Page 133 of Masters of Pleasure
Avery
“Gareth and Miles know, too?Miles isn’t even on tonight!”Avery’s voice rose into a kind of shriek.She could feel her friends all staring at her… but she was freaking out.It was bad enough the kitchen staff knew, but she’d hoped the rest of the restaurant wouldn’t find out.Vain hope, she knew, but at the very least, she hadn’t expected it to spread so fast.
“He knew a while ago, he told?—”
“And you didn’t tell me?”The guilt that had been eating her alive diminished as anger took hold.
“What good would it have done?They wouldn’t tell anyone, and you were already freaked out about people knowing?—”
“Yes, Nick, for exactly this reason!If I’d known someone had realized, I could have been better prepared.I might not have been blindsided tonight.We could have done something, so maybe Chad would have never even known!There’s a lot of good it could have done!”
“You’re saying if you’d known two managers, who wouldn’t tell anyone, knew you and I were dating, you wouldn’t have had to run away tonight?”
The way he said it made her feel as if he’d stabbed her in the heart.It was mocking, calling her out for the coward she was, but it hurt so much more than when she’d called herself the same thing.
“I’m saying I don’t know, but some kind of warning would have been nice!”
There was a long silence on the other end of the phone.Avery would have sworn she was cried out, but she still had tears left, which were filling her eyes.The ache in her chest intensified, and she rubbed at the spot as if she could somehow make it go away.
She knew he was disappointed and probably angry as well—and had every reason to be—but she also felt betrayed.They’d talked about how she hadn’t wanted anyone at the restaurant to know, and when Nick had found out someone knew, he kept it from her.
“I have to go.I have a shift I need to finish.We can talk about this later.”He didn’t even wait for her to say anything before he hung up.
Ouch.That spot on her chest felt as if it had been stabbed, as though fingers had wrapped around her heart, squeezing it painfully.
She wanted to say it had been below the belt but thought she deserved it.Shehadrun out on the shift and hadn’t gone back.She’d left the restaurant short-staffed on the busiest night of the week.The guilt would stay with her for a long time.That wasn’t the employee she wanted to be, the person she wanted to be.
She regretted staying away tonight, but she’d needed the space.Time to breathe and regroup before facing everyone who knew things about her, she really wished they didn’t.
“Hey, you okay?”Rae asked sympathetically, coming back into the room, Iris and Domi trailing behind her.They’d stepped away to give her a minute alone.
Avery nodded, then shook her head, her jaw clenched because she wasn’t sure she could talk about it without crying, and she really, really didn’t want to cry again tonight.Rae seemed to pick up on that.
“Okay, well, let us know when you’re ready to talk about it.In the meantime, Iris and I can keep arguing about spooning.”
Curiosity uncracked Avery’s jaw.
“Spooning?Why spooning?”
“Rae doesn’t enjoy being spooned.”Iris shrugged.“I like it.I get snuggled, then if I feel like getting it on, I wiggle my butt until I get the result I want.”
Rae snorted.“Sure, if that’s the result you want.If I’m getting into bed, it’s because I’m ready to go to bed.My sleeping cap is on, I’m tired, and if I lie down, I’m falling asleep.Then suddenly, boom, erection between my cheeks.No, thank you, Sir.If you wanted a piece of that, you needed to speak up before I turned off the lights.”
Even Avery joined in the laughter.Personally, she saw both sides.Sometimes it was fun to have the little snuggle that turned into something, but other times… yeah.She was exhausted and just wanted to sleep.Not that she’d had that issue lately—Nick wasn’t into waiting until they got into bed before he put the moves on her.
She sniffled again, and her friends eyed her, trying to decide if she was ready but stayed silent while Rae and Iris continued debating the merits and pitfalls of spooning while Domi refereed.Trying to pay attention, she giggled several times, but her mind kept moving to how Nick had sounded on the phone.
Mad—rightfully so.
Did she have the right to be mad?Maybe.Although she didn’t have as much to be angry about as he did.
Yes, he should have told her Miles and Gareth knew, but maybe it had been better he didn’t.Would it have really helped?Or would she have spent the past few weeks more and more anxious people would find out about them?She had a feeling it was the latter.
Instead, she’d had peace of mind while she and Nick grew closer.
Then blindsided by Chad.
Which would have happened anyway.There was no way she would have thought Chad would be the one to pick up on her and Nick’s relationship.She knew Gareth and Miles would have never told him.They spent some time with the back-of-house staff, but not much, and they weren’t friends with Chad.She didn’t know how he’d found out, but it hadn’t been through them.
