Chasing His Kickass Luna Back by Jane Above Story

Chapter 104
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

when I lived with Karl, the se rvants and guests were

leftovers.

breaks the silence, his voice tinged with

and probably has been for some time. Probably since he

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

know. Why keep me in the

put the knife down, my eyes meeting his. There’s

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

of the finalists to compete to cater the

widen for a fraction of a second before his expression smooths over

right now. “That’s great, Abby. I’m proud of

the warmth I had hoped for, and his smile

all this time—that he’d prefer that I go to the Alpha party

instead of catering it.

I pr od, my own words

of you,” he retorts,

but your tone says otherwise. What’s going

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

catering thing sort of

sort of response from him, I’m still

of me that hoped that he really has changed, that he would be genuinely happy

instead of making

you wanted to go to a party?

just any party, Abby. The Alpha party is a big

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

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

and everything. I’m sorry, but I hoped that you

from me for a moment. “But what about us?

you wanted to go

the empty kitchen.

is no ‘us’, Karl,” I murmur. “I’ve told you countless times before that it’s not going to

between us.”

strained, like he’s trying to hold himself

me like you’ve just been keeping me on a string this whole time, giving me vague promises

jump through. And let’s not forget what happened the

The memory of our night right here in this kitchen whirls

to