She couldn’t lie. Not to Kyle. “Fine. That’s what best friends do…and whatever else we’ve become. A couple? I don’t know. But it doesn’t matter now. Something happened tonight that sealed my fate, and it’s time for you to know everything.”
Telling him the story didn’t make it less of a train wreck. Her emotions were as dangerous and volatile as a boiling stew on the stove. When she finished, he shook his head.
“You have no idea how sorry I am,” he said hoarsely, the first crack in his normally confident demeanor. “I thought having Flaubert come by would help, not hurt. I wanted you to have your star at Nanine’s. I wanted it for Nanine and our roommates and for everyone who’s worked so hard for it.”
She stood silently, hurting in the wake of how much pain was pulsing between them.
“But we deal with what we have. Dassault will do what he will. We can’t control that. Does it suck? Big-time. Is it horribly unfair? You bet. But I’ll do everything in my power to minimize the damage to Nanine’s and you. I will do better by you and for you. I promise.”
The burn in her eyes was back. “Kyle?—”
“Mad, I know you’re going to say you need to move to another restaurant so you can pursue your star.”
“Did you not hear what he told me?” She slashed her arm through the air. “I know bullies. Dassault is dead serious. I’m on his shit list. At this point, I’m just hoping Dassault won’t be able to blackball me from the entire culinary industry. Kyle, he said he’d ruin me and anyone who helped me.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“When have you ever known me to be ridiculous?” she shot back. “In my old neighborhood, when a guy said something like that, he made calls. Word got around. That’s how it’s going to be here. Don’t you remember how it was before? No big critics came to Nanine’s after Dassault doubled down. Nanine was lucky Bernard could afford to buy the building because who knows what Dassault might have pulled otherwise.”
He compressed his mouth before saying, “Sure, he’s got sway, but you have presided over the meteoric rise to fame of an already famous Parisian restaurant. Your reputation is strong and well established in the public eye.”
She wished she could believe it. The culinary world was a boys’ club, and the men at the top with Michelin stars were a tight clique. They stuck together. They wouldn’t appreciate that she’d ordered someone like Dassault out of her restaurant. Especially because she was a woman. There were men who would want to make an example of her. “I’m not so sure. I have a fight ahead. Of that I am certain.”
“I’ll be beside you wherever you feel is best for your career.”
That he didn’t hesitate hurt like no physical injury ever could. “I can’t ask that of you, Kyle. I love you too much.”
He closed the distance between them and lifted her chin, gazing down at her with so much love she had to bite her lipto fight back tears. “You didn’t ask. I’m offering. I’m going to hate leaving Paris, but?—”
“You can’t leave Paris! Everything you’ve worked for and wanted is here.”
“You’re my family now.” He cupped her cheek with aching tenderness. “You asked what Operation Kyle was when we first started. Well, I figured it out. I want a home, a real home. Where people love each other and listen to each other and laugh together and support each other no matter what. I’vealwayswanted that, and I want it with you, Pierre, and Spike, and anyone else we want in our lives. So don’t you dare tell me you’re getting rid of me because of what happened tonight.”
He didn’t understand what he was giving up. “You’re the head of The Paris Roommates Group. We have businesses here. You’re starting a new restaurant with my mentor, for heaven’s sake! You can’t just up and leave.”
Dassault could ruin him too if he joined her. He could try to ruin her entire Paris family.
“I’ve managed businesses remotely before,” he said with that same determined glint in his blue eyes. “What else do you have as an argument?”
He was cutting her legs out from under her. “I won’t have time for you. You know how tough it is starting in a new restaurant.”
“We made it work here,” he quickly added, feathering back her hair with a gentle touch. “We’ll do it again. 12:01 a.m., remember? Next?”
She had to push him back and give herself some space. “You’re not thinking things through. You don’t know what you’re talking about giving up.”
He let her step back, but he didn’t let her look away. “Mad, there’s nothing you can say that’s going to make me back down. We’re in this forever, you and me. That’s why Ishowed you the ring. It’s corny, but a diamond means forever.”
“God, why can’t you let me be noble here! I want to smack you. Kyle, I need to get my star if I still can. I couldn’t live with myself if I gave up on it. I don’t know what I’m facing now after what happened tonight. I might need to pull out of The Paris Roommates Group officially.”
“I’m fine with silent partners,” he countered. “We might need to change the name anyway when we franchise. Do you have any idea how many chefs have reached out to me about creating a restaurant? I figure launching you in a new one makes sense if you feel you have to leave Nanine’s, which I know you’re doing to be noble.”
She almost grabbed him by the lapels. He wasn’t listening.
“Where do you want to open it? Madrid? Rome? I like those cities. You tell me, and we’ll make it happen. Fuck Dassault. You’re winning that star, and I’m going to be beside you when you do. Wherever you want to live.”
Why wouldn’t he just let her go? “Don’t you get it? If you side with me, you could be a pariah too. It could hurt The Paris Roommates Group and our friends. I won’t let you do that, Kyle. Right now, it doesn’t sound tough, but I know what it’s like to be alone with everyone around you determined to see you fail. You’re not built for it. You’ve been the Golden Boy your whole life. Look at how personally you’ve taken tonight. This new situation could ruin what you believe about yourself.”
He tried to gather her against his chest, but she stepped further away. “Mad, you’re not making any sense. Sure, I had a low moment, but I know who I am, and so do you. We’ll face what comes together.”
