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

and when I lived with Karl, the servants and guests were always

leftovers.

Karl finally breaks the silence, his voice tinged

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

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

last to know. Why keep me in the

eyes meeting

band-aid now. “Okay,

finalists to compete to cater the Alpha

second before his

right now. “That’s great,

had hoped for, and his

I feared all this time—that he’d prefer that I

instead of catering it.

rod, my own words edged with

I’m proud of you,” he retorts,

tone says

running a hand through his hair. “Look, I wanted to go to the Alpha party with you.

This whole catering thing sort of

reason, even though I expected this sort of response from him, I’m still taken aback. I

hoped that he really has changed, that he would

of making it about

upset because you wanted to go to a

not just any party, Abby. The Alpha party is a big deal. I thought it could be

eyes locked onto mine. “And besides, you promised. Or

forget,” I say. “But this competition… It

everything. I’m sorry,

understand,” he says, turning away from me for a moment. “But what

you wanted to go with me.” His voice

the empty kitchen.

“I’ve told you countless times before that it’s not going to

between us.”

you, though?” His voice is low and strained, like he’s trying

keeping me on a string this whole time, giving me

let’s not

wince at his words. The memory of our night right

me of how it felt to have him close