Page 129 of Masters of Pleasure
They watched him go in complete silence.
It wasn’t until he was gone, Nick felt something other than anger—a real and rising worry about where Avery ran off to.
ChapterTwenty-Two
Avery
Her phone wouldn’t stop ringing.First Nick, then the restaurant number, as if she wouldn’t realize it was still him.Then Alice’s cell phone.Then Olivia’s.Yeah, no way in hell was she answering that one right now.Even if she was pretty sure it wasn’t Nick—he was bad enough—but the idea of Olivia being on the other end made her soul shrivel.
Everyone should make you shrivel right now.
You ran out on your job.
You are supposed to be the sous chef who runs the kitchen when Nick isn’t there, and you ran away!
Why didn’t you point out that you were hired way before you and Nick started seeing each other?
Why didn’t you tell him you earned your place with your skill and work ethic, two things he doesn’t do as well as you?
Why didn’t you tell him it was none of his business?
Why didn’t you tell him if he worked as hard as you did, maybe one day, he could be a sous chef, but if he kept making up excuses why other people were ahead of him in their careers, he would never get anywhere?
Yeah, why didn’t you do that?That would have been a good one.
Why am I only thinking of all these options now instead of when they would have been useful?!
Screaming, Avery slammed her hands against her steering wheel, drawing a very odd look from the woman walking along the sidewalk in front of her.
“Sorry… sorry…” Avery shrank in her seat.This was what she got for driving to the nearest parking lot and pulling into a space that faced the sidewalk.
Maybe she should have gone home, but walking out on her job and going home felt more egregious than driving three blocks away and parking.Like, maybe she’d run out, but she hadn’t run as far as she could have.
Yeah, keep acting like that matters.
Pick up the phone, you coward, or you’re going to lose your job.
If she even had a job at this point.
She was sure her chances of keeping it were slipping through her fingers with every phone call she ignored, yet she couldn’t bring herself to pick up the phone or read the texts dinging between calls.
Do I even want to keep the job?How am I supposed to go back there and face everyone when they allknow?How can I command any kind of respect when they know I get on my knees for Nick?
In her position, she needed her coworkers’ respect.She could still see the sneer on Chad’s face, which had looked a lot like the disgust on Shannon’s face after Avery had tried to tell her about kink.She hadn’t dared look at Alice or Darnell, but she’d seen the shock on Sandra’s face as she’d rushed past.
From the dead silence in the room before she’d bolted, it was hard to believe the others weren’t coming to the same conclusions as Chad.Even if they hadn’t, running might have convinced them.
Why did you run?!You should have stood your ground!
Too late now.She’d have to deal with the consequences.Eventually.When she got the courage to pick up the phone.
Which might be never.
A new ringtone sounded—Lizzo’s ‘Good as Hell,’ which was so the opposite of what Avery was feeling right now, but the sound of it sent a surge of relief through her.It was Domi, Rae, or Iris.
Friends.
Real friends who wouldn’t judge her and who would understand what was going on.
