I just wished he’d had the confidence in me to not doubt that that person was going to be me.
Grey took careful bites from both of our plates. Though Drake was trying to play it cool, I knew we were both focused on one thing only. His reaction. Finally, I couldn’t take the silence any longer.
“Well?” I said.
Grey glanced up at me. “Both dishes have their merits,” he said in a flat tone that suggested he’d already rehearsed what he would say if pressed. “So, Chef Warwick, is there anythingyou need to prepare for tonight’s service? Do you need more information about the menu and our processes?”
I silently seethed. Not only had Grey refused to give an opinion, when it was clear whose food was superior, but he had snuck in a dig at me for rushing Drake through the menu.
“No, I think I have a handle on it,” Drake said with a smug smile. “And please, call me Drake. We’re not in the kitchen right now, after all.”
“Okay, Drake,” Ainslie said with a happy grin.
“Not you,” Drake said, pointing a finger of warning at him. The tone he said it with was playful, however. “You’re on my line, so you call me Chef. But Mr. Monaghan is special. He gets to call me Drake.”
“Grey,” he laughed in return. “Please. Don’t call me Mr. Monaghan. None of these insubordinate shits do.”
Was that why he was trying to replace me? Because I didn’t get down on my knees in front of him – in more ways than one?
“We should get back to prep,” Beau said reluctantly. This was far from a normal family dinner – normally we had half an hour of banter and fun, checking in with each other like family did. Drake’s arrival had changed everything and put too much tension in the air.
“Good idea,” I said out loud. “I’m sure Chef here could do with some extra time to get up to speed. We don’t want customers waiting for service tonight.”
He only smirked at me like he was in on the joke as he got up to head back to the kitchen with everyone else – which somehow made me even madder than if he’d had some snappy comeback.
I walked by the end of the table and delayed for just a second, pretending to look down at something on my shoe, untileveryone else had filed back into the kitchen or the back room. I grabbed Grey’s abandoned fork and stabbed it through a piece of sweet potato, pasta, and pesto from my dish. His plate was the only one that hadn’t been fully cleaned – but he’d left half of Drake’s, too.
I shoved the food in my mouth and chewed fast. The sweet potato was soft and tender, flavor bursting over my tongue. The pesto chased it with a rich fullness that turned the pasta decadent.
Mine was the better dish.
I was sure of it.
I nodded to myself and strode ahead into the kitchen, ready to show Drake Warwick that maybe he was the prettiest guy in the restaurant – but I was far and away the better chef.
Drake
Grey’s hand landed on my shoulder as we walked towards the kitchen. “Good work in there,” he said, quietly enough that I thought he maybe wanted to avoid Rafael hearing us.
“Thanks, boss,” I grinned. “I hope to impress you again tonight.”
“Oh,” Grey said, and his eyes traveled up and down my body in a way that was more than suggestive. “I’m sure you will.”
He tapped my shoulder twice before walking away towards the back room.
I moved through into the kitchen with that look on his face cemented in my mind’s eye.
It troubled me and also didn’t. And the fact that it partially didn’t troubled me even more.
The guy was clearly interested in fucking me. I was used to that. I normally embraced it. A quick and dirty fuck on a back room desk was my kind of Saturday night. But this particular guy was my new boss – and not only that, but the trial was potentially only temporary.
I could laugh off his flirtations for now, but there might come a time when I had to decide whether to push him off or let him drag me into some dark corner.
Was it going to become a problem that I had to deal with?
Or was this the thing that was going to make sure I got the permanent job?
“How are you going to run this?” the chubby one – Beau, I thought – asked. I glanced over my shoulder and realized he’d addressed the question at Rafael, who had only just come through the door. What had he been doing out there?
