Page 56 of The C Agreement

“Yeah, I’m taking a quick break.” He sighed. “How are things really going with the bet? We did a lot of joking around the other night, but I want to seriously talk about it. You have quite a bit of time left. Do you think you can make it the rest of the month?” Beau’s tone was heavy. He sounded stressed.

I dropped my ass into my chair. “Things are going well. I’ll be honest; when you brought it up, I thought there was no way I’d be able to win. Not happily anyway. But I’m doing great.” It helped to have an enthusiastic bed partner who didn’t get clingy. “Why do you ask?”

“You know how I love to experiment in the kitchen. I had some spare time yesterday. Wednesdays are usually slow. And I came up with this killer dish. Everyone who tried it loved it. But the owner wouldn’t even consider giving it a chance. It just…” He groaned.

“Feels like your talents are being wasted? Feels like you’re underappreciated? Feels like they think you don’t know what you’re doing?”

“All that.” He chuckled. “I was going to say something like,It just felt frustrating, but I think you nailed it.”

“Glad I could help.”

“Anyway, I’ve been scared. The thought of running our own place scares the shit out of me. But I’m so tired of being patted on the head for being a good little chef for only doing what I’m told when I know I can do better.”

I smiled. “Damn right.”

“I think we should start looking for properties.”

My smile morphed into a full-on grin. “Let’s do it.”

“I’m so ready to quit this place. I’m ready to say forget the bet and just go for it.”

That wiped the grin off my face. Done with the bet? I wasn’t ready to let Rayne go.

“While I love your enthusiasm, it’s going to take us some time to find a place and do everything we need to do to open a restaurant. I can’t quit yet. I have bills to pay. And a restaurant to save for.”

“Right. That’s probably a good reason to stick around for a while.”

“Just make sure you save all those recipe ideas for us and stop sharing them for free at work.”

“Good thing I have a notebook full of them.”

“Music to my ears.” I leaned forward on my desk. “Also, about the bet. Neither of us has ever backed out of one before. Not even when you bet I wouldn’t hide Mrs. Mann’s car on our last day of high school.”

Mrs. Mann had been the definition of old and crotchety. No one could understand why she was a teacher since she seemed to hate every student she taught.

Beau hooted with laughter. “She was so mad. She wanted to put you in detention so bad, but she couldn’t.”

I cracked up at the memory of how red her face had turned. “As an adult now, I feel a little guilty about doing that, but it sure was fucking funny.”

“Eh, don’t feel bad. It was probably the most excitement she’d felt in a decade.”

“And all I got was your super-old PS2. You didn’t even play it anymore. You had a PS3.” I shook my head. “But I couldn’t turn down a bet.”

“You still can’t.”

“True. But neither can you.”

“How else am I supposed to prove I’m a manly man?” Beau asked jokingly.

“In that case, I’d better complete this bet. I wouldn’t want anyone to think I lost my dick.” I also didn’t want Rayne to think I wanted to be done with her. “Besides, didn’t you say I needed to see this through for Em?”

“Yeah. Em knows I’m frustrated with work, but she’s hesitant.”

“This will give her time to adjust. Go home tonight, tell her what happened yesterday, and let her know we’re going to start looking at locations.”

“Good idea.”

“Now that we have that settled, I have a question.”

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