3. Chapter 3
JAX
Pain greeted Jax as soon as he opened his eyes, and his annoyance skyrocketed. He must’ve curled too much in his sleep because his back ached like he’d tried for a gold medal in gymnastics, and it took him almost fifteen minutes to get out of bed.
When he finally got to his feet, he was sweating and angry, and while he knew that the rage pulsing in his head wasn’t healthy, he didn’t know how to relieve it.
He’d love to dance his problems away like he used to, but now he couldn’t even go for the tamest of walks because he needed to save his strength for work.
Just thinking about another shift in that hellhole bistro had him rubbing his temples, his fury building as he hobbled around his tiny apartment, trying to find his shoes.
He’d had so much taken from him without the time or the space to breathe.
Sure, he’d gotten a rest after his back surgery, when things had seemed hopeful, but he’d slowly become a shell of himself, an angry, cracked shell.
He wanted his old life back, but pain sat around him like a cage that grew tighter with each passing year.
“Fuck!” Jax stumbled over his shoes, and hot agony burned through his lower back.
Once it subsided, he awkwardly bent at the knees and grabbed one of the slip-ons, slapping it into the table a few times before carefully putting it on, and his mood continued to sour as he finished getting ready and drove to the restaurant.
Parking at the edge of the lot, he tried to even out his breathing and calm down, but the pain wasn’t making it easy.
He had some stronger pills and pot gummies on him in case things got bad, but then he’d have to take a cab home.
For now, he hoped that his cocktail of acetaminophen and ibuprofen would give him some relief, any relief, but he wasn’t counting on it.
With a final sigh and a shake of his head, Jax pulled his car closer, wincing as he got out of it.
Hopefully, Russel wouldn’t push him during this shift, but he wasn’t counting on that either.
The owner liked to walk around like a sheriff running a town, too good for mistakes or advice, and he was leaning on everyone’s last nerve.
Slipping in through the back, Jax quickly got to work.
While being an employee sucked, the head chef was amazing, so they were constantly slammed, which didn’t help Russel’s ego one bit.
He acted as if he’d cooked the food himself, and although he was in rare form today, his idiocy had been relegated to the front of house, so Jax didn’t have to witness it firsthand.
Good, because he just wanted to put in his hours, take a handful of gummies, and lie down. Thankfully, everyone around him could either sense he needed space or they didn’t care, because they left him to do his job in peace.
Until Russel strolled into the kitchen.
Jax ignored him as he blustered around. With his bad toupee, overdone veneers, and patterned shirts, he seemed like an animated character. Unfortunately, he was real, and he ogled one of the waitresses as she passed, giving her a pat on the butt.
Jax didn’t know why this particular action broke him.
Maybe he’d had enough of Russel harassing the staff in various ways, maybe he didn’t like the shock and shame he saw in that woman’s eyes, or maybe he was looking for an excuse to vent his building rage, but the fury bubbling under his skin started to spill over.
Jax wiped his hands on a towel, moving around his station as the beast within took over. His right hand curled into a fist as he approached, and without a second thought, he grabbed Russel’s doughy ass as hard as he could.
A high-pitched shriek echoed through the kitchen, bringing it to a halt.
“How do you fuckin’ like it?” Jax rasped, his voice carrying in the strange silence. Letting go, he stepped back, feeling more alive than he had in ages as adrenaline blasted through his veins.
Russel spun on him, his face purple, and Jax felt a strange sense of pride that he’d managed to spill his rage onto someone so deserving.
“What the fuck is wrong with you, Fiorelli!” Spittle flew from Russel’s mouth. Tilting his hips forward, he absently rubbed his butt as if Jax’s touch had burned him. “You’re fired!”
“Yeah, yeah,” Jax backed up toward his station, noticing the servers who had scuttled in, all of them watching with eyes the size of dinner plates.
“I’m not gonna miss this place because you’re an idiot who’ll run everything into the ground in a year, and if you don’t stop putting your hands on the waitresses, someone’s gonna do something worse to you than what I just did.
” The last part was delivered with a growl.
Stripping off his apron, he tossed it at Russel’s feet, deciding to leave while he was ahead.
