Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 81113 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81113 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
I couldn’t dump all of it on her, of course. Guilt stabbed at me like a hot poker in my stomach. Brooke didn’t—couldn’t—know about how I had been sleeping with her father. She’d lose her mind and that was the last thing that I needed right now, even as I felt guilty for hiding it from her. Taking comfort from my friend while holding back on this big secret felt like its own kind of betrayal.
But what else could I do? I had to deal with one crisis at a time. Michael and the restaurant had to be resolved first. Then I could see about telling Brooke the truth.
So I told her everything about the new menu, and fresher ingredients, and how things had been getting better at the restaurant but then they had taken a turn for the worse after the review. I told her about my argument with her father, and the things that both of us said, and how we’d been going back and forth about changing the things that Theo had put into place.
I left out the bits about our relationship, of course, but luckily both Michael and I were professionals. Our personal issues didn’t go into the kitchen and our professional issues didn’t go into the bedroom, and vice versa.
When I finished, Brooke passed me the ice cream, and I dove in. She helped herself to the last remaining piece of pizza. I didn’t usually eat an entire thing but I was starving. Crying will take a lot out of you.
“First of all, Dad’s great but he’s not always right. He’s not perfect. I think you’ve got the wrong idea on this. That traitor was good ten years ago but things have gone stale, the chefs who’ve come after him have just made everything worse along the way, trying to imitate him, y’know?” Brooke finished her pizza and wiped off her hands, grabbing her own ice cream.
“And the thing is, look, you know my mom, okay? She helped Dad and Theo with running the restaurant but she’s a ‘live fast live hard’ kind of person. She likes the finer things in life. And if you ask me, I think part of why the place got so into the red so quickly wasn’t Theo leaving, it was the way Mom handled things finally catching up to us. But she wasn’t there anymore to take the fall, and the timing made it look like it was all Theo leaving and all on Dad.” Brooke paused. “Don’t tell him I told you this. I don’t have proof or anything. It’s just what I think after all I watched.”
I nodded. It made sense, but good luck getting Virginia to admit it.
“That review sucked.” Brooke nodded at me. “It really did. But you can’t give up. Your food is good! I’ve been your taste tester for how many years now? And you know that I don’t lie and say it’s good when it tastes like shit.”
Brooke had a really soft, high pitched voice, so it always threw me for a loop when she would swear. I laughed a little and kept tearing into the ice cream. Fuck this tasted good.
“Things are going to get better,” Brooke went on. “Okay? I know that they’re taking a dip right now because of the critic but it’s just a dip. People will see that your food is actually good, the good reviews will outweigh the bad, and you’ll get more customers again. It’s going to be okay.”
She noticed how I was eating the ice cream like I’d been in the desert for ten years, and she laughed. “Honey, I know things are bad but there’s no reason to tear into your ice cream like you’re on your period.”
I froze.
My period.
I tried counting backwards in my head—then realized how suspicious that would be if I kept staring into space with a goggle-eyed look on my face. I quickly swallowed and shrugged. “Maybe things will perk up but maybe they won’t. You don’t know.”
“I do know, okay? Have you talked to Dad about inviting some other critics to come and eat there and give their opinion?”
“I haven’t really had the chance to talk to him since the fight. I need to apologize.”
“Well, so does he.” Brooke patted my knee. “I know you both, remember? You’re both stubborn people. He’s going to calm down soon, he knows that you’re the best thing that’s happened to this restaurant in ages. Maybe ever. I think you’re better than Theo, anyway.”
“Thanks, hon.”
“Dad needs someone who’ll give him a kick in the pants like that. Trust me. He appreciates you, I know he does.”
Yeah, if only she knew how much. But did Michael really appreciate me professionally? Could he, after how I’d failed him?
“He can’t invite critics,” I said. “I mean, I don’t think it would work. People could accuse us of paying the critics off, since we invited them. They’ll say we staged it somehow, something. I just, I know it. We didn’t know that critic came in or who he was so we served him just like we served every other customer, that’s the point.”