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

with Karl, the se rvants

leftovers.

as well tell me, Abby.” Karl finally breaks the silence, his voice

me, and probably has been for

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

to know. Why

the knife down, my eyes meeting his. There’s no

band-aid now. “Okay, fine,” I

finalists to compete to cater

a fraction of a second before his expression smooths over into something I

right now. “That’s great,

had

this time—that he’d prefer that I go to

instead of catering it.

sound like you mean it,” I pr od,

I said I’m proud of you,” he retorts, clearly

but your tone says otherwise. What’s going

a hand through his hair. “Look, I wanted to go

sort of ruins

of response from him, I’m still

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

instead of making it about

upset because you wanted to go

Abby. The Alpha party is a big

mine. “And besides, you promised. Or did you

didn’t forget,” I

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

says, turning away from me for a moment. “But what about us?

to you too? I thought you wanted to go with me.” His voice rises with each

the empty kitchen.

no ‘us’, Karl,” I murmur. “I’ve told you countless

between us.”

you, though?” His voice is low and strained,

me on a string this whole time, giving me vague promises

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

our night right here in this kitchen whirls through

me of how it felt to have him