Bishop inhales a tremulous breath and says, “Don’t move back to Charlotte. We need you here. I need you here. I knew Orchid could never lose you the second I saw you up to your tits in chocolate.”
I should stop him right there, but I know it wouldn’t change a thing. He needs to get things off his chest. His massive, hard chest that still manages to look good, even if his lapels look slightly rumpled.
“Bishop.”
“Cherise.” His breath is rapid, and he looks a little bit feral. Still sexy, but not in a high-powered hotelier kind of way. More like a prehistoric man who wants to take me back to his cave and impregnate me. I don’t know why the image of caveman Bishop makes my body react so intensely, but it does. This chef jacket suddenly feels like a straight jacket. I want it gone.
That’s when I notice more details. His hair is missing its usual gel style. No pocket square. He’s either been up all night drinking or gambling. “Are you feeling okay? You need a glass of water? When was the last time you slept?”
“Cherise, I’ve been up all night.”
Here it comes; he’s still drunk from last night.
“I understand.”
“Do you? Do you understand that I’ve been up all night pacing around the halls trying to figure out how to tell you?”
I hate that I’ve been such an emotional burden to him, and I feel responsible.
“I’m sorry, I—“
“Stop apologizing and listen to me.”
“No!” I interrupt. “You listen to me! I’m not going back to Charlotte. I’m staying here. If you must know, I went back home to cancel the lease on our new condo. And to back out of a job waiting for me after the wedding. And to break it to my family that I’m staying in Las Vegas.”
“Were they upset?”
“No, strangely enough. They were all pretty happy to have me in Las Vegas to plan family vacations to visit me.”
I blink up at Bishop. Even out of sorts, he’s still so breathtakingly handsome. His hair is a little bit of a mess, and he could use a shower, but Bishop can still command attention from the room. He can still give me that strange pull below my navel.
I open my mouth to tell him I need to get back to work, but he’s not finished.
“Cherise. The timing isn’t important. I could have spent a thousand nights in a row wide awake, and it would be worth it just so I could tell you this. I love you. And more importantly, I’m in love with you. You can’t marry that guy.”
I squeeze my eyes shut at how deeply embarrassed I feel. “Why would you say that to me in front of the entire kitchen?”
Bishop huffs. “The fridge and the stove are not thinking of chiming in, I don’t think.”
Opening my eyes again to give him a quizzical look, I say, “How drunk are you?”
Bishop shakes his head. “Look around you right now.”
The entire kitchen crew has disappeared. I turn back to Bishop. “What did you do? Tell them to hide in the meat locker so you could have a moment alone with me?”
“They all just left as soon as you started shouting at me! I think they’re more scared of you than they are of me!”
I shift my weight from one foot to the other. “I am pretty bossy.”
I’m prepared even less for the next thing that comes out of his mouth, even less than the I love you that I’m still processing. “If you’re such a boss, why did you let that guy push you around for so long?”
This is not something I want to discuss at work, mainly because I don’t know the answer to that myself, but also because my physical reaction to the question is deflection. I should just tell him the truth, that I broke it off with Augie, but now I’m mad that we’re talking about this in public. Even if everyone is in hiding.
“Bishop. Here.” I scoot around to the grill and flip over a steak that someone has left on low, probably assuming I would never let it burn. They were correct. I drop some slightly overdone sunny-side-up eggs onto the steak and shove the plate at his chest. “Go to your room. Eat this. Shower. Sleep. Then, we’ll talk.”
His words come out shaky. “How can you be so pragmatic at a time like this?”
I take a step closer to him and confirm he hasn’t been drinking. At least, I can’t tell anything from the smell of him other than he smells a lot like the gamer convention we held here last summer and the air conditioning conked out.