Page 80 of The Chef

It’s Cove.

“That was her, wasn’t it?” he asks me as he marches over. I quickly check to see if anyone else is following him. Nobody. Good.

I want to be alone.

“Yes,” I reply and slump up against the restaurant wall, exhausted and still shocked.

“Do you know what she’s doing here?” Cove asks.

“No.”

“Do you know why she’s come? Is it to see you?”

“Cove, I don’t know,” I reply, rubbing my closed eyes with my fingers. “I don’t know why she’s here. I don’t know what she wants with me.”

“Shit, man. This is tough.”

I chuckle darkly. “Yeah. It is.”

“You’re gonna have to find out why she’s here in town.”

“I don’t even want to know. It’s not anything good, that’s for sure.”

“Yeah. I bet it won’t be,” he says. “So, what are you going to do about it.”

“I don’t know,” I reply. “Nothing?”

“Yeah?”

I sigh. “But I do want closure. She just walked out on me, man. Maybe she’s back to apologize.”

“Maybe,” Cove replies. “You think so? Is that what she’s like?”

“I don’t know.”

“What will you say if she does apologize?”

I scratch my forehead. “I honestly don’t know what I would do, I’m still completely overwhelmed with her walking in like that. Is she in there still?”

Cove shrugs.

“I didn’t see her when I left,” he says. “She did choose the worst possible time to reappear, though.”

“That’s Cleo, though. Drama queen. She always knows how to make an entrance.”

“Well, she certainly did today.”

There’s another set of footsteps approaching. Cove and I anxiously check who it is like we’re naughty schoolboys smoking and hiding from the teacher at the back of the school.

Bay rounds the corner. Her eyes are wild when she sees us. It’s like there’s an accusatory look on her face.

“Here’s where you both are,” she says, glaring at the restaurant’s bins surrounding us in disgust.

Yep, I’m here amongst the trash.

Cove glances from her to me. “I’ll leave you two alone,” he says before striding back into the restaurant.

“That was her?” Bay asks.