Grace Crowe was in my family restaurant.
She laughed heartily while cameras clicked behind her. “Oh I got you good! You should see your face.” “Mrs Crowe what a...wonderful surprise.” What are you doing here and why do you have an army of photographers? I thought. “I know right!” she walked to me hands stretched and enveloped me in a hug while I stood, shocked. Cameras clicked again. Our customers wore several expressions of awe, discomfort or confusion. I needed to act before our restaurant was turned into a circus show. “I just thought I would pay you a little visit, since you said you were working, “ she spoke alternating her attention between me and the camera crew. “Her family owns this restaurant. They make one of the best foods in Cali. Absolutely delicious” She kissed her fingers and smiled at the crowd. What was happening? “Mae Ricci, how long have you been seeing Ethan Crowe?” a man with a microphone asked. “Were you having a secret affair with Ethan Crowe while he was dating Ava Williams?” a lady asked from the back, I could barely see her face. A barrage of questions followed. “How did you manage to keep your relationship with Ethan a secr-“ “Is your relationship with Ethan Crowe a social media stunt?” “Why does Ethan let you work in a place like this?” “Is the ring you’re wearing a gift from Ethan?” “is it an Engagement ring?” “Well of course it is!” Grace laughed. “You can settle in, try some of their menus, I need to have a little girl talk, with her, okay?” “Will you be talking about an engagement party?” “Should we be expecting a wedding?” I broke out of my daze when Grace tugged on my hand. “Come on dear.” Right. Girl talk. I led her to dad’s office. A second after I shut the door, she groaned and smacked her forehead. I really had no idea what to say to her, how did you react to rich people showing up with their own movie crew? “Mae, I am so sorry, when I had this brilliant idea I didn’t think they would be this many.” “What brilliant idea?” “Publicity, for your restaurant.” She responded, regret on her face.”You said you were working, and I didn’t want you to think that I judge you, or don’t accept you, because we’re from different social class. So I told TWO news companies that I was stopping by, to see my future daughter in-law, I guess word got out and here we are. “I was being very impulsive, I know. but I had good intentions I promise, sometimes I forget how intense reporters can be. I didn’t think it would get to this, it was supposed to be a little thing.” “It’s not a big deal.” I lied. “We’ll just have to get rid of them, how hard can that be?” She look at me with pity. Like she knew some secret I didn’t. “Wait here,” I ordered. She nodded bleakly and pulled out her phone, typing into it rapidly. “I’ll see what I can do to fix things.” I put my game face on as I matched to the middle of the drama. From the window, I spied a man interviewing Mrs Cassandra, and the barber that worked two shops away. This was crazy. “Miss Ricci, when did you first meet Ethan?” “Are the both of you a love match?” “Why did he keep a secret all this time?” I waved my hands in an attempt to get silence. “I understand that you have a lot of questions, but this is private property, and if you have no intentions of settling down for a meal, then I have to ask you to leave.” The voices around me grew in tempo drowning my voice out. “Please leave.” I tried again. The workers who hung around followed my lead urging the reporters to exit the restaurant. A few remained occupying the empty seats that remained. Lisa pulled me off to the side. “Mae I think you should leave. You can’t serve those jerks out there and as far as I’m concerned they won’t leave unless you and Mrs Crowe leaves.” I glanced around considering it. my presence here was doing more harm than good. “We can manage.” She assured me. I sighed in defeat. I needed to get home anyway. If they were here, I would certainly find them at home. I didn’t want mum and dad dealing with them on their own. As I returned to dad’s office I whipped off my apron. “We need to leave.” Grace put a hand over her phone.”You should go back home, I’ll do the same. Hopefully tomorrow this whole thing blows over...” “Of course, I am really sorry.” I started to assure her that it was okay but my phone vibrated from the small purse sewn into my apron. I answered my Brother’s call on the second ring. “Mae! Christ, things are crazy.” He was back from school already. “I know.” “They’re trying to interview people. Jerry told em to fuck off. But I don’t think they’ll be leaving anytime soon. I dunno if I should call the cops. Dad isn’t doing great with this.” What have I gotten myself into. Dating Ethan was supposed to make our lives better, not turn it completely upside down. Grace watched me, guilt written on her face. “I’ll be home in thirty minutes oka-“ “You’re coming here? Much as I love you, I think you should hunk down somewhere else. If you come home, they’ll follow you here.” He had a point. But I wanted to be near dad, and know that he was okay, that I wasn’t hurting him. I heard a knock through the phone, and then mum’s voice. “I told you, we don’t want to talk, please go away or I will call the cops.” “Mum stop talking to them” Miles answered her. “ I’ll call you later Mae. He said and hung up. “Where am i supposed to go?” I said , stunned. “that’s easy, you come with me.” Grace offered. I got you into this mess I might as well help in some way. Please. Come home with me.“I promise they wouldn’t dare trespass on our property,” Grace continued, when I remained mute.“Alright.” I said defeated. A look of triumph crossed her face.“Let me handle them when we go outside, okay? No need for you to say anything.” I nodded.When we exited the office, I led the way to the kitchen in search of Lisa. I found her kneading sourdough while chatting with Manuel, one of our servers. She stopped, focusing her attention on me when I stopped in front of her.“We’re leaving now. I can’t go home though, because...” I gestured wildly in the direction of the dining area. “I’ll be going with Grace instead. On the off chance that Miles calls the restaurant line before I call him, let him know my plans.”She nodded repeatedly. ”I understand. Please be safe.”That task completed, we headed out.A number of the reporters in the restaurant rushed to their feet when they spotted us. “Miss Ricci...Mrs Crowe!” they started. I forced their voices out of my head.“Sorry you guys.” Gra
