“I’m going to visit my mother,” he says. “She lives upstate. That’s why I called her.”
Eden blinks. “Oh. I thought you said—”
“That I broke my phone after? Yeah, uh... I was just in a bad headspace.”
“H-how long will you be gone?”
“I’m not sure yet.”
Her stomach flips. “So youareleaving.”
Alexander holds her a bit tighter. “No, sweetheart. I’ll be back before you know it.”
She sets her jaw. She’s heard this particular song before. But she swallows her fear and forces herself to nod. She can’t be selfish. Not right now. It’s so obvious that he needs this, this time and distance to heal and recuperate. She can’t make this about herself.
“I understand,” she mumbles. “Just promise to get a new phone so we can keep in touch?”
“I’m buying a new one first thing in the morning.”
“When do you leave?”
“Tomorrow. Right after I hand in my formal resignation to Sebastian.”
She sucks in a sharp breath through clenched teeth. “Oh.”
“What is it?”
“Nothing.”
“Eden.”
“Let’s focus on you, yeah?”
“Your needs aren’t second to mine, sweetheart. We’re both going through some shit. Does this have to do with your meeting with him?”
She nods, hesitant.
Alexander sits up a little straighter. “What did he do? Did he say something to you?”
“He offered me a job,” she recounts quietly. “Gave me this massive check saying it would be my signing bonus. He wants me to be a head chef at one of his other restaurants.”
He stiffens, hard as a rock beneath her. The dark edge of a quiet fury tenses his muscles, a flicker of something hateful flashing across his eyes.
Not at her, of course. Never at her. It’s an anger for her. “What did you say?” he asks, voice low and strained.
“That I’d think about it. But...”
“But?”
“It doesn’t feel right. Working for him.” Eden picks at beneath her nails, unable to concentrate otherwise. “He’s always rubbed me the wrong way. The way he talks and says nice things, but it always seems pointed and condescending. Or the look in his eyes. He creeps me out, and as much as I want to run a restaurant one day, I definitely don’t want to be under his thumb. And I’ve... I’ve seen how he stresses you out. How he treats you. I would never willingly work for a man like that.”
“You’re not just saying this because it’s what I want to hear, is it?”
“No, of course not. I genuinely feel this way. I think I’m... Yeah. I’m going to decline. I would have done it sooner, but I wanted to talk to someone about it first. And you were really the only person I wanted to talk to. But now I’m worried he’ll be bitter about it. Like he’ll make my life at La Rougea living hell if I stay.”
“If he does, I’ll make him regret it.”
“Alexander—”
