Chasing His Kickass Luna Back by Jane Above Story

Abby

Vanessa walks up to me, her heels clicking softly on the tile floor. The room

slowly begins to pick up its volume again, but I feel lost in a giant void.

“Are you okay, Abby?” Vanessa asks, her voice pulling me back to the present.

“I-I’m fine,” I murmur, although the words feel like a complete and utter lie. “I’m

sorry. I didn’t mean to cause a scene.” I glance at Karl, who’s standing a few

feet away, watching intently.

Vanessa smiles, a soft, empathetic curve of her lips that immediately puts me at

ease. “Don’t be sorry. The culinary world isn’t exactly a bed of roses for women,

you know? We’re already at a disadvantage just by being female chefs.”

Enter title…

shouldn’t be the case,” I find myself saying, a hint of bitterness in

and talent should be

nods, her eyes meeting mine with a look

right. But sometimes the world doesn’t

as though contemplating whether

“Let

a nearby table, crossing her

ago, when I was climbing my way up the ladder, there

call him Mark—who couldn’t stand

him in the kitchen, mind you, but simply because I

black woman

horrible,” I say, my heart sinking at the thought

discrimination.

but that’s not even the beginning of it,” Vanessa says, her

grim tone.

during a critical review from a food critic, Mark sabotaged

herbs I’d prepped

dish. The critic got sick.

“Did

nods. “He did. At the time, nobody believed that he could do