Page 35 of Blue Gold

His brows rose high, nearly reaching his hairline, before he stomped toward me and stopped right in my face, so close our shoes nearly bumped.

“So do it. Fire me.”

“Don’t tempt me,” I warned.

“Men like you… you’re all talk.”

“Watch it.”

Pressing his lips together, he breathed from his nose before jabbing his finger at my chest. “You’re a coward.”

Furious, I grabbed his hand. He tried resisting, but I was much stronger, and so I kept him close.

“A coward? Why? Because I have a sense of responsibility?”

“For not admitting that you want me right here!” he snapped and leaned closer until he was a breath away. “You want me here so bad it’s making you angry.”

My body tensed, and unsure of where to look, I settled for his eyes. Only the determination burning in them freaked me out, and panicked, I let go of his hand and drew back. With cold sweat covering my skin and my breath caught in my chest, I glared at him, my lips slightly parted. While I acted as if I’d just seen a ghost, or in this case, the truth, Elliot remained unfazed. Standing in the middle of the kitchen, his eyes lay on me; he didn’t even try to conceal his intentions.

It scared me. He scared me.

“You’re being inappropriate,” I rasped, my voice as weak as my morals.

“Daniel—”

“You’re here to work for me and my family and nothing more,” I cut him off before he could say another word that would make me do something I’d regret. Only it wasn’t enough, and somehow, I decided to push further. “And if you can’t do this job properly, I will find someone else who will.”

If I’d expected him to burst into tears, as he did the last time we fought back in his apartment, it didn’t happen. Instead, Elliot kept his face calm and collected before stepping back to his dough, making it clear that this conversation was over. To say I left the kitchen feeling worse than before would be an understatement, as I throbbed with rage. But it wasn’t just anger tearing me apart, but desperation. I was stuck in a situation I had no control over, and whenever I opened my mouth to speak, all I did was make things worse. And if there was one thing I feared more than Elliot working here, it was for him to leave and never return.

11

DANIEL

If I thought Elliot’s icy attitude would melt over the following days, I was miserably wrong. While he didn’t quit his job, as I feared he might have after our brief exchange of harsh words, he did give me the silent treatment. Needless to say, around Claudia and Maya, he acted business as usual, but when it was just us two? Dear Lord… Who knew he was capable of being this cold?

The longer he ignored me, the angrier I became. Unable to talk to anyone about it, the only thing left for me to do was to run out my frustrations. So, that was exactly what I did. For the past week, I woke up at four thirty every morning and went out for a ten-mile run. At first, it didn’t help me feel any better, but on the second day, I discovered a path that went right past the guesthouse where Elliot was staying. I noticed that every day—at 6:00 a.m. sharp—he would go out to the porch for a smoke. Since then, I made sure to pass by that spot daily and just watch him smoke. He had no idea that someone was secretly observing him from the bushes, and I assumed that was a good thing, considering I was behaving like a stalker.

Today was no different, and Elliot had just walked out for his morning cigarette. Already knowing where to stand to have the best view, I walked there slowly, careful not to make a noise, and positioned myself. Watching him smoke with his eyes closed filled me with a sense of calm, and I smiled to myself, thinking of how peaceful he looked.

The sound of a phone ringing made me tense on the spot, and I reached for my shorts pocket until I remembered I didn’t have my cell phone with me. Looking up, I saw Elliot picking up his cell phone, the one I’d bought him after he broke the first one.

Curious as to who was calling him at this hour, I moved a bit closer.

“Bonjour, Maman,” he said in French.

Mom. Thinking about it, Elliot had mentioned her a couple of times before. From the sound of it, those two were rather close.

“Oh no, you didn’t wake me. I was already up,” he said, snapping me back to his conversation.

“How am I doing? Fine, I guess.” He took a puff from his cigarette. “I still struggle with their stupid language, but oh well.” He chuckled before going quiet. Carefully taking another drag, he blew out the smoke with a deep sigh. “Everything and everyone is so different here… no matter what I do, I keep feeling like I’m in the wrong.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Anyway, enough about me. How’s Aloïs?”

Who’s that?

“Oh, great.” He took another drag. “I miss him so much.”

Again, who do you miss, Elliot?

“Tell him I said hey, okay?” he asked his mom before moving on to speaking about some recipe for chicken.