Chapter Ten #2
She waved me off. “We’ll talk after the dinner shift, dear.”
I gave her a flat smile and followed Felix into the walk-in fridge. This was the first time I’d been alone with him since the accident. He shut the door behind us, folded his arms across his chest, and gave it to me. “I did this to you.”
I jerked back. “What?”
He looked me up and down. “This is my fault.”
With a small shake of my head, I put my hands on my hips. “I’m sorry, Chef. I’m not following. What exactly is your fault?”
“You.”
“Me?”
“Yes, the way you’re acting.” He looked at the pile of apples on the shelf beside him. “I should’ve never sprung my shit on you like that, especially in the middle of a shift—”
I stepped forward and held up my hand. “First, what’s going on in my life isn’t because of you. Yes, your news definitely took me by surprise. I went home that night wondering what I was going to do. You gave me a choice, and I was ready to spend the weekend thinking on it.”
His lips pressed into a thin line.
“But you didn’t cause my tire to pop. You didn’t cause my car to go into a ditch. You weren’t the cause of my injury. None of that had anything to do with you.” I yanked off my hat and rolled my neck. “Margie is up my ass,” I grumbled.
“She’s worried about you,” he murmured. “We all are.”
“I just hit a bump in the road. No pun intended.” I stepped back to lean against the freezer door.
“Is your car fixed?”
I nodded. The day after Ash left, my car was returned to my driveway, fully detailed, with a new bumper, a new set of tires, an oil change, and a full tank of gas.
He’d paid for everything. Upon finding this out, I demanded to know how much the cost was and wrote him a check.
I asked Margo to give it to Hayes so he could give it to Ash when he got back.
Margo texted the next day and said that Hayes put it on Ash’s desk. “Yeah, everything’s good,” I chirped.
“Are you good?”
“I will be,” I told him honestly. “I just have to get back into the swing of things. It takes me a bit when I get thrown off course like that.”
He stared at me, slightly confused. “I see.”
That was a lie. He couldn’t possibly understand the storm raging inside my head.
I popped my lips, shivering. “Chef, we need to get back to work, and it’s freezing in here.”
“Yes,” he said, clearing his throat. He held the door open for me, and we headed back to our stations.
Twenty minutes later, I got the displeasure of witnessing him ripping Alex and Russ a new one.
Scott stood in the corner with a dark shadow hanging over his face, watching the horror show in silence.
Felix’s screams echoed through the kitchen and into the empty dining room, prompting Brody and Monty to stick their heads in the doorway.
They looked at me, and I shook my head. So they swiveled theirs to look at Scott, hoping he would fill them in. All he did was flip them off.
When Felix was done, he ran his hands over his bald head, told everybody to “get their fucking shit together,” and went outside for a smoke. I tried to ignore the tremor in his hands.
The place was slowly killing him. He was brave and strong enough to see it, and for that, I would always respect the hell out of him.
“Jesus,” Alex groaned as she smacked Russ on the back of the head. “What the hell is the matter with you? You told me you set an alarm for the chicken!”
He ducked away from her, looking at me for help. I pressed my lips together and returned to my cakes as he spouted off excuses. A few minutes later, when the drama died down, Alex made her way over to me.
“You think he’d just bite the bullet and fire us,” she huffed.
I lifted my hand to pat her on the back, but then I noticed it was covered in flour and cinnamon. We both watched as I awkwardly brought it back to the mixer. “Sorry,” I murmured.
A soft giggle left her. “Don’t worry about it, girl. I just need to vent.”
I nodded and stared at the cake batter for a few moments as it settled in the pans.
He won’t fire her or anyone else because he wouldn’t leave me with strangers.
I turned and put the cakes in the oven. “He knows you have potential, Alex.”
“Yeah?”
My eyes met hers. “Of course. Why do you think he pushes you so hard?”
Alex was a few years younger than me. She’d gone to a culinary school on the West Coast and dropped out after two years due to her mother’s passing.
She had spent the last few years working in restaurants up and down the coast, searching for answers no one could give her.
When I took the time to think about it, all of us were searching for answers, but they never seemed to come.
No matter how hard we looked. Her blue hair was twisted up and tucked underneath her hat, her warm copper skin makeup free today.
She looked at me dead on, the shift making her nose piercing sparkle underneath the cool lights. “You think so?”
I carried my dirty baking dishes to the sink and gave her confirmation over my shoulder.
She followed me, leaning against the sink and dipping her head close to mine. “Did you hear about Joann?”
I nodded. “Yes, I know Marg was sad to lose her friend so suddenly.” As I rinsed out the mixing bowl, I added, “But it’s good a sweet person like Joann passed in her sleep.”
Alex put her hand on my arm, and my head snapped toward hers. “So, you didn’t hear,” she concluded, looking around.
My eyes followed hers, and a chill rolled down my spine. “What?”
“I have a friend who works at the station,” she whispered. “And she told me that Sheriff Humbly is trying to keep this under wraps right now, but Joann didn’t die of natural causes.”
All the blood drained from my face. “What?”
“She was suffocated. Murdered.” Before I could utter a word, she was called back to her station, and I was left with only my own thoughts. A murder in Astoria?
I spent the next few minutes contemplating whether I needed to make a phone call. One I never thought I’d have to make.
Joann had no connection to you.
There’s nothing to worry about.
Keep your head down and focus on your life, Angel.
A second later, Felix was beside me, reeking of cigarette smoke.
“I’m sorry.”
I braced my hands on the side of the sink and huffed. “You have got to stop apologizing to me.”
“You ready?” he asked, his voice monotone.
“For what?” I shot back, harsher than intended. My mind was racing, my heart crawling up my throat.
A murder in Astoria.
Felix blinked. “For the dinner rush. All the reservation slots are filled. Gonna be a full house tonight.”
I stared up at him, wondering if he knew an innocent woman had been killed in her sleep.
He turned his head, scanning the kitchen.
“Fuck, I hope the staff is ready for this. There’s a thirteen top coming at six and a sixteen top coming at eight—birthday party for the mayor’s kid or some shit like that. ”
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I slowly let out as I studied his profile. There was a deep crease between his brows, his lips set into a pinched, anxious line. Something was on his mind, but I would never find out what.
A few hours later, when the dining room was empty, the chairs perched on the tables, the floors being cleaned, the kitchen shining, Felix said goodbye to all of us in the parking lot like he did after every shift.
I gave him a tired smile and told him I would see him the following day.
He gave me another goodbye, this time softer, before getting into his car.
That goodbye was the last one he would ever give, because two days later, his body washed up on the shore a few miles outside Astoria, and Red Snake slithered in.