I waited by the door of Grace’s walk-in closet while she rooted around for a dress for me. The room was huge, just as or even bigger than my own room. I imagined having all this space for clothes, what a luxury it was.“aha!” Grace exclaimed . In her hand was a collared cashmere dress with a dark spring green color. She dropped it into my hands.“I don’t know why I bought the dress-I guess I just liked it. But then I wore it and well…it wasn’t flattering on my figure -H-cup problems- but I think it’ll look great on you. Small sized girls are always so lucky. And now to your room.”The room we walked into was nothing like I expected, gray began where black ended, whoever designed the room, must have not wanted the joy of light filtering through. I hoped it would look better with the curtains pulled open, A little sunlight always made things better.That thought died in my head when Grace pulled the blinds away. It looked even worse in daylight.“This used to be my son’s room-he’s
I sucked in a sharp breath, his words stir fanning my desire for him. Oh, he had my full attention too.“From now on, I will be at the helm off all your actions. You are not to make move in respect to our arrangement without my explicit approval. I don’t want you having side missions like the one you pulled off today.”That was the kind of attention he meant. I felt a sting of disappointment, and then irritation at myself for feeing that way.“I’ve told you already Ethan I didn’t plan for this.” I answered curtly. To my indignation, he smirked. “Moving forward, what adjustments were you talking about?”God I wished he would back away from me He was so close I could feel the warmth of his body on my skin. I crossed my hands over my breasts, to put an extra barrier between us.“For one, you’re quitting your job. I can’t have my future wife waiting tables, it’s unseemly.”I blocked the word ‘future wife’ from my mind, and focused on the problem. “You can’t make me quit.”“and why
After he had gotten a charger for me, we headed down to the kitchen. I memorized our journey down, so I could make my way back up when I needed to.“Why not have sign boards?” I asked in the kitchen.“The house isn’t that big.” His eyes darted to me, as if he was deciding if he should say more or not.“When I was old enough to be unsupervised, I would use markers on the bottom of the walls to help me find my way around. Then they would paint over them whenever Grace wanted a new feel of the house and I would have to start over, it was a game of sorts. There’s not a lot of adventure to have when you’re the only kid in a big house.”I could picture a boyish version of him, walking around alone, trying doors just like I did and marking them up.“Of course I grew out of it. A year in and I knew most of the house like the back of my hand.” He cleared his throat gruffly. “Do you remember the directions?”“I think it’s pretty solid in my head, thank you.”“My pleasure. The kitchen is
Plates clanked against each other as we took generous portions of the different dishes. Grace took the first bite. Her brows lifted in surprise when the flavors of the carprese burst on her tongue.“Mae, this is absolutely delicious! You mean to tell me you make food like these every day in the restaurant?”I twirled pasta onto my fork. “Basically, although, I have to say that the food was so much better when my dad was in charge, he had a touch no one could replicate.”“Why isn’t he running the place anymore?” Benjamin asked as he chewed.“About two years ago, He had his first heart attack. We…started meds , that sorta thing and uhh… the heart attack triggered a heart failure, and then he got cardiac arrest which scared the living sh-we were terrified.” I laughed sadly. “We made it so that he would stay at home more, get enough rest, so he doesn’t do much nowadays.”I was such a Debbie Downer. Everyone looked at me with sympathy. My cheeks heated.“I think he should still cook.
I had no desire to wake up the next morning. The thought of leaving the room to face Grace, Benjamin or Ethan’s granddad was very unappealing, but the clock hit ten, I was starving, and knew it would be rude by courtesy rules to avoid them for longer, so I took a shower, used an opened toothbrush I found in the cabinets, and headed down. The kitchen was empty, so was the library and living room. I didn’t know where else to check so I just stood there lost in thought“Are you looking for Ethan?” I heard Grace call behind me. My cheeks flushed, as if I had been caught red-handed being bad.“Yeah, I don’t know if he left last night.”“No, he left very early this morning.”“Oh, thanks.”We stood in awkward silence.“I’m sorry for how he acted yesterday,”She brushed it off immediately. “…Happens more often than I would like” she admitted, “I guess I deserve it, I wasn’t the ideal mother.” I willed her to say more. “You’re still in that dress, I’ll have to find something else for yo
I paused for a second, rethinking my decision. Was it important that I looked her up? What was the advantage of knowing about her, vs. remaining in the dark? At the end, my curiosity won.Silently I typed Ava’s name into my phone and hit search. The pictures that popped up forced my jaw to drop. Ava Williams was not simply beautiful; she was super-model stunning, which made a fitting career for her. Popular brands popped on the screen the more I scrolled. I felt a pang of jealousy when I saw a picture of her and Ethan during a red carpet event. She was smiling up at him in a breathtaking dress that matched her skin tone, giving the illusion of bareness. A delicate hand was resting on his chest, as she smiled at the camera. The headline had called them the power couple of the century. I didn’t understand why Ethan did not just wed her. They both came from the same social class, she had a thriving career and complimented his good looks with hers. Independent- Right...that was it. Ava Wi
I know he wanted to talk. We could not stay outside, in case they were reporters around, nor did I think it was smart to stay anywhere close to my father, that left one possible choice.“Come with me” I said and pointed a thumb towards the stairs. He gave a curt nod and followed silently behind me as I led him to my room.If I thought Ethan in the living room was an invasion, then him, in my bedroom was so much worse. I couldn’t help but be hyper aware of all his movements. The way his eyes roamed over the contents on my dressing table before he leaned on it, the colorful fashion designs I had pinned on my walls and the general disorder that was my bedroom.“You didn’t use the card.” He said gruffly, his face set in a scowl.“I needed a break today. You said the gala is not till the weekend so, I reckon I still have time to find something to wear.“He nodded. “And the documents?”“I’ll send them to your email this evening.” I began to feel mild irritation. He could easily ask me those