Page 104 of Tasty Cherry

But she’s obviously stewing, because in the next lull in the conversation, she drops a bombshell of a topic.

“So, Brooklyn, how is it working in the kitchen with your ex? Or is he actually your ex? How is it that nobody wants him to be their ex? They just keep hitting it?”

Brooklyn tenses beside me.

Suze clears her throat. “Maverick might not be the best subject for any of us.” She exchanges a worried glance with Jessie.

But Brooklyn wants to know what Ilsa knows. I can feel her trying to hold back, but she can’t. “Who else doesn’t want him to be their ex?”

“Cristal. Zara. Kennedy.”

Jessie and Suze go still, but they don’t say anything.

“Not possible,” Brooklyn says.

“So you are sleeping with him even now,” Ilsa says.

“I didn’t say that.”

Ilsa shrugs. “Then you don’t care about the rest of them. He disappeared with Kennedy into the supply room of the restaurant for a full fifteen minutes.”

Brooklyn scoffs. “Why would he do that when he has an apartment?”

“Why does he do anything?” Ilsa stabs a piece of lettuce. “Except to show off.”

Brooklyn’s face and neck have gone pink, like on that day in the staff room after we saw Maverick in the hall with Kennedy.

I want to ask her if this is true. Is she still sleeping with Maverick? She hasn’t said anything to me since hiding behind the carts at King Sooper’s.

But her eyes glisten. And that’s answer enough for me.

“I have to pee,” I tell the table. “Brooklyn, come with me?”

She doesn’t resist as I drag her to the back of the restaurant and into the women’s restroom.

“You okay?” I pull a paper towel from the dispenser and pass it to her.

She looks in the mirror and dabs at her eyes. “I know I’m stupid.”

“Is he acting like you’re the only one?”

“Not really. We’re mostly in ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ mode.”

“And you’re okay with this?”

She tosses the paper towel in the trash. “I’m not. Of course I’m not. But I can’t seem to stop. When you’re with him, it’s like you’re the most important, most beautiful woman in the world. He’s so good. So convincing.”

I know how that feels. I try to imagine what I’d do if I found out Sebastian had other girls on the side. It would kill me, but so would letting him go.

“I’m sorry he’s such a gorgeous, sexy asshole.”

She lets out a strangled laugh. “They often come in that precise package.”

“You’ve been here before?”

“It’s a type. And it’s apparently my type.”

“He’s going to get himself fired over all this.”

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