Page 33 of The Chef

Why is she interrupting?

“Don’t keep going,” she replies blankly. “Don’t do this.”

“What do you mean?” I stutter, unable to mask my surprise.

“Babe, you don’t need to do this.”

“What?”

“You don’t need to do all this.” Cleo gestures around at the Champagne and the ring I am currently offering up to her. “You can stop now, babe.”

I can’t help but stammer. “I’m proposing to you.”

“Oh, I can see that, and I’m saying no.”

What.

My heart stops.

She’s saying no?

“I don’t believe this.”

Cleo starts to laugh. She barely laughs at anything, so it’s an unusual sight to see. “This is silly,” she says.

“What is?” I’m still on my knee, unable to process what’s going on.

“All of this. It’s all very silly, babe. It’s all very… sincere.” Cleo laughs again.

“What’s so funny? I am sincere, I’m trying to propose.”

“You’re funny. You’re so emotional, babe. Of course, I’m not going to marry you, you’re far too emotional for me. All this, the champagne and the ring and the little speech you have prepared, it’s all just too earnest. You’re such a little boy.”

“What?”

“Can’t you see our relationship has been something more of a mutual benefit than something deeper? It was all for the Instagram likes, for the celebrity of it. For your family and my modeling career. If you’re going to act like this then I’m not prepared to go any further.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Oh, you thought this was something deeper? I get it now. Oh, babe, you’re such a little boy. I thought you understood what was going on, but it turns out you don’t.”

She laughs again, turns, and heads towards the hotel door.

“Where are you going?” I ask, blinking again. I’m still unable to comprehend what’s happening.

Cleo spins to face me, still laughing. “Oh, this is over, babe. You and me. Us. It’s over,” she says as she heads out of the suite. “You’re just too much for me.”

And then she was gone.

Cleo Dash walked out on my life.

And that was the last time I saw her. We never spoke again.

And now I read she’s going to be the new star of the Vindicator Team, no longer just an international supermodel, now she’s going to be the new face of the blockbuster film series?

Great way to rub it in.

I flew back home from Paris the next day after the failed proposal, devastated. I flew back to New Water, to where I was born and raised. Far away from the bright lights of the capital cities of Europe. I needed to lay low and lick my wounds. I took over the management of Rockpool and decided to hide away.