“I thought you were a robber.”
The laughter in his voice immediately dried up my tears. “What?”
“I saw this crazed lunatic yanking on the doors from across the street and I honestly thought you were trying to break in. I ran over here ready to…”
He had put his hand over his mouth and looked away, prompting me to ask, “Ready to what?”
“Detain you,” he confessed on shaky breath. He was clearly trying not to lose it. “I was going to tackle you to the ground citizen’s arrest style and call the cops.”
A laugh bubbled up inside me at the ridiculousness of this moment. My emotional instability got the best of me and I pictured Vann launching into a tackle to keep me from breaking the heavy metal door down with my bare fists and another laugh exploded out of me. “Oh, my god,” I gasped. “You must have thought I was a total psycho!”
“Deranged homeless person to be exact.” His laughter rumbled in the air, like thunder before a spring storm. “I was prepared to buy you a meal if you needed it. But I was definitely going to call the police.”
I wiped away tears that were from laughter this time. “I am deranged. This is so embarrassing.”
“I’m just glad I don’t have to wrestle a crazy person and call the cops at the same time. On the way over, I realized I should have called them first and then tried to stop the intruder.”
Giving him an exasperated look, I said, “Thank God you didn’t! That’s all I need. The staff at Lilou arriving just in time to witness me getting shoved into the back of a squad car.”
He snickered again, unable to stop himself. “And then your brother would have had to come bail you out.”
We laughed hysterically all over again. I doubled over, barely making sound as I imagined explaining to Ezra that I wasn’t trying to break in, I just wanted to smell Lilou one last time. He would have had me committed for sure.
“Ugh,” I groaned, remembering my beef with Vann and sobering some. “You were right. I’m not cut out for executive chef. Look what it’s done to me! Total strangers are having to tackle me in alleys to keep me from breaking and entering. Oh, my god, what am I even doing with my life?”
“I’m not a total stranger,” he reminded me, sounding offended. There was a beat of silence where I didn’t know what to say after I’d blurted so much and he clearly didn’t know what to say in response to any of my issues. But then he asked, “So you took the job at Bianca?”
I gestured at my white shirt and wide-leg pants, as if he would know the difference between Ezra’s restaurants and their uniforms. “Against my better judgment… yep. I did.” His gray eyes were intense this morning, lasering into me with that penetrating focus of his. I turned to stare at his shop across the street. “But I’m in way over my head. My brother thinks I can save his sinking ship, but I’m pretty confident I’m just drowning us faster.”
“Are you not a good chef?” I flinched at his bluntness. “I’m sure Vera could help—”
“It’s not that,” I snapped, bristling at his assumption. I wasn’t great at bragging about myself, but there was something about this guy that forced my fighting spirit to surface. “I’m a fine chef. I was top of my class. Wyatt promoted me to sous chef the second Kaya left. My friends all gave extremely high recommendations for Ezra to hire me at Bianca.”
“Okay, then what’s the problem?”
He irritated me with how unruffled he was by me. He wasn’t at all charmed by my looks or money or car. I didn’t know if he knew how much money I had, but I was Ezra’s sister, so that should tell him something. And he didn’t seem to notice when I grumped at him. It was like nothing phased this guy. He was completely unfazed.
Which only bugged me even more.
“The staff,” I blurted, questioning my sanity all over again for confiding in this guy. “They hate me.”
He weighed my words. I could feel his analytical energy from where I stood. “You don’t seem like the kind of person to shy away from a challenge. If they hate you, make them like you.”
“I don’t think that’s going to work,” I pouted. I’d tried that already. And about a hundred other tactics. “They don’t listen to me. I’m there in the kitchen, telling them what to do and they just… collectively ignore me. It’s like I’m a ghost they can’t see.” I cleared my throat of the bitterness burning hot. “They don’t want to see.”
“Hmm…”
“And I don’t want to go to my brother,” I explained, answering the question he hadn’t asked. “I don’t want to be that person. The girl that can’t fight her battles, so I run to my brother every time someone does something I don’t like. They already don’t think I’m qualified for the position and that Ezra gave me the job out of pity. If I get him involved, that’s just proving their point. I will never get their approval then.”
I knew he’d heard everything I’d said, but he was quiet for so long that I turned to look at him, curious of his expression. He stood there in fitted khaki pants and an army green short-sleeved button up, his arms folded across his chest, showing off his toned biceps. His hair had been recently trimmed short, just barely longer on top. His temple had lines shaved into the side. Trendy, but edgy for his usually polished look. His angular face was scrunched in thought and his eyebrows were drawn together over his nose.
I lost my breath, suddenly realizing how striking this man was. I mean, I’d always known he wasn’t an ugly guy, but this feeling of… attraction was new. He’d been this familiar stranger until this moment, this very one. I’d recognized his face before. I didn’t hate looking at him. But he was a guy I had never cared to get to know before now.
Not that I necessarily wanted to get to know him now… it was just different. I kind of, sort of, knew him. Or if I didn’t know him, he wasn’t a total stranger anymore, as he’d just pointed out.
He’d convinced me to take the Bianca job. He’d started my car for me the other night. And now he was listening to my job problems.
We weren’t friends. But we weren’t…acquaintances only either.
