Ben’s cheeks flexed from how hard his jaw clenched. But within seconds, he was acting cool and wiping that famous smirk onto his lips. “Funny guy.” He nodded, eyeing Marco. “Can’t find a girl to do that for you? Why don’t I give you some pointers so you can have someone beg for your cock like Nina does with me every day?”
“Ben!” My cheeks and ears felt ablaze with instant humiliation. Marco and the kitchen staff went silent, unsure of how to respond. Ben’s grin was beyond satisfied.
“Yeah. Ask her about the time she sucked my dick in this kitchen. Right where you’re standing.”
“What the fuck, Ben!” I shoved him, trying desperately to push him through the doors. “That never even fucking happened!” My voice was a breathless rasp as I continued to thrust my weight against his chest, but in vain. He gazed down at me with mirth in his eyes and a pleasured hum in his throat.
“Keep doing that,” he said, grabbing my wrists and pulling my palms downward. At this point, Marco had come forward to help me force Ben out of the kitchen while a busboy ran out to get Jenn.
But it turned out none of them were needed as Adriana pushed through the doors with a tray of dirty plates and water glasses. Her fiery eyes took less than a second to register the situation. Calmly, she pulled Marco away so she could plant herself in front of Ben, the heavy tray sitting on her open palm and her elbow resting on her cocked hip.
“You have till three to get the out of here,” she said evenly.
Ben snorted. “Or?”
Adriana plucked an unfinished glass of soda from her tray and casually tossed the contents onto the crotch of Ben’s jeans. His eyes bugged instantly.
“Fucking bitch!”
She pretended to cringe at herself as Marco and a line cook propelled themselves into Ben, who thrashed forward like an angry zoo animal.
“Sorry I lied about having till three.”
Frozen, I gaped at the scene, words failing to form on my lips even as Jenn came in to break it all up, demanding for an explanation just like Mr. Davies had. She picked the new line cook to give her his account of the story though Ben barely let the poor guy start.
“Listen. Jenn, right? Listen, Jenn.” He pressed his palms together as he stood before Jenn, suddenly calm and mannerly in her presence. “My friend, Joe Milokavich, comes here often and he only has great things to say about your staff and kitchen. But I have no idea what’s going on tonight because this one and this one,” he pointed to Marco and Adriana, “seem to have some sort of agenda against me that I don’t understand. I know I shouldn’t have come back to the kitchen but I had something important to tell my girlfriend and suddenly, this guy was shoving me and Adriana… she…” He opted not to finish his sentence, instead angrily gesturing toward his wet crotch. Jenn looked, biting both her lips back as she tried to properly assess the situation.
But suddenly, she burst out laughing.
“I’m sorry,” she blurted, covering her mouth. But it was too late — everyone else in the kitchen was clutching their stomachs and wheezing at Ben’s flustered face, which matched quite well with the seeming accident soaking his pants. Jenn cleared her throat, though a titter of amusemen
t remained in her voice as she spoke to him. “I assure you that I’ll get to the bottom of this incident and that everyone involved will be properly disciplined. In the meantime, sir, I’m going to have to ask you return to your table since guests aren’t technically allowed in the kitchen.”
Ben gaped at her for what felt like a full minute. Finally, he jabbed a finger at Adriana. “I’m saying this for the good of your restaurant, but this girl needs to be terminated. Immediately.”
Jenn nodded. “I assure you that this will be her last shift here.”
Running a claw-like hand through his hair, Ben exhaled and nodded, seeming to calm at this news until Adriana leaned over to whisper loudly at him.
“‘Cause I’m covering for a friend tonight. I don’t actually work here anymore, assclown.”
Silence fell over the kitchen.
And with assclown, suddenly, the ball of rage and anxiety in the pit of my stomach unraveled — into a mess of delirious, bubbling, uncontrollable giggles. I couldn’t stop. My eyes were shut and squeezing out tears, but I could hear Jenn among those laughing with me. Oh my God, we’ve all lost our minds. For a second, Ben was in my ear, snarling about how Adriana was turning me. But soon enough he was gone, thanks to our busboy who had gone and fetched the bouncer from the bar next door. We didn’t have our own security staff, so he often lent us a hand.
“Was that the crazy ex?” Jenn asked me ten minutes later, or what felt like ten minutes later, though I wasn’t sure how long it had really been. I nodded, coming down from my giggles and recalling Ben’s face of utter rage and fury. Before getting shown out, he’d said something about my mother and gotten some sort of threat out about Daniel. But it didn’t matter anymore. I’d planned on telling Mom about the breakup and Daniel no longer wanted anything to do with me. So Ben had nothing on me. And I had not a care in the world.
“Ade.”
She turned to me, her eyes still twinkling from the laughter. I hooked my pinky with hers.
“I owe you a ton of drinks, girl. For that.” My grin was sheepish, apologetic. “And the past three years.”
Her smile spread from ear to ear. “Guess we should start tonight.”
CHAPTER 7
Letting go felt so damned good.