“Lily,” he said.
I’d wanted so badly to fall in love with him. I’d wanted it so badly that I’d ignored the warning signs. I was the naive girl from Texas, swept up in a man who’d only ever thought of her as a stepping stone along the path to success.
“Lily,” Julian said, shaking my hand on my chair.
I blinked and glanced toward him.
“Dean’s trying to get your attention and you’re completely zoned out,” he said with a laugh. “Have we ruled Ebola out?”
I smiled halfheartedly and glanced at Dean, trying to guard my heart as best as I could. “Sorry about that.”
His dark gaze held mine as he leaned over his desk. His mouth was pulled into a thin line. He was a statue of a man, unyielding at his core. “I just need you to hang back after the meeting for a few minutes. Is that okay?”
I nodded, not because I relished the idea of having alone time with him, but because it would give me the perfect chance to put in my two weeks notice.
Chapter Fifty
Dean
Lily closed the door behind Julian and Zoe, but she didn’t turn to face me right away. We’d been there before, alone in my office. It was a recipe for disaster, and we both knew it. She rotated around to face me slowly, keeping hold of the doorknob behind her back like a lifeline. She rolled her lips together and I opened my mouth to speak first, but she beat me to the punch.
“I’d like to put in my two weeks notice.”
I took a deep breath, processing her request.
She wants to leave?
I shook my head, just once.
“No.”
Her eyes blazed with a new fury. “No?”
I glanced down and started to scroll through the calendar on my phone. I tried to focus on a specific date, but I kept scrolling through the months, right into the next year. “We need to plan a time to meet. The kitchen will be finished next week and I’m bringing Antonio out—”
“You’re not listening to me,” she argued, releasing the doorknob and stepping closer.
My gaze shot up to her and her eyes focused in, narrowing until I knew I had her undivided attention.
“Yes I am. I’m just ignoring you.” I glanced back down at my phone. “I don’t accept your resignation.”
“What the hell—”
“Now, what day can you meet for the menu sampling? Monday?”
She paused on the other side of my desk and put her hand over my phone, blocking next year’s calendar from my view.
“Dean. Let me go.”
“No.”
“Fire me.”
I shook my head and clenched my jaw to keep from saying something too soon.
She stepped back and threw her hands up in defeat. “What’s the point of this? Do you really want me working for you still?”
“Yes. I do.”
She put her face in her hands and shook it back and forth, so defeated.
What did she think? That I would let her walk away from me? After everything? She kept my goddamn medal around her neck and she was going to give up that easily?
“Monday at 5 PM, meet me at the building where Hunter was going to open Ivy & Wine.”
She furrowed her brows, trying her hardest to keep her tears at bay. “Please don’t make me.”
Two taps sounded on the closed door and a moment later, Zoe’s head popped through the gap. “Boss-man, the Provisions staff meeting starts in ten.” Her gaze shifted from me to Lily, and then her smile faded. “Should I postpone it?”
I shook my head and rounded the desk, pausing as my shoulder brushed against Lily’s. “If you still want to quit after Monday, then I’ll respect your decision.”
Her fiery brown eyes turned to me. Her lips were the closest they’d been in weeks, red and swollen from her rubbing them together. It was painful to keep my distance, but I wouldn’t win her back with a half-baked speech in my office. She deserved more, and I was prepared to give her everything I had.
“I’m not coming,” she said, so softly that Zoe couldn’t hear.
I bent toward her, brushing my hand against hers and squeezing once before letting go.
“Please.”
Chapter Fifty-One
Lily
I spent the remainder of the week getting my ducks in a row. Dean would need to replace me and I didn’t want to make it harder on him than it had to be. Everything I was working on—seasonal cocktail menus, wine lists, menu ideas, and potential pairings—was now neatly typed up and saved to a thumb drive. I wasn’t nearly finished with any of it, but I tried to condense my ideas as sensibly as possible so that his next consultant could pick up right where I left off.
I had no clue what I would do for work. I would have loved to find another consulting job, but I knew it wouldn’t be possible without more experience. I could have asked Dean for a letter of recommendation, but I was too prideful. I’d scrimp and save and focus my energy on my blog for a little bit. If web traffic to my reviews started taking off, that would generate a little bit of income, and in the meantime, there was always bartending. It wasn’t stimulating work, but the tips would help sustain me until I figured out what I would do.
“So what are you doing tonight?” Josephine asked as she came out of the bathroom decked out in a killer dress. The smooth material was breezy and swayed side to side as she walked toward the kitchen table. She reached for a pair of dangling earrings, sliding the first one in as she assessed me on the futon.
I held up my laptop. “Working.”
She arched a dark brow and then nodded. “On restaurant reviews?”
I nodded, glancing back down at the blinking curser on my laptop. I’d started typing a sentence thirty minutes ago and had yet to finish.
La Patisserie is…
Is what?
A good restaurant?
A bad restaurant?
Apparently, I couldn’t even get that far.
“It’s going really well,” I lied.
She nodded, indulging me.
“So you aren’t going?”
She didn’t even need to clarify where. The night before, she’d talked my ear off about why I should give Dean another chance. I didn’t agree. Dean and I weren’t a couple. I’d worn my heart on my sleeve and I’d gotten burned. End of story. No epilogue, no encore, no second chances.
“I love you, but I think you’re making a huge mistake,” she said, tucking her clutch under her arm.
I let my head fall back against the futon.
“You look really pretty.”
She rolled her eyes, annoyed with me for ignoring her protests. It wouldn’t do any good for her to keep badgering me. The more she told me to go, the more I wanted to stay.
“It doesn’t matter anyway. It’s already 7 PM. He’s not there any more.”
“So you stood him up?” she asked, a sour expression marring her pretty features.
“Don’t make it more dramatic than it is, Jo.”
She shook her head, but I could see the sadness there. I could tell she wanted to ask me more, to push me to fight for him, but she stayed quiet as she packed up her clutch. She was heading for the door, off to meet Julian for a date, when I realized something.
“You know, Jo, I always thought I wanted a relationship like you and Julian’s, but I don’t. I don’t want it to be that easy. I hated Dean just as much as I loved him. How twisted is that?”
She pressed her lips together and her sad gaze hit the floor before she glanced back at me. “In the beginning, I thought you two would tear each other apart.”