Page 17 of Why Not Both?

She finally looks at me. “But you’re not.”

“Look. People don’t always get me and Vic right away. They assume because we have all this history and she’s a woman and I’m a man, there must be something between us. But there has never been anything. Not even in high school when our hormones were going crazy. She’s always felt like my sister.”

“How did you two get to be so close?”

It’s my turn to look away. I don’t want to talk about my past. “That is a long story and not all of it is mine. Come on. Let’s go see Adalie.”

We stop in and Adalie hands her the paperwork that will make her a full employee for the next five months. A sort of probationary period to make sure she meshes well with the team and gives Vic the guarantee of a head chef for the duration of wedding season. We stop by Derek’s office and then Vic’s. Last is mine, which I just gesture to since it’s empty right now. I show her the staff lounge on the far side of the conference room and the bathrooms that are on this level, usually only used by staff, but guests can use them if they come for meetings. There are a couple of rooms where the wedding party can get ready if they need the space, usually only if the ceremony is happening here as well as the reception.

Finally, I take her to the kitchen and watch as she lights up. It’s spectacular. She wanders through the space, touching a counter, the stove, the sink. She opens the fridge and peers inside. I have no idea what she’s looking for, but she turns to me with a look of pure excitement on her face and I am officially jealous of a kitchen. I’m insane.

We spend a long time wandering around her domain, which takes up a large portion of the ground floor of the building.

“Most event venues don’t have their own chef,” Lis remarks as we make it to her office. “Unless it’s a hotel.”

“True. But when we came up with the business plan for this place, we wanted to have exclusive contracts with high-end companies as a sort of draw for the clients. Mark was a big name in the cooking world.”

“But I’m not.”

“You will be.”

As we leave the kitchen, Lis asks, “You and Vic came up with the business plan for Blue Vista together?”

I nod. “Along with Derek and Adalie.”

I take her upstairs to the venue space and show her where the elevator lets out. She can bring food up that way and we usually set up buffet tables close to the elevator to limit the distance she’ll need to bring the food.

We end the tour on the roof—the whole reason the business is called Blue Vista.

“This is gorgeous,” Lis breathes as she stares out at English Bay.

“It brings in the money.” But the sight that holds my attention is the rainbow-haired firecracker who watches the waves.

“You removed your nail polish,” I blurt, wondering why it felt so important to bring it up. But my eyes had strayed to her fingers all day and I miss the bright flash of red I remembered.

She looks down at her hands as though she’d forgotten about them. “I said I was going to. Besides, I can’t wear nail polish in the kitchen. If it chips while I’m working, it would get in the food.”

“But you’re not cooking today.”

She searches my eyes and I know she’s confused. Shit, so am I. Why does it matter if she’s wearing nail polish or not?

She shrugs. “I figured it wouldn’t make a good impression coming in with chipped nail polish on my first day. And I wasn’t going to reapply it since I’d have to take it off for tomorrow.”

“Yeah. That makes sense.” I say, feeling a little off-kilter, like my whole world has been thrown off its axis and I’m trying to remember how to navigate. I need some time to think. “Hey, the tour took a bit longer than I thought. You want to take a break before we get to the meeting?”

“Sure. How long?”

“We usually take an hour for lunch.”

“Okay. I’m going to head out. I’ll meet you in your office in an hour, then?”

“Great,” I say. Then watch her leave, taking a piece of me with her.

Chapter 7

Lis

Spencer and I spend an hour going through the menu and then my team comes in and I get to meet my staff. I introduce myself and we discuss everyone’s roles, making plans for the coming week, and then I send everyone home. I duck into Vic’s office with a quick knock on her open door. As Spencer had mentioned, she’d told me to call her Vic during the morning meeting.

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