Chapter 1 Caught in the Cooler #3
Her eyes narrowed slightly. Smart girl. She clearly doubted him. Still, she let it go.
“I should put these away,” she said.
“In the walk-in?”
Her eyes widened.
He held up both hands. “Bad joke. Sorry. Very bad joke.”
She pressed her lips together. This time, she was fighting a smile.
“Terrible,” she said.
“Awful.”
“Embarrassing.”
“Honestly, yes.”
She moved to the dish shelf instead of the cooler, which was probably wise for everyone. Vinny watched her put away the ramekins. He should have said goodnight. He should have let her leave.
Instead, he said, “Soph.”
She went still. Not scared. Still. Slowly, she turned. He had called her that in the cooler. It had slipped out. He didn’t usually use it. He had no right to it. Victoria would probably remove one of his kidneys for it. But Sophia didn’t tell him not to.
Her voice was quiet. “What?”
“I’m sorry if I made things weird.”
Her fingers rested on the edge of the shelf.
“They were already weird.”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe a little more weird.”
“Also yeah.”
She looked at him for a second, then down. “I said yes.”
His heart kicked.
“I know.”
“I don’t know why I said that out loud.”
“I’m glad you did.”
Her cheeks turned pink. He stepped back half a step, even though they were already several feet apart.
“I’m not going to push you,” he said. “I just want you to know that.”
Sophia looked at him again. The kitchen wasn’t romantic now.
The lights were too bright. The floor smelled faintly like mop water.
Someone had left a stack of sheet pans near the sink.
The cooler hummed behind them like an annoying witness.
Still, her face did something soft that made him forget every joke he knew.
“All right,” she said.
Not yes or no. All right. He could live with all right. For now.
Victoria’s voice came from the kitchen door. “Sophia?”
Sophia jumped. Vinny looked toward the ceiling. Victoria appeared in the doorway, eyes narrowing immediately when she saw them. “Do I need to start checking the kitchen every five minutes?”
Vinny frowned. “Is that necessary?”
“With men? Usually.”
Sophia grabbed a towel from the counter. “I’m done. I’m coming.”
Victoria looked at Vinny. “You good?”
He nodded. “I’m good.”
“Be better.”
“Working on it.”
That answer seemed to annoy and satisfy her at the same time. Sophia slipped past Victoria, then paused at the door.
“Goodnight,” she said.
To both of them, probably. Maybe mostly to him.
“Night, teach,” Vinny said.
Her eyes flickered. Because he hadn’t said Soph again. Then she left with Victoria. Vinny stood in the kitchen for a long moment after the door swung shut. Antonia came out of the office. He closed his eyes.
“Vinny,” she said.
“Yeah.”
“Don’t make me regret hiring you.”
That hit harder than he expected.
He opened his eyes. “I won’t.”
“I mean it.”
“I know.”
Antonia studied him. Her face wasn’t angry now. More tired. More careful. Like she saw something he hadn’t said and was deciding whether to call him on it.
“Sophia is young,” she said.
“I know.”
“Inexperienced.”
“I know.”
“Quiet.”
“I know.”
“And you are loud enough for three people.”
He almost smiled, almost. Antonia didn’t. So he didn’t.
“I’m not trying to hurt her,” he said.
“I believe you.” Antonia crossed her arms. “That doesn’t mean you can’t still hurt her.”
Vinny nodded. “I hear you.”
“Good. Go home.”
“Yes, chef.”
He grabbed his jacket from the back hook and left through the rear door.
The alley air was cold after the kitchen heat.
Chicago smelled like wet pavement, old brick, and somebody frying onions half a block away.
Vinny leaned against the wall for a second and looked up at the slice of night between buildings.
He had almost kissed Sophia. He had almost messed it up.
He still wanted to kiss her. With Sophia, he couldn’t pretend the answer didn’t matter.
No, not the problem. The problem was that he wanted to kiss her right.
He wanted her laughing first. Comfortable.
Not trapped between shelves. Not embarrassed because Gia had a clipboard and timing from hell.
He wanted to make her look at him the way she had in the cooler again. Brave. Nervous. Curious.
He wanted her to say yes and mean it because she wanted him, not because she thought getting it over with would make things easier.
That thought stopped him. He didn’t know why he knew it, only that something about the way she had stood there told him enough.
She had looked like she was jumping off a small cliff, trying to prove something to herself.
He ran a hand over his face. Sophia Rossi wasn’t a conquest. She wasn’t a kitchen joke.
She wasn’t the shy girl he could finally get to flirt back and call that victory.
She was Sophia, and to him she was Soph.
He had started looking for her every time the kitchen door opened, and he wasn’t sure when that had happened.
Vinny pushed off the wall and started toward home.
His thumb still stung, and his chest still felt strange.
He smiled anyway, though it wasn’t his usual grin.
He was in trouble, and for once, joking didn’t feel useful.