Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Avery
Her phone wouldn’t stop ringing. First Nick, then the restaurant number, as if she wouldn’t realize it was still him.
Then Alice’s cell phone. Then Olivia’s. Yeah, no way in hell was she answering that one right now.
Even if she was pretty sure it wasn’t Nick—he was bad enough—but the idea of Olivia being on the other end made her soul shrivel.
Everyone should make you shrivel right now.
You ran out on your job.
You are supposed to be the sous chef who runs the kitchen when Nick isn’t there, and you ran away!
Why didn’t you point out that you were hired way before you and Nick started seeing each other?
Why didn’t you tell him you earned your place with your skill and work ethic, two things he doesn’t do as well as you?
Why didn’t you tell him it was none of his business?
Why didn’t you tell him if he worked as hard as you did, maybe one day, he could be a sous chef, but if he kept making up excuses why other people were ahead of him in their careers, he would never get anywhere?
Yeah, why didn’t you do that? That would have been a good one.
Why am I only thinking of all these options now instead of when they would have been useful?!
Screaming, Avery slammed her hands against her steering wheel, drawing a very odd look from the woman walking along the sidewalk in front of her.
“Sorry… sorry…” Avery shrank in her seat. This was what she got for driving to the nearest parking lot and pulling into a space that faced the sidewalk.
Maybe she should have gone home, but walking out on her job and going home felt more egregious than driving three blocks away and parking. Like, maybe she’d run out, but she hadn’t run as far as she could have.
Yeah, keep acting like that matters.
Pick up the phone, you coward, or you’re going to lose your job.
If she even had a job at this point.
She was sure her chances of keeping it were slipping through her fingers with every phone call she ignored, yet she couldn’t bring herself to pick up the phone or read the texts dinging between calls.
Do I even want to keep the job? How am I supposed to go back there and face everyone when they all know? How can I command any kind of respect when they know I get on my knees for Nick?
In her position, she needed her coworkers’ respect.
She could still see the sneer on Chad’s face, which had looked a lot like the disgust on Shannon’s face after Avery had tried to tell her about kink.
She hadn’t dared look at Alice or Darnell, but she’d seen the shock on Sandra’s face as she’d rushed past.
From the dead silence in the room before she’d bolted, it was hard to believe the others weren’t coming to the same conclusions as Chad. Even if they hadn’t, running might have convinced them.
Why did you run?! You should have stood your ground!
Too late now. She’d have to deal with the consequences. Eventually. When she got the courage to pick up the phone.
Which might be never.
A new ringtone sounded—Lizzo’s ‘Good as Hell,’ which was so the opposite of what Avery was feeling right now, but the sound of it sent a surge of relief through her. It was Domi, Rae, or Iris.
Friends.
Real friends who wouldn’t judge her and who would understand what was going on.
For the first time, she grabbed her phone, only glancing at the screen long enough to see Rae’s face.
“Hello?”
“Hey hun, are you okay? I just got a call from Nick. He’s worried as hell, and no one knows where you are.”
Emotions surged, clamping Avery’s throat shut again as misery, defeat, and the knowledge he must be so disappointed in her overwhelmed everything else.
She burst into tears.
Nick
It didn’t matter that it was a busy-as-hell Saturday night, Nick kept his phone in his pocket, ringer on, and not one person blamed him.
Not that it was a worthwhile effort at first. He’d tried contacting Avery every which way he knew how.
He’d even sent Luke to her apartment since he couldn’t step away from running the kitchen, but she hadn’t been home.
Which left him wondering where she had gone, and he was worried as hell.
The rest of the staff was worried as well.
Alice, Darnell, and Sandra kept shooting him glances over the line.
Ravi, who had been called in to take over at the fryer station, knew something was up but not what and kept looking for clues from the rest of them.
Add in a very grumpy George at Nick’s side, and the entire evening was turning into a shit show.
Why hadn’t she picked up her phone?
Had something happened to her?
He’d kept calling and texting from several phones. He’d even asked Olivia to call her, thinking she might answer for another woman. In hindsight, that might not have been the smartest thing. Olivia was not only Avery’s boss but a very intimidating woman.
