Ruin You by Molly O'Keefe

Author:Molly O'Keefe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-11-06T08:00:00+00:00

ELEVEN

Penny

MOST OF THE guests who stayed last night come down for brunch with sunglasses on and order Bloody Mary’s and Eggs Benedict and sit on the back verandah looking as if the sun is physically hurting them.

Sign of a good party, I think, refilling my coffee at the bar.

“He’s not down here,” Megan says, coming to stand beside me at the coffee station.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, stop,” Megan admonishes me. “I’m just letting you know so you can stop coming out here for more coffee. I’ve never seen you drink this much —”

“It was a late night.”

Megan puts her hand on my wrist. “How much later did it go?”

As much as I want to marshal a good snarky comment about her being too nosey, I can’t brush off her question. She knows me too well and went into business with me anyway. She has every right to be worried about my self-destructive streak.

“He left about ten minutes after you. Nothing happened.”

That’s not the lie that makes me feel bad. The lie is in my tone, like she’s crazy for being worried.

I threw myself at him and he was the one with the good sense to say no.

Not something I can say to Megan.

“Don’t get defensive,” Megan says. “Don’t. Think of how it looks if the chef is sneaking into a patron’s room —”

“Stop. I get it. I do. Nothing happened. I didn’t go into his room and he didn’t come out to the trailer.” Not that I would ever invite him out there. “But, you’re right. I got carried away last night and it’s over.”

“It’s not over. He’s checked in until Friday.”

My jaw drops open and something giddy rises up in me.

He’s staying?

“No, see that look right there, that’s what makes me nervous.” She points a finger in my face and if she was my boss and not my partner, I might smack that finger away. “Dinner service starts on Monday and we have the supplier dinner on Thursday —”

“You don’t have to tell me,” I snap. “I get it. Nothing will happen.”

And I mean it. I do. It’s not professional to be sneaking into some guest’s bedroom after dinner service. It’s something the old Penny might do. Not this new incarnation.

But…he’s staying?

Stop being cheap.

That’s my mother’s sage advice, from when I was a girl.

Desperation is for dogs. Stop looking for someone to pet you.

I pour out my third cup of coffee and go back to the kitchen where I belong.

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