“I might take the break and go through and hang out with Grey if that’s alright,” Beau said with one of those dreamy smiles he’d been wearing a lot lately. I suspected that ‘hang out’ was code for ‘make out’, and probably more. “I’ll still stay for the announcement.”
I sighed. Clearly, I wasn’t going to get my way. “Just finish off that last dish and you’re free to do whatever you want,” I said. It crossed my mind that I could ask Ainslie to take care of my duties for a while if he was determined to stay, so that I could take a break. But this might have been my last chance to work in The Crow’s kitchen, and I wasn’t going to waste it.
Beau hummed happily as he started to toss the vegetables he was stir-frying, but I looked up to the swinging doors as Nikolai barged in with an urgent look on his face. He ignored everyone else and made a beeline for me, which made my heart sink into the pit of my stomach.
Was it happening now? Was Grey not even going to let me finish the service?
“Rafael,” he whispered in my ear in a rushed hiss. “Grey’s out there flirting with a customer. I don’t think he’s leaving?”
I looked him in the eye for a moment and saw how panicked he was, and drew him off to the side. We stood next to a boiling pan right under the extractor whirring loudly within the cooker hood, where there was a good chance Beau wouldn’t hear us.
“What?” I said, needing more details so fast I didn’t even have time to be specific.
“The rest of the party got up and left, and now Grey’s sitting with him in the booth,” Nikolai said. He cast a desperate look sideways to check Beau wasn’t listening. “Like,sitting with him. When I left they were holding hands and Grey was doing that thing where he leans in and whispers in someone’s ear so when they turn their heads he can kiss them.”
I bit my lip. This was not good – very not good at all. Grey was returning to his usual ways. This was one of his obvious tactics: seduce a customer by schmoozing about how he owned the place, picking on a table at the end of the night so that they could go home together easily.
By the time we got out there, if most of the other customers were gone, he would probably be necking.
“Okay,” I said, letting Nikolai see that I understood fully, and I walked over to our dwindling row of tickets to grab the last one. I raised my voice to speak again. “Actually, Beau, can you do the risotto for me? It’s the last one of the contest, and I want to see if you’ve picked up the risotto as well as you have the scallops.”
Beau laughed. “I know you guys don’t like me seeing Grey, but you can’t just make up excuses to keep me here in the kitchen,” he said. “I made the risotto for you yesterday, start to finish, remember?”
I cursed the fact that the last ticket had to be that one dish only, and there was nothing else on the line that Beau hadn’t made a hundred times or more.
“Alright, you caught me,” I tried. “I wanted you to stay for moral support. I thought I’d be better off alone, but now Ainslie’s staying, it’s made me realize I’d like to have you both around for this.”
“I will be around,” Beau reassured me, putting the vegetables down in their pan next to Drake, ready for him to plate up the last dishes on his list. “I’ll come back in with Grey. Don’t worry.”
Panic flooded my mind as I tried to think of a reason to keep him here – any reason. From the corner of my eye, I could see Nikolai trying to get my attention, gesturing under the level of the counter so Beau wouldn’t see it, urging me to do something.
And just for a moment, a treacherous little voice in the back of my head said:but wouldn’t it be better if he found out once and for all what Grey is like, since he won’t believe any of us?
Before I had the chance to argue with that voice and try to protect Beau instead, he was already heading through the swinging doors, and it was too late.
“Why did you let him go?” Nikolai asked me furiously.
“I didn’t see you coming up with any clever ideas to keep him here!” I replied, throwing my hands up in the air. Drake, Ainslie, and Lucas were all giving us curious and concerned looks, but I didn’t even have the chance to explain before they all found out for themselves.
There was a loud cry on the other side of the door, loud enough that we could all hear the wordless anger and grief in it, and then Beau was charging back through into the kitchen in a hurry.
“Beau,” I started, but he was shaking his head. Tears were beginning to stream from his eyes even as he rushed past all of us and grabbed his coat from where it hung off a peg on the wall.
“Hey, man…” Ainslie, who was closest to him, tried to grab at his sleeve to stop him.
Beau had already thrown his coat on, but he reached inside the back of it and somehow, with furious and jerky pulls, managed to undo his apron and yank it off over his head. He threw it onthe floor, sobbing openly now, the tears pouring down his face as it turned pinker and pinker. “Tell Grey I quit,” he managed to get out and rushed for the door.
Ainslie made to follow him, but even though most of us were still inside the kitchen, we could all clearly hear what Beau said next before slamming the door: “Don’t follow me.”
Silence echoed around our chrome space for a moment, filled only by Ainslie’s steps coming back to share in our open-mouthed stares.
We didn’t need to ask what had happened. It was obvious. Nikolai’s prediction had been correct: Beau must have walked in there and seen him kissing, maybe groping the customer. He had never been the soul of discretion. All of us had expected this; even Drake didn’t exactly look surprised.
Grey stumbled into the kitchen far too late, looking around wildly, his tie askew and his hair a mess.
“Where is he?” he asked.
“Gone,” I snapped. I put the spoon I had been using down with a clang. “And so am I.”