Though it had given him the idea to finally call her friends. Thankfully, Olivia had those numbers. Domi hadn’t answered her phone, but Rae had and promised to try to get in touch with Avery and find out what was going on.
Nick had given up on Avery getting back to him, but he was hoping Rae could hunt her down, then she’d get back to him.
Since Avery wasn’t.
His feelings on that vacillated.
On one hand, he was furious with Chad and knew Avery would be upset about what Chad said and that their coworkers now knew about their relationship.
She’d run out on her job and wasn’t answering her phone.
That wasn’t something that was acceptable under any circumstances, much less on the busiest night of the week.
It was also incredibly unlike her. Not answering her phone might be explained by something terrible, and he was torn between hoping she was okay and wanting to spank the hell out of her if she was. Incredibly unprofessional on his part.
Maybe this is why people said not to mix business with pleasure.
“Here, Chef.” Alice slid a plate onto the shelf in front of him, snapping him out of his thoughts. He needed to focus on work.
Why hadn’t he thought about that when he’d decided to get involved with his sous chef?
He’d thought about how great it would be to work together, so he didn’t have to worry about her feeling as though she didn’t get enough time with him, as he had in previous relationships.
He hadn’t thought about what it would be like if they had a fight or she did something unprofessional that required a warning on her record if not firing her outright.
Shit, would the others think she was getting special treatment if he didn’t fire her outright now?
“Get your head in the game, Chef,” George murmured, elbowing Nick in the side.
Crap. He’d just been standing there again, thinking instead of doing anything.
Getting two more orders into the hands of the food runners, he nearly jumped out of his skin when his phone buzzed.
Yanking it out of his pocket, he saw it was just a text, not a call.
At this point, he didn’t care as long as it was about Avery, and she was okay.
The pounding of his heart felt like it tripled when he saw the text was from Rae.
We’ve got her. She’s safe. She won’t be coming in to work tonight.
Nick blinked and re-read the text. Once. Twice. By the third time, his temper was up. What kind of shit message was that?
She’s safe? If she was safe, why wasn’t she coming in to work? Why wasn’t she texting him herself? Why was she blowing him off? He wasn’t just her boyfriend and Dom. He was her fucking employer.
He tapped out an angry message to Rae, then stopped. This wasn’t her fault. She’d done exactly what he’d asked—found Avery and let him know she was okay.
It wasn’t her fault Avery wasn’t coming back as she was supposed to.
Deleting his response, Nick typed in thank you, sent it, and then shoved the phone back in his pocket. He would have to deal with Avery later. Hopefully, he would have calmed down by then.
Avery
Sniffling on her spot in the middle of Domi and Rae’s couch, with Iris and Rae on either side of her, she couldn’t help but notice whatever Domi was working on in the kitchen smelled amazing.
Her stomach rumbled, even though she would have sworn she couldn’t possibly eat a thing, not while she was so upset.
At least she’d calmed down and wasn’t still sobbing, but random bouts of tears kept welling up.
She’d gone through half a box of tissues since arriving at Rae and Domi’s.
Mitch was there, but he was out back, playing with Domi’s daughter, Ana.
Avery had interrupted family night. Something else to feel guilty about.
“I can’t believe he said that,” Iris seethed. She squeezed Avery’s hand. Rae was snuggled up on the other side of her with an arm wrapped around Avery’s shoulders. “Want me to fuck him up? I know some people.”
The way she said it made Avery think she wasn’t kidding. There was something a little hard-edged about Iris, as though she knew how to get into trouble.
“No. I can’t even be that mad. I knew what people would think if they found out about me and Nick.” She’d known, yet let herself be convinced otherwise.
“Only people who aren’t using their brains would think that,” Rae countered. “Didn’t you say he was a jerk? And that he thought he was better than he was?”
“Well, yeah, but—”
“Did anyone else say they felt the same way as he did?” Rae was ruthless in her cross-examination.
