Page 80 of For Butter or Worse
So maybe she could be the bigger person, for both of their sakes. “What happened is in the past,” she said. Not forgiveness, exactly, but she was willing to start there.
“Okay.” He sipped the wine, not breaking eye contact. “How are things going with what’s-his-name?” So they were exes who talked about their new relationships now?
“You mean Leo? Don’t act like you don’t know his name.” He could besucha guy sometimes. She’d forgotten that side of him.
He winked knowingly.
When she was first cast on the show, she’d told Charlie that her cohost would be Leo O’Donnell. He’d said, “Who?” And she’d laughed because...exactly. She thought she had the advantage of being the prestige chef, so the show would be more hers than Leo’s. But it turned out they’d shared the spotlight equally, and she’d underestimated Leo’s charm, enthusiasm and talent—a miscalculation she wished she could take back.
“How is Leo?” he asked, trying again.
“He’s great.” He reallywasgreat. Extraordinary. He was more than she was willing to say out loud to Charlie, because he was the kind of person who would want to see Leo fail. She owed Leo some respect after everything he’d done to try and save her business, to save her. Though, she was tempted to tell her ex just how hard Leo was able to make her come...
“Never thought you’d be calling the endless-breadsticks king ‘great.’” He eyed his nails, but she knew he was deeply bothered by her compliment of Leo.
“Ah, so youarefamiliar with Vinny’s?” If Charlie was jealous, and she was certain he was judging from his passive-aggressive comments, he’d never admit to those feelings. Part of her relished how uncomfortable he was, but another part just wanted this lunch to be over with so she could focus on winning back Leo.
“I have to go before service starts.” She wasn’t there to make small talk with her ex or stand by while he tried to make himself seem like a big man by cutting down Leo. He’d apologized, and she wasn’t interested in staying a moment longer. “Are we done?”
Charlie smoothed his hand across the linen tablecloth and gave her a curious look, then said, “Part of me was hoping we could work things out. That would make this next part easier.”
She checked the time on her phone, hoping to send the signal that he should speed things up.
“I was approached about taking the open spot onThe Next Cooking Champ!Your old spot,” he said.
She rolled her eyes so hard it actually hurt.Here we go.Now he was just being childish by making up a story to try and bait her into a fight. She wasn’t going to walk into his trap. “I already know how much you hate the show.”
“No, I’m serious.” He scratched his chin absentmindedly. “I had a call with Tiffany last week.”
How did he know Tiffany’s name? He would’ve been too lazy to do the grunt work of googling the show and memorizing the producers. He could be an asshole, but he wouldn’t put in that much of an effort to mess with her.
“They want you to be the new host?” She squinted at him.
He tilted his head in a smug way—which she didn’t even know was possible, but Charlie managed to make it work. “They’re looking to reboot now that you’ve quit, give it a fresh spin.”
Her face was hot. She knew that at some point there would be new hosts on the show. One of those hosts would most certainly be a chef, but it had never occurred to her that Charlie could take her spot.
And, worst of all, he probably loved watching her be the last to know this information. He’d always viewed himself as smarter and more talented. So here she was, a lobster slowly boiling alive from humiliation.
“They want to elevate the brand,” he added. He had the knife out now, and she could feel the blade pierce her skin. He let her blood trickle down as easily as spilled wine.
“Elevate it?” She knew exactly what he meant, though. He was suggesting that the show had been lowbrow becauseshehad been the chef behind it, and by him taking over, everything would be different. “Why are you telling me this?” she asked.
“I wanted you to be the first to know.” Charlie reached for her hand. She was in such a daze that she didn’t immediately pull away.
“Are you saying you’re going to take the job?” Her voice rose to a level she didn’t expect. He pulled back his hand.
“We’re still working out the details.” He looked off into the distance, like she wasn’t even there.
What she wanted to do was take a rolling pin and knock him over the head with it. Flip the table so she didn’t have to look at his pompous expression. Instead, she grasped the tablecloth with both hands and leveled him with her most withering gaze. He shrunk back in his chair.
“You told me not to do the show, do you remember that? You said taking the job would ruin my career,” she hissed.
She couldn’t believe this was happening. Was it possible that when she was first offered the job, he’d actually been jealous? And maybe all this time, he wasn’t judging her, he was just waiting for her to fail? She hated to think that someone she’d once loved would harbor those kinds of feelings, but how else could she explain what he was doing to her now?
“I didn’t say that.” He caught a waiter’s eye and made the signal for the check. “You’re misremembering.”
“Don’t.” She shook her head to keep from shaking him. “Your last words to me were that you were embarrassed to be dating someone on reality TV. And now you plan to take my old job?”
