The Pugly Truth by Tiffany Andrea

Author:Tiffany Andrea [Tiffany Andrea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Burden of Proofreading Publishing
Published: 2023-10-05T00:00:00+00:00

Three hours later, the entire kitchen staff, minus Alejandro, has cleared out. Most of the time, I love the hustle and bustle of the kitchen, but there’s a feeling of calm and peace at this time of the night that you can’t find at any other time. The mornings are marked with anticipation and the rush to prepare for the day. Open hours are a flurry of chaos, trying to align each of your own tasks with multiple other people and theirs. The pressure to be perfect is consuming. Exhausting. But now, with the lights dimmed and the only sound is the clanging of cookware being washed, it’s relaxing.

I continue to scrub down the last of the surfaces after I’ve prepped what I needed to for tomorrow.

The footsteps I’ve come to recognize start getting closer. Smooth, confident strides. They come to a stop at the other side of the prep table I’m disinfecting, but I don’t look up.

“I can drive you home when you’re done.”

With a final swipe of the gleaming stainless steel surface, I blow out a breath and allow my gaze to land on Caleb. We need to talk. I know that. I want to talk to him, but I’m also dealing with the lingering sting of realizing I was the only person he claimed to love that he walked away from.

I am torn between protecting my heart and protecting my job.

But I can always find another job.

“It’s fine. I’ve still got another twenty minutes of work to do, so you might as well head home.”

The deep brown eyes I used to get lost in focus on me. The bottom half of his face is relaxed, but his lower eyelids are raised and his brows pulled tight. “If we divide and conquer, we can be done in ten,” he says, his voice low and husky.

He doesn’t give me a chance to argue before he snatches the prep container to take it back to the fridge.

I guess today it’s my heart that’s going to be put on the line.

Sure enough, ten minutes later, I’m grabbing my coat and saying good night to Alejandro. Caleb and I descend in the elevator to the parking garage in complete silence. Neither of us speak until we’re several minutes away from work.

“Are you mad at me for what happened with Todd?” I blurt.

Caleb’s head turns toward me so quickly, he swerves slightly. “What? Mad at you? Are you kidding?”

“Well, if I was texting that question, I probably would have added an emotional support LOL at the end, but no, I’m not kidding.”

“An emotional support LOL?” He smirks, which is barely visible in the streetlights as we whip past.

“You know? When you have to say something serious, but you don’t want the other person to feel like it’s a big deal, so you just add LOL at the end to soften the blow?” I mimic texting as I try to explain.

“Does that help?”

“Probably not, but it makes me feel better. Hence the emo—”

“Emotional support LOL.

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