Russel called after him with a creative amount of cursing, but Jax coasted on the rush because he felt no pain when the beast took over. On a high, he drove around for an hour until the consequences of his actions caught up to him, his aching back right on their heels.
He’d lost his job. And his health insurance. That meant no more doctors, no more physical therapy, and worst of all, no more Hot Bearded Guy. He hadn’t even learned the man’s name…
It didn’t matter. Jax had bigger problems, like finding work, but this area was all tapped out, especially with him not just burning this bridge, but nuking it from orbit.
His stomach twisted as his fury rose again, but this time it was aimed at himself. He never used to be this way; he used to be reliable, fun, someone who didn’t see red, fly off the handle, and walk out of kitchens. Pain had changed him, and he didn’t like who he’d become.
Still hating on himself the following night, Jax sighed about fifty times during the drive to his brother’s neck of the woods, parking behind a gallery off Main Street.
You almost here? Finn asked in the sibling group chat, and within seconds, Megan was typing.
I wish I could come. I hate that I live four hours away. I need a teleporter.
Don’t worry, Megan, we’ll hang soon. And I’m parking now, Jax sent.
He didn’t really want to see Finn and Ollie, but he’d made these plans when he’d been in a better mood and the walls of his tiny apartment were closing in on him.
It would be good to get out; maybe it would keep him from ruminating over how much he sucked.
Wrapping himself in his coat, he slowly walked around to the front of the building.
Ollie had invited him to a friend’s photography exhibition, and it must be some high-level stuff because the place was crowded.
While impressed, Jax couldn’t help his irritation as he shuffled around too many bodies in a tight space, and by the time he found his brother and Ollie, he was ready to go home.
“Oh, no way, Jaxaphone, you made it!” Ollie exclaimed, hugging Jax the second he saw him.
As always, Jax directed the hug north, around the shoulders, noticing that Ollie seemed even healthier and happier.
His blond curls and blue eyes shone, and Jax wished for the millionth time that Mae would take her recovery as seriously.
Should Jax introduce them? Or would it make her and Ollie worse?
“You okay, Jax?” Finn asked, next in line for hugs, although his was more of a shoulder bump.
Finn had the same eyes and cheekbones as Jax, but he was at least five inches taller, and while he had a swimmer’s build, Jax’s muscles came from working in kitchens, leaving his smaller frame lean yet defined.
“I’ve been better,” Jax gave him a pinched smile. “I got fired again.”
“Why?” Ollie’s eyebrows rose in concern.
Jax hadn’t told anyone, not even his mother or Mae, so it all spilled out.
“I got tired of watching the owner grope the waitresses, so I groped him instead, asked him how he liked it.” Jax got a little angry even thinking about the situation - angry at Russel for being such an asshole, angry at no one else for speaking up, and angry at himself for how he’d handled it.
“You are a king. ”
“Naw, I’m just an unemployed chef with rent to pay.
” Jax shifted, cracking his neck and shaking out his leg.
His muscles had been tight all day, but after several gummies and an afternoon on the floor, yesterday’s pain had mostly abated.
It made things a lot easier, and he tried not to think about how effortless life used to be.
“I might be able to help with that.” Finn pulled out his phone and began texting.
“Really? That would be awesome.” Jax hadn’t considered talking to Finn about it, but maybe he’d land something before he had to confess to his mother that he’d gotten angry and fucked up his life once again.
Trying to forget about his problems, Jax mingled, introducing himself to Mason - Ollie’s photographer friend - and chatting with him about his portraits until Finn walked up.
“Jax? You know the wedding hall that Ollie and I work at?” Finn drove a shuttle bus for The Pointe while Ollie was its social media manager, and they never stopped gushing about how great the place was. “The head chef’s here. Let’s go talk to Angelo.”
“Wait, The Pointe needs people?” Jax’s eyebrows furrowed. “But I thought it was closed, didn’t you have a fire?”
“Only three rooms had structural damage, and the owner is rebuilding them in record time, along with two new rooms.” Finn’s expression told him that people had been paid off.
“It must be nice to be rich,” Jax stated, and Finn nodded in agreement.