“Has anyone ever told you that you should be a lawyer?” Avery mumbled, dipping her head. “No, they didn’t say that, but they didn’t say they didn’t believe it, either.”
“Did you give them a chance to?”
Avery pressed her lips together. Damn it. Rae really should have been a lawyer. But she was making Avery feel a little better. Avery had taken everyone’s silence as condemnation, but maybe she was a little oversensitive. Maybe they hadn’t known what to say.
She sure as hell hadn’t.
“No, but—”
“No buts.” Rae held up a finger, shaking her head slowly, making Avery smile, which felt like a minor miracle. “You know what they say about assuming.”
Coming into the room, the smell of something delicious and fried wafting alongside her, Domi put down a platter on the coffee table.
“Tostones. Start with these. The soup should be ready soon.” She flipped around and headed back into the kitchen.
“Yaaaaaas,” Rae said, letting go of Avery to lean forward and pick up one. “Ouch, ouch, ouch.”
“They’re hot,” Domi called from the kitchen. “Maybe give them a second to cool.”
“Nope.” Rae bit the end off of hers and opened her mouth, fanning it as steam rose from where she’d bitten it. “Ah, it burns, but it tastes so good.” After a moment, she seemed to realize Rae and Iris were staring at her. “What?”
“Doesn’t that hurt?” Avery was used to burning herself on hot food but waited until it was properly cooled before trying to eat it.
“Ignore her,” Domi came back into the room, dusting her hands off and shaking her head. “She thinks things are ready long before they are.”
“It’s not my fault things are Rae-Ready before they’re other people ready.” Rae took another bite of her tostones. “It’s already cooling. The rest of you should be able to eat them soon.”
“I should have left them on the cooling tray until they were actually ready. She does the same thing with cookies.” Domi sat in a chair, giving Avery a rueful smile. “So, I say we eat comfort food, we drink, and we talk as much as you need to.”
“Oh… I don’t know…” That sounded amazing, but Domi had a daughter and a boyfriend, who were both home.
Avery needed to talk to Nick, eventually, even though she didn’t know what she was going to say to him or how to excuse herself.
At least she had until the end of his shift to figure it out. “What about Mitch and Ana?”
“They’ll play outside until it’s time to come in and eat. Thankfully, she’s old enough to do most of her bedtime routine on her own, but Mitch can help her with some of it. I’ll pop out to do the rest at some point.” The matter-of-fact way Domi laid it out made Avery feel a little better.
“Okay. Thank you… SO much.” Tears welled up in her eyes again, but this time from happiness instead of the shame, frustration, and anger plaguing her. “You have no idea what it means to me.”
“Hey, that’s what friends are for,” Rae said. “Now, we need to talk about why you didn’t call one of us.”
Avery blew out a long breath, using the time to think of an answer because the truth was, she wasn’t sure. Now that she was here, it seemed like an obvious thing to have done. She hadn’t thought. She’d reacted.
“I don’t know,” she finally admitted. “I panicked. I ran. Then I sat there, internally yelling at myself for running instead of doing anything, thinking about everything I should have done instead.”
“Ugh, don’t you hate that?” Domi groaned, leaning her head back.
“I always come up with the best comebacks like three hours too late.” Avery gave her a watery smile, feeling a little better.
Domi was so sassy and snappy, it had never occurred to Avery that Domi also felt as if she didn’t get to say what she wanted.
“We’ll use tonight to come up with the perfect thing to say when you see Chad again. ”
“If you see him again.” Rae scowled. “Personally, I think his ass should be fired, and I will judge Nick if he doesn’t do it.”
“I should be fired, too.” Avery rubbed her forehead, guilt welling up again. She’d left them short-staffed tonight. On a Saturday. And now sitting with her friends instead of doing the responsible thing—go back, face the music, and finish out her shift.
“Hey, you were verbally attacked, and this is self-care. You can’t go back until you know how you’re going to face that shitgibbon.” Nodding firmly, Domi got up from her seat. “I’m going to check on the soup, then we’ll figure out how to handle Chad.”
“I still say we should key his car or something,” Iris muttered under her breath.