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

leftovers.

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

onto me, and probably has been for some time.

to something huge here lately,

Why keep me in

eyes meeting his.

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

one of the finalists to compete

a second

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

off. His voice lacks the warmth I had hoped for, and his smile isn’t quite reaching

I can sense what I feared all this time—that he’d prefer that I go

instead of catering it.

like you mean it,” I pr od, my own words edged with a

said I’m proud of you,” he

but your tone says otherwise.

I wanted to go

sort

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

really has

of making

you wanted to go

is a

eyes locked onto mine. “And

forget,” I say. “But

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

turning away from me

thought you wanted to go with me.” His voice rises with each word,

the empty kitchen.

no ‘us’, Karl,” I murmur. “I’ve told you countless times before that it’s

between us.”

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

keeping me on a

And let’s not

wince at his words. The memory of our night right here

felt to have him close like