Shang’s about to protest, but Eden pats him on the small of his back. “Just let them have this.”
Despite his groan, he’s the happiest he’s ever been.
One Year Later
It’s a sweltering morning in May. They have to be at the restaurant early to let the repairman in. They’ve been having issues with the restaurant's AC unit, and the last thing they want is to cook while they’re cooking.
But first, coffee.
By the time Eden hops out of the shower and gets fully dressed, she finds Shang at the kitchen table. He’s got his laptop open, papers strewn everywhere with a frown knitting his brow together.
She comes in from behind and wraps her arms around his broad shoulders, placing a kiss on his cheek. “Good morning, my love.”
“Mmph,” is the noise that comes out of his mouth. Eden’s learned that her new husband isn’t, in fact, a morning person. He merely likes topretendhe is.
“It’s my turn to make breakfast,” she says with a giggle. “Any requests? I’ve been craving Pad Thai tacos again.”
“First thing in the morning?”
She shrugs. “What? Like there’s a rule saying we can’t?”
It’s then that Eden glances at all the papers on the kitchen table. There are a couple of formal letters, some article clippings, printed screenshots of online slander. Upon further inspection, Eden realizes that Shang has been looking at poor reviews for The Lunchbox.
Not just one or two of them, either.Lotsof them. Hundreds upon hundreds of one-star reviews on Yelp and Google complaining about anything and everything from food arriving at the table cold, ridiculously long wait times, general uncleanliness of the restaurant and bathrooms, crappy service, and so on. None of it makes any sense, of course, because they haven’t even been open long enough to have earned this many complaints.
“What is this?” she asks him. She flips through a couple of the pages. Most of these reviews look fairly recent, posted within the span of a couple of hours last night while they slept. “Where’d these all come from?”
“I’m not sure, but it’s nothing to worry about, sweetheart. I’ll take care of it. I’m sure I can get them taken down.”
“The Lunchbox is just as much my baby as it is yours. If someone’s trying to drive our business under by posting a barrage of fake reviews…” Her thoughts suddenly click into place. She turns to face him and frowns. “Do you think it’s Sebastian?”
Shang sighs, chugging his mug of black coffee. “I wouldn’t put it past him.”
“He’s done something like this before, hasn’t he? Driven other restaurants out of business.”
“We don’t have any proof that it’s him.”
“What if we couldgetproof?”
He arches a brow. “It sounds like my little wife has a plan.”
“Hell yeah, I do. Where’d I put Maxine’s number?”
* * *
He storms into La Rouge with a thick manila folder tucked beneath his arm.
It’s empty in here. A ghost town when it should be the middle of dinner rush.
“So much for wanting to make a scene,” Eden says, half-joking. “And here I thought we’d at least have a couple of witnesses.”
“It’s just as well,” he replies. “We don’t need witnesses to destroy them.”
Eden nibbles her bottom lip. “Damn. I forgot how sexy you can be when you’re a little mean.”
He swallows his amusement. “Save it for later, sweetheart.”
“The fuck do you think you’re doing here?” Hector sneers, storming out of the double doors that lead into the dining section from the kitchen. “Get the hell out of my restaurant!”
