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After all, she’d had reservations about it from the very start. Her family had reservations. Maybe she and Marcus should’ve listened to all those warnings instead of being so blinded by excitement for their business. Her family loved both her and Marcus, so if they were warning against becoming partners, in business or romantically, it was for a reason.
The first day Marcus had asked her to be his consultant, she had told him it was a colossally bad idea. She had known back then. Maybe now that she was finally seeing around the excitement to discover that it was every bit of a colossally bad idea as she had feared, she shouldn’t keep going blindly forward.
Tomorrow was supposed to be her last day at work. Maybe it wasn’t too late for her to tell them that it was a mistake and ask if they would let her stay.
sixteen
MARCUS
Kleinman Terrace closed at eleven on Friday nights, but tonight, just like most Friday nights, they had a sharp slowdown at nine p.m. As he usually did when the orders slowed, Marcus started cleaning up the kitchen from the commotion of a very busy night and preparing for the last orders that would trickle in until closing time.
And trying not to think of Joselyn and how things had been feeling off about them, or about the way things had been feeling off about the entire Zimmerman family since they told them that he and Joselyn were business partners. Nate had texted them both to give an update on repairing the damages to the building and where they stood in the timeline, and Joselyn had responded to the text thanking him. That was the only text he had gotten from her all day. Over the past ten weeks, he didn’t think he had gone a day without fewer than a dozen texts from her.
Amid the cacophony of thoughts in his head, he had barely noticed that the kitchen had gotten quieter than it ever was when the restaurant was open. He was just wiping down the stainless steel counter when he heard singing coming from the door to the front lobby and turned. His sous chef, line cooks, prep cooks, soup and sauce cook, bartender, dishwasher, most of the servers, and the two owners were all filing through the door, holding a giant cake, and singingFor He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.
Warmth spread through his chest as he watched his co-workers— his friends— all gather around him and the head server place the cake on a stainless steel rolling cart right in the middle of the circle they were making.
“Wow. I am touched. I want to wrap you all in a giant bear hug!” There were too many people for one bear hug, of course, so he started shaking hands and clapping people on their backs while a few people passed out champagne glasses and someone filled them with sparkling cider— the Kleinman brothers had a very strictNo drinking while at workpolicy.
Once everyone had a glass in their hand, Kade Kleinman said, “To Marcus, who is on to exciting new things, but who will always be remembered as one of the best and friendliest executive chefs we’ve ever had.”
He held his glass up, and everyone shouted, “To Marcus!” and clinked glasses.
Max Kleinman held out his glass toward Marcus. “For a lot of reasons, we’re sure going to miss you around here. Well, all of us except maybe Dustin.”
Everyone laughed as Marcus put on his best hurt expression and turned toward Dustin.
“Oh, I’m going to miss you plenty, buddy, and I plan to frequent your ice cream establishment often. They’ve just softened the blow of you leaving by naming me your replacement.”
“That’s fantastic!” Marcus sat down his cup and wrapped his arms around his friend, then pulled back and shook his hand. “You’ll do great. This kitchen will run well when I’m gone.” He turned to the rest of the group. “Did someone open the back door and let the wind blow in? I think I might’ve gotten some dust in my eye.” To the laughs of the group, he pretended to wipe away a tear. In truth, though, he was getting choked up at the thought of leaving everyone there.
A few people had to rush out to take care of customers as someone cut the cake and they passed it out, and more and more people said their goodbyes and headed back to work. Once everyone trickled back to work, Marcus headed to his station and wiped down things a bit better as he glanced to see if more orders had come in.
Dustin came to stand near him, leaning against his counter. “So are you having second thoughts about the new business or are you just sad to leave us?”
Marcus looked up from straightening the bottles of olive oils and vinegars.
“I mean— don’t get me wrong— you looked like you enjoyed that sendoff. But when we weren’t distracting you with that, you’ve seemed pretty down.”
No orders had come through, so instead of trying to find something to occupy his hands, he just turned around and leaned against the counter next to Dustin. “You know that except for a couple of cousins who don’t live nearby and some extended family who live across an ocean, the Zimmermans are my only family.” He shrugged a shoulder. “Maybe I shouldn’t have asked Joselyn to be my business partner. Maybe I shouldn’t have started dating her. It had just felt so right! But now it feels like they’re pulling away. I’m afraid that if I’m not careful, I’m going to lose them all.”
“Is there evidence? Or is this all in your head?”
It was hard to explain the distance he was feeling from the Zimmermans. It was just something he recognized after being a quasi-member of their family for the past twenty years. So he stuck with the facts. “Everett stayed quiet about me asking Joselyn to be my business partner for a full week. Last Saturday when I was moving into his basement, he let me have it. He made me promise as a teen to never date her. I broke that promise then, and I broke it again now.”
“He’ll forgive you.”
Marcus shook his head. “He said what he was most hurt about was that, as my best friend, I didn’t even go to him when I was thinking of asking Joselyn to be my partner. He found out almost a week after the fact, and only when we told everyone else.” Marcus winced at the memory. “It wasn’t my best move ever. So I decided that I would give him a heads-up about me and Joselyn dating, too, since we hadn’t told the rest of the family yet.”
Looking back, that hadn’t been the best time to add one more thing for Everett to be upset about him not sharing. When he was downstairs in his new bedroom and Everett and Hannah were in their living room reading and chatting before bed, he could hear them through his vent. Not that he was home every night in time to hear them, but the two nights he was, he heard Everett working through his feelings of betrayal at being left in the dark and his worry for what it might mean for their family, along with Hannah’s attempts at convincing him it would all be okay.
At the sound of the order printer, Dustin twisted to grab the slip of paper from the machine. “You’ve been in love with Joselyn since well before I met you. If you ask me, I say you forget about the family and you two do your thing and not worry about what they think.”
Marcus shook his head. It wasn’t just about him giving up the family he loved. It wasn’t just that it would mean giving up his best friend. “This family isn’t like yours. I couldn’t do that to Joselyn.”
Dustin handed him the slip of paper containing the order he needed to prepare. “It sounds like you have a lot of thinking to do, then. Good luck, buddy.”
* * *
