Page 35 of Promise Me Ever After
Oh, he’d done more than okay.
“He did.” I paused. Surely she must know who won his private dinner. If not, I was about to land myself in a whole heap of shit. “You know I ended up winning his lot?”
She nodded. “Yes.” Her voice took on a quieter tone. “How was it? His cooking is amazing and I’m always scared Marcus is going to steal him.”
“I don’t think you have anything to worry about. Alex is very happy here.” I reassured her. “And you’re right. He is exceptionally talented.”Not just in the cooking department.
“Phew. Good to know. I don’t want to lose him.”
Although if she did, I wouldn’t have to feel guilty every time I thought about kissing him. The phone behind the bar rang and Tess got up to answer it, turning her back to me. While she was gone, my phone vibrated with a message.
Alex: What time do you finish work?
Georgie: Usual time for a weekday.
Alex: Want me to come over to your place afterwards?
Warmth flooded through me. I shouldn’t contemplate it, shouldn’t jeopardise what either of us had in terms of a career at the restaurant. All the reasons why I shouldn’t were outweighed by the fact I was totally and utterly attracted to Alex. Without another thought, I replied.
Georgie: Wanna walk me home?
Alex: Try and stop me.
Without the usual simmering sexual tension between Alex and I, that night’s shift seemed longer than usual. We’d grab a couple of minutes in the break room, which at least stopped me from having a cigarette. In his absence, I snuck outside instead and leaned against the wall, staring up at the stars, sucking in the poison.
The door banged open, and Sid came out with a couple of bags of rubbish. He lifted them into the bin, then stopped to look at me.
“Don’t usually see you out here.”
“I don’t often come out.” I blew a stream of smoke into the air.
“No, you’re usually off snogging Alex.” He let out a laugh.
“How do you know about that?”If Sid knew, then surely Tess and Ellis did too.
Sid nodded slowly. “We talk. It’s not all recipes and orders you know.”
“How much do you know?”
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell anyone. Alex would kill me for a start. He’s not been like this around a girl since I’ve known him.”
I sucked in my lips, trying not to laugh as he called me a girl. I was flattered, of course. “Good to know.”
Sid turned to go back inside, but I wanted to know what else Alex had said about me.
“What’s different about Alex now?”
“What do you mean?”
“You said he hadn’t been like this around a woman before.”
The younger guy leaned against the door frame and fixed me with a stare. “You really want to know?”
God, was it that awful? “Mmmhmm.” Too late to back out now.
Sid sniffed. “Alex has always been a player. Love ‘em and leave ‘em. Rarely got past a couple of nights with the same bird. Hanging around with Curtis and Justin who seemed to be settling down, made him worse. The number of times I’ve had to fob off some woman because she thought he was serious about her.” He held up his hands. “But with you, he keeps talking about the next time he’s going to see you, and other stuff he’d like to…” Sid ground to a halt, as if he’d already overshared too much.
“Right.” I kept my tone measured.
