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How dare Axel have him fired!
As I walked up the pathway, I noticed that the front door was ajar.
“Mac?” I called out, poking my face into the slit of the open door.
I heard movement from inside, him mumbling and the clatter of dishes.
“Mac,” I said, letting myself in.
I found him in the kitchen, three boxes set up on the counter as he filled the boxes with various items.
“Mac,” I said softly, coming up the island. “What’s going on?”
He glared up at me with a look in his eyes that I’d never seen before. He was beyond mad. He was enraged. “I’m pretty sure you already know,” he spat.
“I can’t believe it,” I said. “I want to hear it from you. Are you really leaving?”
“Shit, Layla,” he shouted as he slammed a pot onto the countertop. “You’re the one who set this whole damn thing up. You knew this would get me fired. Axel said he’d warned you. And still, you just kept coming here, knowing that you were risking my position here at the academy? Fuck. I thought you liked me. I thought you cared about me. I thought we cared about each other. But clearly, you only care about yourself. Had your fun, Layla? Huh? Did you have enough fun with me and now you can just have me discarded?”
“Axel is just a silly boy who is jealous of the man that you are,” I said, desperate to calm him. “He’s jealous of the relationship that I have with you, and he’ll do anything to destroy that.”
Pressing his lips tightly together, he looked at me, steam practically coming out of his ears. He shook his head, then resumed packing. “It’s more serious than that. This isn’t just some puppy love, crush, jealous fit. And because of the precarious position you put me in, I’ve lost my job, I cannot return onto the campus grounds, and I have to be out of this academy assigned home before noon tomorrow.” He glared up at me. “Happy?”
“No,” I said, reaching out to take a hold of his hand, but he pulled out of my reach. “I’m not happy at all. I don’t want you to leave. Where will you go? Will you find a place to live somewhere here in town?”
“I’m going back to Louisiana.”
“Louisiana?” I shouted. “You’re moving to Louisiana?”
“I have a few restaurants there that are doing very well,” he said. “I think I’ll dive back into taking care of them.”
“But...”
He looked up at me. “There is no ‘but’.”
“I can talk to Axel,” I said. “I can tell him how wrong he is to do this.”
“There’s no point,” Mac said. “What’s done is done.”
“No,” I said on the verge of tears. “This isn’t done.”
He picked up the pot he’d slammed on the counter and shoved it into one of the boxes then angrily closed the box and taped it up. “It’s over, Layla. It’s over.”
“Mac,” I said with a sudden realization. “The competition. The finals are tomorrow. I need you.”
“You’ve had me, Layla,” he said. “I’ve shown you all that I can. You’ll do fine.”
There was nothing left to say. I stood there and looked at him, willing him to look at me, willing him to say something, anything, that will keep me from walking out of his house.
Nothing came.
Resigned, I turned and slowly walked to the door. With every step I took, I heard his voice, telling me he was sorry, telling me to stay, telling me he needed me.
But the voice in my head never materialized and I walked out in silence.
After a quiet dinner at home alone and a fitful night’s sleep, I got up and prepared for the final round of the competition.
We were to have three hours to prepare a gourmet meal consisting of hors d’oeuvre, an appetizer, main dish and dessert. I already had the entire meal planned out in my mind and had even tried three separate appetizers with Mac.
