Page 63 of Cookbooks and Demons

“It’ll still be here when you get back,” he assured. “And besides, I need to give Scarlet her massage. So don’t come back foran hour.”

Any other protests were met with deaf ears, and in a trice, Helena found herself thrust out of the office with the door firmly shut behind her.

“Well… okay,” she said to it, feeling almost hurt but realizing too that they were probably right.

She pulled up the phone app for a nearby Thai place that wasn’t as good as the one on Little Thai street, but they also had a decent selection of Ramen Bowls in a sort of hybrid fusion thing that sounded appealing to her. It was winter after all, the best time for soup. “I wish you were here to try the Ramen. It’s another Asian thing you would have loved.”

“Oh, yes, that sounds delicious!” one of the other office workers said, who had also been waiting at the elevator door.

She hadn’t noticed them, but she forced a smile. Okay, maybe she was talking out loud a littletoo much.

Chapter 33

Ran

Into Chris

“Okay, the broth is some sort of pork flavoring. The noodles are thin and springing, and they gave me plenty, so it’s going to be filling. There are either chives or maybe these are green onions.” Helena glanced down at the menu that the server had left and read through the list of ingredients under the bowl she had chosen. “Oh, okay, it looks like green onions. I’ve also got ginger and sesame seed oil… Yeah, I can taste the bite from the ginger. Oh, wait, this had chivesandgreen onion in it. Red cabbage, yeah I see that, and chicken. Then on top I’ve got two soft boiled eggs that just sort of float in the broth.” She took up her chopsticks and got a mess of noodles up to her mouth, slurping as was culturally appropriate. “You got to slurp too,” she said around her full mouth. “It’s a requirement.” She giggled at the thought of what Rafferty’s face would look like as he watchedher eat.

“It’s warm and the egg is creamy,” she said when she swallowed and prepared another bite. “With that little bit of spice, it really wakes you up all the way to your toes…”

She trailed off in her description as she locked eyes with someone down thecounter.

To her shock, Chris stood there, staring daggers at her, while the woman she had seen him with at the fancy restaurant stood beside him, receiving a plastic bag with takeout food in it.

Guilt pierced through her as she had completely forgotten what she had witnessed and the fact that she hadn’t made up her mind whether to tell Charlie or not. Self-accusations of what a bad friend she was coupled with assurances that not interfering in her friend’s lives was a good thing warred within her while she met Chris’s eyes.

“Oh crap,” she breathed out. “It’s Chris.”

The woman Chris was with tugged on his sleeve, ready to go. He turned to her and leaned in a moment, saying something in her ear. She glanced over toward Helena, then smiled at him and gestured outside. Helena couldn’t hear what they were saying over the hubbub of the restaurant, but to her alarm, Chris started walking down the counter toward her.

“Oh crap, crap, crap,” she whispered and turned to face her bowl. She did not want to deal with another public confrontation, especially considering how much stress she was under, but with each moment, it became clearer and clearer she would have no choice.

“Hey, Helena,” Chris’s voice said, coming from right next to her.

“Hey, Chris,” she said neutrally. She looked up at him but didn’t want to meet his gaze so returned it toher soup.

She heard him sigh next to her. “Look, about the other night,” he said, and she braced. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry about over-reacting like that. I… I obviouslypanicked.”

“Yeah,” she said, focusing on maintaining neutrality.

“And I wanted to say thank you for not saying anything to Charlie. I really appreciate that,”he said.

She couldn’t stand it; she couldn’t keep the words from coming out of her mouth. “You should be the one to tell Charlie,” she snapped, feeling hot behindher ears.

“Yeah, I know. I know you’re right,” Chris said, surprising her by not fighting it. He sat down slumped on the stool next to her, backward so he braced his feet out into the aisle behind them. “I’m really sorry about you getting stuck in the middle of this, Hel, but it’s all just really confusing right now,you know?”

His demeanor cooled her fire. “Who is she?” she asked.

“Co-worker. She’s really nice. You’d like her,” he said. “I don’t know what to tell you. It just sort of happened and I don’t know why. I mean ever since college I’ve only beenintoCharlie, but lately … I don’t know. It’s like ever since your dinner party, something just snapped inside me.”

“Since my dinner party?” Helena asked, anothersurprise.

He nodded. “I don’t know. Something happened that night. Something that had been building for a while, and I just looked at Charlie and…itwasn’t thereanymore.”

“What wasn’t there anymore?” she said, her stomach feeling like lead.

“I don’t know,” herepeated.

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