She fought hard to get where she was, and she didn’t want people to think that she couldn’t do it.
But people—like Chef McNabb—thought she couldn’t.
Josie pushed away the memory of a counsellor in college, telling her that she’d be a good recipe developer.When the counsellor told her this, Josie’s mind spun into overdrive.She imagined herself trying out recipes, maybe even writing recipes.The idea made her happy and her mind spin with possibilities, but that would mean giving up on her dream.
And Josie never gave up.
She didn’t give up when she had to fight to prove herself at every job or in college, when she had to advocate for her accommodations.Not that any accommodations solved everything.It didn’t make her faster or feel less tired at the end of the day.
But she fought her way through and she proved to those who said she wouldn’t last a second semester in culinary school, wrong.
“I don’t need help,” Josie repeated.
She caught the glance between Maisy and Cecilia, and pushed down the threat of tears.
“Maybe what you need is a distraction!Want to come to Club Bandit’s holiday play party?”Cecilia passed her phone to Josie.
“Like a sex party?”Maisy’s scrunched face conveyed exactly what she thought of the ad for the exclusive BDSM club.
“No!”Cecilia laughed.“A play party.You know we’re going to Club Bandit tonight.”
“I would never do that,” Maisy said.
“But Josie has wanted to try kink.She’s borrowed books from me.”
Josie blushed furiously.She always wondered about some spicy things from reading romance books and tried to get her ex-boyfriend to tie her up, but he never wanted to.
“Want me to buy you a ticket?”Cecilia asked.“You too, Maisy.”
“Definitely not my thing.But you can be adventurous if you want, Josie.”
“I don’t know.”Josie played with the silky bedspread between her fingers.
“Why not?”Cecilia asked, raising her eyebrows.
“I want to try stuff that’s true, but I don’t know if I want to do it in public.Ethan never wanted to try anything.”
“Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me,” Cecilia said.She squirted perfume on her wrists and rubbed them together.
“Henriks is trying to get in the room, Cecilia,” Maisy scrambled off the bed, and scooped up the tiny kitten.
Josie reached out and patted it under its chin.Its wide green eyes stared up at her.
“So soft.”Josie patted the purring kitten.
“Thanks for kitty sitting,” Cecilia said.“It’s been forever since Layla and I have been off on the same night and day.”
“And you’re going to a sex club?”Maisy shook her head.
“Are you kidding?I’ve been dying to get into Club Bandit and they finally approved my membership.Tonight is a workshop on CBT.That’s cock and ball torture, Maisy.”
“Layla is game for that?”Josie asked.
Cecilia smirked.“Oh yeah.She might want a playmate, I wouldn’t mind.”She leaned over to give Henriks a scratch.
“I can kind of see that.”She grinned thinking of shy and quiet Layla.As someone who was keenly aware that people are more than what they seem, the image of her friend’s girlfriend holding a whip wasn’t hard to visualize.
“Seriously, let me know if you want to come to the holiday party.”
