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CHAPTER 1

Charlotte

My fingers clench around the Mason jar, hands tre, the second he steps foot into the restaurant supply store where I just started working this

Christian Cherry, celebrity chef and owner of the hottest restaurant in town, not to mention that he stars on his own TV show on the Food Network

I feelto the cold ce into a thousand pieces

Alexa, who’s training hs audibly “You can clean that up when you’re done”

“I’et a mop and bucket out of the back, and I’ll pay for it out of my pocket” By out of my pocket I mean my first paycheck, because my pockets are as dry as the Sahara Desert

“Don’t worry about it,” she says, clearly a bit worried and annoyed “You need to learn hoork the register anyway Now’s a good a time as any We just opened and this is as empty as we’ll be all day”

“But it’s not hten as I fuss withthis afternoon”

“Come on, It’s easy Plus he’s just here to pick up an order He’ll be in and out as quickly as he taps his Apple pay against the terh “Why were you putting the cold brew in the toaster?”

“Huh? I wasn’t I was…” I look and see she’s right Everything else I’ve done thishas been correct, but the moment I saw Christian my mind completely froze “I had the toaster open for the paninis”

“Ok”

“Anybody here?” Christian says, and I can hear his foot tapping froiant cheesecloth which separates the registers from the back room so he can’t exactly make us out, but I’m sure he can see the shape of us, and probably the nervousness in my voice

I follow Alexa to the front, taking in Christian as he’s looking off to the side, obviously annoyed and more obviously in a rush