliot is so talented,” Claudia went on, and somehow, the fact that she was complimenting Elliot’s talent made me slightly calmer.
“Elliot?” Mother raised one brow. “Is that this boy’s name?”
Claudia hummed a yes while taking a bite. “Isn’t it a pretty name? Oh, and he’s French, too.”
“Interesting…” That was Mother’s word whenever she found something to be incredibly boring.
“But speaking of, on Saturday, you’ll taste what good food is,” she said proudly while sipping from her wine.
“We hired the best of the best for our party. Didn’t we, dear?
” She turned to face Father, who was busy picking his teeth with his little finger.
Charming.
“Would you like a toothpick, dear?” Mother offered.
“Nah,” he said, but she’d already asked Elliot, who’d come back to the table with some extra sauce, to bring one.
“That isn’t his job—”
“Nonsense,” Mother cut me off after she dismissed Elliot. “He’s here to answer all your needs, isn’t he?”
That’s an interesting way of putting it…
“He’s here to work as a chef, Mother, and nothing more,” I clarified, voice firm. This lunch was getting worse by the minute, and irritated, I clenched my fist under the table while reminding myself to keep it cool.
“So, as I was saying, we’ve made sure to have the best of the best. We’re known for our Fourth of July parties for a reason.”
Mother’s wide smile would have made you think she was talking about one of her children, but no.
As if the great Evelyn Lillian Williams, once a beauty queen and the cover girl for a yacht magazine, would care for such things…
After all, my siblings and I were raised by various au pairs while she was busy planning her parties and looking the other way while Father screwed those so-called nannies.
But then again, I was sure sleeping with her own call boys took out a lot of energy, too, so could she be blamed for having no time for us?
“Everyone who’s important will be at this party, and this year, it will be extra special because I ordered Belgian fireworks,” she said, and I frowned, because what the hell did that even mean?
“Fireworks?” Maya cheered.
“Oh, there will be plenty of fireworks. But you’ll have to stay until late to see them, Cupcake,” my father teased her, and they all started talking about fireworks until Elliot returned with a toothpick for Dad.
He placed it next to him before quietly leaving the table, and as he did, I noticed how Claudia’s eyes followed him. I wondered what was going through her mind until she spoke.
“Evelyn, is it okay if Elliot joins us on Saturday?”
What? Why?
“It’s just that I hoped to introduce him to some people in the fashion industry. And what’s better timing than a party?”
My stomach flipped because, until now, I’d almost ignored the idea of him becoming a model and getting far beyond my reach. Yet before getting ahead of myself, I took a deep breath. There was no reason to get nervous, as Mother would never agree—
“Oh, that’s a great idea!” She put down her glass. “He’s such a beauty… I must introduce him to my friend Robert.”
Now she’s interested?
“Robert?” Father gawked.
“You know Robert, dear. Tall, thin, badly done plastic surgery? Anyway, he has a big modeling agency.” She turned back to face Claudia. “The minute he sees our boy, he’ll sign him on a contract immediately.” She laughed. “Thankfully, we’ll have Daniel to go over the details, won’t we?”
Our boy? A contract? Modeling agency? It was all going so fast that I’d yet to realize the whole table was staring at me, and baffled, I coughed to ease my tension.
“I’m sorry, but don’t you think Elliot has a say in this?” I scowled at Claudia.
“He already agreed when I asked him about it earlier today.”
The floor could have ripped in two and swallowed me whole with how shocked I was because… when did all of this happen? Before or after he kissed me? And more importantly, did Elliot truly plan on leaving?
“Now you’ll need a new cook and a new coach, huh?” Father grinned while raising his glass at me, only his joke wasn’t at all funny, especially with how it caught Claudia’s attention.
“What coach?” She frowned, brows pinched in confusion.
With a sigh, I looked down at my lap as Father informed Claudia of how I’d fired her tennis coach only an hour ago. He sounded so proud of me for once until a slam cut off his words, and I looked up, surprised to see Elliot had placed a new bottle of wine on the table.
