Page 5 of Falling for My Boss

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DEREK

The light coming in from the curtains was a lot brighter than I was used to. That was the first thing I noticed on Tuesday morning. It was right in my eyes at an angle that it normally wasn’t first thing in the morning. For a moment, I thought I must have woken myself up early, and then I looked at my phone. The little green light indicating that it was fully charged wasn’t on. Curious, I grabbed it, pulled it to me, and swiped up.

Ten in the morning. I wasn’t early. I was extremely late.

“Fuck,” I exclaimed, swinging up to a sitting position like a zombie coming from a grave and my heart suddenly pounding. “Son of a bitch, shit, dammit!”

The stream of curses wasn’t exactly helpful, but they released some of the anger and frustration. I suddenly realized that the battery on my phone read that there was only thirty percent. I looked at it, confused, and then it dawned on me. None of the lights were on. None of the usual sounds of a house, wired and coursing with electricity, were reaching my ears.

The power was out.

“Ah, dammit.” I put in the password and then found the number for the electric company and dialed it. The line was busy, but I would wait. I lay back in the bed, trying to get my heart to calm down while I called.

I started to doze a little after forty-five minutes on hold, but eventually I got through to someone at the hour mark. Apparently, there were lines down due to some moron cutting a tree on his property and not knowing how to fell it. Silently, I cursed myself for not taking Noah up on his offer to build a generator into the place and grabbed my things to head to the gym. I needed a shower, and since my place wasn’t going to cut it until at least that evening, I needed somewhere with warm water.

On my way there, I pulled up Cam’s number and gave him a call.

“Where the hell are you?” Cam said as a way of a greeting.

“Love you too, brother,” I said. “My freaking power went out. Some dipshit cut a tree, and it fell over the wires. My alarm didn’t go off, and I have no power left on my phone battery. The power company said they need someone at the house though, so could you head over there and hang out?”

“In the dark?” he asked.

“Yes, Cam. In the dark. Are you scared of the dark?”

“No, but it won’t help me get my work done if I can’t plug in,” he said. “How long of a wait?”

“I’m honestly not sure. Could be fast. Could take until I get back.”

“Christ, Derek,” Cam said. “Just get up here and start lunch service. Ally can handle the kitchen, but she’s going to get overwhelmed if we’re anything like last Tuesday. I’ll head to your place.”

“On my way, just have one stop to make first.”

“What stop?” Cam asked. “The restaurant is almost open.”

“I need a shower, Cam,” I said. “Trust me. I’ll be there in twenty.”

With an exasperated sound, Cam hung up, and I pulled into the drive of the gym. I was in and out in ten minutes, confusing the poor girl working the desk. By the time I got to the vineyard, I noticed that one of the delivery trucks that was supposed to be there wasn’t. As I got into the kitchen, Ally looked at me over the steam of the wok on her station, and I could see the relief in her eyes.

“Fucking delivery’s late,” she said. “We need it for dinner, or else we’re serving empty plates. Can you call them and find out what the shit is going on?”

“You know I am the chef, right? You are the sous chef.”

“You are the chef who is about to get a paring knife in his dick if you don’t get calling. I’ve been running this place without you so far, and lunch is picking up,” she said, not looking away from the wok.

“Fair. What do you need me to do to catch up?”

“Anything,” she said. “Literally, anything. There’s like ten things on burners and two in the oven. Just grab something and shake it, for God’s sake.”

“That’s what she said,” I muttered.

“Just make the call, Derek,” Ally said, finally breaking a smile.

I pulled up the phone and dialed the delivery service. Apparently, they were running late because of an accident right by the distribution center, making it hard to get trucks out. It meant that I couldn’t even be mad at them. The estimate was that they would have the truck well before dinner service, so we would be fine, but I was still mad when I hung up.

“News?” Ally said as she fell back into the normal sous chef role, helping me plate entrees and making sure anymise en placewas done.

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