Page 55 of Thank you, Next
Will didn’t connect with Alex for the next few days. The run-up to opening a restaurant was all-consuming, and he didn’t think much of it for the first two days. They texted about a few things, but he found himself checking his phone whenever he had a minute to breathe, hoping to hear from her.
He didn’t like how they’d left things when April had shown up at his place, but there were so many decisions to be made that he was dead tired when he returned to his place for three or four hours of sleep every night.
What was so frustrating was that he knew what she was doing. He knew she was afraid that he would disappear on her, like almost everyone else in her life had. But he couldn’t make her share her feelings instead of putting up a wall.
But they would have to talk about that after the opening of the restaurant, which was tonight. He was able to push his uncertainty about his relationship with Alex out of his mind as he oversaw the work in the kitchen. He was extremely proud of the team they’d put together and the menu they’d created.
When he walked through the kitchen to get to his office to check his phone one more time, he caught Charlee’s eye. They handed off their prep to one of the other cooks and followed him.
“You okay, boss?” They looked concerned for him, and he didn’t want to say that he was agitated about a girl. That would be pretty fucking pathetic, but there he was.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” He nodded toward the kitchen. “How is Diaz working out on sauces?”
Charlee crossed their arms over their chest. “It’s Alex, isn’t it?”
“What about Alex?” Will knew he wasn’t going to get away with not talking about it, but he was still going to try. “Don’t you have work to do? We are opening a restaurant tonight.”
Charlee looked back to the kitchen. “Everything will be fine for a minute. They all know what they’re doing.”
Will leaned against his desk. “I had better go check with the bar. Neither of us has worked with this sommelier before.” Because they’d always worked with April. “I want to make sure that they ordered enough prosecco for that silly signature drink they recommended.”
“Oh, so April interfered.” Will had no idea how Charlee had intuited that from him mentioning checking on the bar, but they did. “That’s why Alex made a weird face when we were at dinner the other night.”
“You got dinner with Alex?” Will didn’t even know that Alex and Charlee were friends. They’d never said two words to each other until that night at James Faherghty’s house.
“Well, I’m dating her best friend, so yeah.”
So Alex had time for dinner with her best friend, but no time to text him back. He didn’t know why he was so upset about this. He and Alex hadn’t even dated that long. There was so much shared history that it would be challenging for her to ghost him on their romantic relationship. But that didn’t mean that she wasn’t running scared and trying.
That didn’t mean that he didn’t like Charlee and Jane together. If he were the type to fix people up, he might have thought of the two of them. “I like Jane. She’s good people.”
“Yeah, she is. And a total babe.” Charlee smiled at him with a shit-eating grin.
Will shook his head. “We gotta get back to work.”
As they turned to walk out the door, Charlee said, “You’re going to work things out with Alex, right? It’s the only way we’ll get to go on double dates.”
“I mean, that’s really up to her.” Will didn’t like it, but he’d hooked up with a woman who had just as many communication issues as he had. “She’s the one who can’t tell me how she feels.”
“One of you is going to have to bend,” Charlee said.
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
•••
Alex was embarrassed. That was the crux of why she hadn’t talked to Will very much this week. Her petty jealousy about a visit from his ex-wife was not a good reason to throw a fit. And she knew Will. They’d grown close enough that deep down she was sure that he would never do anything to hurt her intentionally.
When she showed up at the opening of his restaurant, with Lexi, there were some photographers outside. He’d canceled the red carpet—that just wasn’t Will’s style—although there was also a photographer inside snapping pictures of celebrities.
Over the past few days, she’d missed the kinds of growls and glares that Will could give when he was mad. She hated that she was the one to put distance between them, but she’d had to think.
One night, she’d gone over to Jane’s house for dinner. Jane had a kitchen that would make Nancy Meyers green with jealousy, but Charlee had done the cooking. It was always hit or miss when Jane did the cooking. The hits were delicious, but the misses sometimes required the fire department or Pepto-Bismol.
Looking at Charlee and Jane together made Alex crave the same easy closeness with Will. It also made her doubt whether they would ever have it. It seemed like one of them was always running from the other. Did that mean that it wasn’t real or sustainable?
Alex wanted things to work, but she also doubted whether she had it in her.
When they got inside the restaurant, their table—which Will had specifically told the front of the house belonged to them—was still occupied. Alex and Lexi waited at the bar. There was a signature cocktail, a twist on an Aperol spritz, that tasted great. The bar also allowed Lexi to hold court. It was easier to walk up to a celebrity to ask for a picture there than when they were sitting at a table.