“Excusez-moi,” he said, his eyes locked with mine. “It was mistake.”
But there was no mistake; Elliot meant to slam that bottle after walking in on our conversation and hearing that I’d fired Lucas.
My throat dried under his intense stare that made it feel like we were the only two people in the room.
This moment, which lasted only a few seconds, felt like it dragged on forever until Elliot finally turned around and walked out.
“He should be careful with those bottles,” Mother cluelessly said as she picked up the wine bottle to inspect the label.
An awful feeling erupted through me, and I bit the inside of my cheek before standing up.
“Will you excuse me,” I announced to the table, then quickly got out of there, my heart beating fast as I hurried toward the staff kitchen. I had to find Elliot and explain to him what had happened. More than that, he had to give me some answers, too.
I walked down the hall toward the kitchen and was almost there when I noticed Elliot’s shadow on the far wall.
It moved gracefully as he cooked, creating an elegant silhouette that I wanted to capture in a frame.
Only a few steps separated me from him, and I was prepared to take them when someone called my name.
Before turning to face my wife, who stood behind me, I remained focused on Elliot’s shadow, which froze at Claudia’s call.
Clearly, he’d heard her, too, and decided to stay still.
Knowing he was listening, I turned to face Claudia.
“What on earth was that all about?” she asked.
“It’s all just one big misunderstanding,” I said as her brows furrowed, and she took a step closer.
“So you didn’t fire Lucas?”
I tensed on the spot, then averted my gaze to the floor.
“I did.”
“Why?”
In my mind, I could almost hear Elliot asking the same question. And when it was him, the answer was as clear as the blueness of his sapphire eyes.
“Because of the way he was looking at you,” I said, bowing my head with shame. “I couldn’t stomach it. I couldn’t stomach the fact that another man… no, anyone, was looking at you with such intentions. It’s embarrassing to admit, but it drives me nuts, and I find myself behaving like a child.”
“Oh, Daniel,” Claudia gasped, reminding me she was here and not Elliot, a second before she closed the distance between us and hugged me.
“I never knew you were the type to get so jealous,” she said.
I swallowed hard because I wasn’t. Not until him.
“Apparently, I am.”
And as she hugged me tightly, as if to reassure me she belonged to me, all I wanted was for her to disappear so I could go and see Elliot.
What an awful thought. She was my wife. More than that, my best friend of many years, and yet, I’d just wished for such a horrible thing.
I truly was a despicable man, just like my father.
And if I thought I was better than him earlier, now I realized it wasn’t at all true.
“You should go back to the table,” I said, slowly breaking the hug.
“What about you?”
Tucking a curl behind her ear, I gave her a small smile. “I’ll go wash my face and then join you. You know how it is when my dad’s around… “
Claudia, forever the attentive person with a heart of gold, nodded.
“Okay.” She leaned close and kissed me. “Remember that I’m yours and only yours,” she whispered over my lips before pulling back and leaving me to stand alone.
I knew that if jealousy hadn’t made me this vulnerable, I would have followed her back to the table as a decent husband would do. But I didn’t, and instead, I began moving toward the kitchen, my heart in my throat, until the second I rounded the corner and saw Elliot standing by the stoves.
Per usual, when upset, he pretended I wasn’t there and continued stirring the pot on the stove.
“I know you heard me,” I said in French, not minding that he didn’t look at me.
“I do not know what you mean.” He decided to stick to English.
“Please, you obviously do—”
He turned off the stove to glare at me.
“No,” he snarled in French. “I don’t. So how about you say it?”
Taken aback by his hostility, I frowned at him.
“What do you want me to say?”
Resting one hand on his waist, he held his chin high as if to prove he was superior.
“What do you want from me?” he asked, voice demanding.
“What?”
He took a step toward me, closing the distance I kept between us thus far.
“Tell me, Daniel Williams, what do you want from me?” he hissed, eyes determined as his stare bored into my soul.
Feeling cornered, I looked aside. “I don’t know.”
“But you do.” He jammed his finger at my chest, forcing my attention back to him. “You’re just too much of a coward to say it!”