Chasing His Kickass Luna Back by Jane Above Story

#Chapter 67: Crossroads
Abby

The tension in the room feels palpable, a thick curtain of unsaid words and unexplored emotions

hanging in the air between Karl and me. My grip tightens on the knife handle as I glance at the chaos of

ingredients strewn across the counter.

“Tell me first,” I blurt out, wanting to avoid the inevitable confrontation as long as possible. “What are

you doing here? The restaurant closed hours ago.”

Karl sighs and shakes his head, walking past me and over to the line. I watch as he bends down

behind the counter and disappears for a moment, muttering to himself, before he stands back up and

holds something up in the air: his wallet.

“Dropped this earlier,” he says, slipping it into his pocket. “Wanted to come back and make sure it was

here. Now it’s your turn. What are you doing here at…” He glances at his watch. “One o’clock in the

morning?”

I swallow, glancing around at the ingredients and half-cooked dishes all around the kitchen. The sink is

full of empty dishes from failed attempts, the trash can is practically overflowing with said failed

attempts, and the various successful attempts are lined up on the adjacent counter for pictures to keep

in mind for presentation ideas.

“I, um…” I find myself choking up slightly. “I’m just practicing,” I half-lie. “Wanted to test my skills.”

Karl raises an eyebrow. “And waste all these ingredients? You’re not that type of chef.”

I nearly curse out loud. Karl is right; I’ve never been the type to waste ingredients.

Even in the past, when I’ve gone on creative cooking sprees, I would never just throw things away

when the dishes don’t turn out perfectly. There’s a food pantry right down the street that I visit

dishes, and when I lived with Karl, the servants and guests

leftovers.

tell me, Abby.” Karl finally breaks the silence, his voice tinged with impatience.

onto me, and probably has been for some time. Probably since he found me

and Chloe. “You’ve clearly been up to something huge here lately,

last to know. Why

eyes meeting his. There’s no point in avoiding the inevitable

as well rip off the band-aid now. “Okay, fine,” I mutter, wiping my hands on

the finalists to compete to

second before his expression smooths over into something

decipher right now. “That’s great, Abby.

lacks the warmth I had hoped

all this time—that he’d prefer that

instead of catering it.

it,” I p rod, my own words edged

proud of you,” he retorts, clearly

but your tone says otherwise.

his hair. “Look, I wanted to go to the Alpha party with

thing sort of ruins that, though,

this sort of

hoped that he really has changed, that

of making it about

you wanted to go to a party?

just any party, Abby. The Alpha party is a big deal. I thought it could be something special

onto mine.

forget,” I say. “But this competition…

It’s going to be on television and everything. I’m sorry,

from me for a moment. “But what about us? Don’t

to

the empty kitchen.

There is no ‘us’, Karl,” I murmur. “I’ve told

between us.”

voice is low and strained, like he’s trying to hold

on a

And let’s not forget what happened the

his words. The memory of our night right here in this kitchen whirls through my

it felt to have him close