“It’s reopening in early February, and I know they need another sous-chef. The last one started on the day of the fire, and honestly, if I were her? I wouldn’t have wanted to come back either…” Finn trailed off as Jax frowned at him.
“Sous-chef.” Jax shook his head. “I’ve been a line cook at my last two restaurants. That’s a big step up.”
Jax’s dream was to create menus, either for his own restaurant or one he had control of, but that had all been knocked off course by chronic pain. He’d never thought that something like this would fall into his lap, and his constantly simmering anger slowly morphed into wonder.
Could he do it? He had the experience and the drive, but his lower back needed to comply .
“I think you’d kick ass at it!” Finn’s faith melted some of Jax’s doubts, but he wasn’t fully convinced. About to argue, he was cut off by a tall, sturdy man with a shaved head and impressive beard who wrapped an arm around Finn’s shoulders.
“Good to see you, Finn!”
“Glad you came, Angelo.” Finn patted him on the back. “This is my brother, Jax.”
Angelo held out a hand, and Jax instantly shook it, trying not to stammer as he spoke. “Nice to meet you.”
“Same,” Angelo replied like he truly meant it. Jax had worked with some good people before, but he could tell that this jovial man would be fantastic to assist and learn from. After surviving Russel’s reign of terror, Angelo would be a welcome change.
Wait. Was he actually considering this?
“So, Suzie definitely isn’t coming back, right?” Gesturing toward Jax, Finn grinned. “Because my brother is an excellent chef.”
“Is that so?” Angelo looked back and forth between them, stopping on Jax. “It’s true, we are looking to replace Suzie.”
Jax could feel Angelo scanning him, assessing, and the three of them drifted further into the corner, away from the other patrons.
“Why cooking? Why be a chef?” Angelo’s expression was all curiosity, and it sounded like a friendly question, but Jax knew that this chance hinged on his answer. Reaching into his heart, he gave Angelo the honest truth.
“Because being in a kitchen, making something delicious from the most basic ingredients? It’s magic.
I was five when my mom taught me how to make ravioli, and I felt like I’d cast a spell.
Eggs, flour, olive oil, salt, spice, cheese, and that extra ingredient - her skill - and all of a sudden there were these pockets of joy on my plate.
” Jax tilted his head. “After that, I knew what I wanted to do.”
Angelo smiled. “How long have you been working in kitchens?”
“Since I was thirteen.” He couldn’t stand to watch his mother cry over bills anymore, so he’d gotten a fake ID and started washing dishes, working his way up over time.
Shock rippled across Finn’s face, but Angelo only nodded, the look in his eye telling Jax that he understood because he’d been there too.
“Have you been a sous-chef before?”
“No, but I’ve done prep, fry, sauce, grill, inventory, you name it.
The first head chef I worked with told me that the most important thing for a kitchen to do is run, and it doesn’t matter if you own the place, you need to pitch in wherever, even if it’s washing dishes, and I’ve always stood by that. ”
He held Angelo’s gaze, trying to emit confidence. If he wasn’t at the mercy of his back, then he wouldn’t have had any doubts, because he could run a kitchen if his body decided to work with him.
And he didn’t have the heart to turn this down.
Eventually, Angelo gave him another bright smile.
“I have to talk to Owen and Marci about it, but I’d love to have you on board.”
Jax couldn’t help it; he allowed himself to hope, and he eagerly shook Angelo’s hand again.
This might be a mistake. If he took this position and failed spectacularly, then he’d strain his relationship with Finn.
But this might also be a good thing, which rarely happened in his life, so he should snatch this up and cherish it.
Besides, he’d heard a lot about The Pointe from both Finn and Ollie; apparently, it paid well, offered spectacular health insurance, and the management was terrific.
They might be understanding if he needed a day off here and there.
“And I’d love to work with you!” Jax exclaimed, his voice a little shaky with excitement. Now, he didn’t have to hunt for another restaurant, but he did have to move; there was no way his back could take the hour commute.
He wouldn’t see his mom as much and Mae would probably have a fit, but he wanted out of his tiny shithole apartment and his tiny shithole life. This would be a fresh start in a new place with a better job, and maybe it wouldn’t be the disaster he was already anticipating.
Maybe this would change everything for him.