Tasteless (18 page)

“It’s about something else,” Sam said sternly.  “Specifically what I meant to talk to you about at our last press event.”

“Oh,” Rye said, as if she had only just remembered.  “Oh yeah, okay.  Have a seat.”

“It’s better if we talk alone.”

Rye agreed, following Sam back towards the kitchen and out the back door.  It was so dark out that he could feel his pupils dilating, struggling to adjust.  The stars above him served as the only light other than the faint ones coming from the frosted back windows of the kitchen.  He could still hear the liveliness of the dining room – all the happy customers and sounds of a successful opening.

Sam lifted a hand to her face, cupping it gently as he brought his lips to hers.  He kissed her softly before pulling away.

“I’m confused,” she blurted out.  “Is this it?”

“I need you to know how much I care about you.”

“You could’ve just told me,” Rye smiled.

“I don’t fully understand the feelings I have for you, Rye,” Sam said.  “All I know is that I’ve never felt it before and they’re strong enough for me to take seriously.”

“Sam,” Rye shook her head.  “If you told me this earlier…”

“I know.  Before Jeremy or whatever.  That’s not the point right now.”

“Then what is?”

“I need you to know that it’s because I care about you that I’m about to tell you what I’m going to tell you,” Sam said, tightening his grip on her waist.  “And that I’d have no reason to make anything like this up.”

“What is it?” Rye asked.  She swallowed, looking up at him with cautious anticipation.

“Your dad is about to sell the restaurant,” he replied.  “And I think the only reason why your mother and sisters are suddenly so cozy with everyone again is because they’re in some financial trouble and they need the money that will come from the sale.”

“You
think?” Rye said, pulling from his arms and crossing her own.  “And why exactly do you think that?”

“Just some things that Gemma told me… plus some suspicions I’ve already had about them.  You can’t tell me you didn’t think about how weird or coincidental it is that they only decided to hang out with you again when the restaurant started the renovation.”

“They’re my
family,
Sam,” Rye exclaimed.  “We may have had some differences and some trouble in the past but that’s how family works – we end up together again.  And we’re happy about it.”

“I admit that the thing about your sisters and mom is kind of still just a theory right now,” Sam said.  “But I know for sure that your father is selling the restaurant to a parent company that plans on kicking you out.”

“What?” Rye laughed, shaking her head.  “Why would they do that?”

“Because they’re just buying the Somerville name and not any of the Somervilles themselves,” Sam explained.  “All they want is a brand that’s loosely about family and a restaurant that’s high end in order to boost their own portfolios.”

“How about you?” Rye lifted an eyebrow.  “Do you get to stay onboard?”

“That’s the thing,” Sam continued.  “Your dad said that they only plan on keeping one of us on board because they’re bringing in their own team.”

“Oh okay, I get it,” Rye exhaled, her lips curling into a bitter smile.  “You’re trying to convince me that my family is out to get me so I’ll jump ship and you can stay on board.”

“No!” Sam yelled.  “I’m doing the opposite of that.  I’m trying to warn you so that you don’t get screwed over.”

“And why should I trust you over my own family?” Rye asked.  “I’ve only known you for a few months and before that, all you were to me was another one of those skirt-chasing, womanizing reality show winners with a reputation for being reckless.  I’ve known my family my whole life.”

“And have you ever known them to be the suddenly doting people they are now?”

“Okay, stop,” Rye closed her eyes, holding her hands up.  “I guess I understand you wanting to save your own ass after putting so much time into this restaurant, but I would appreciate it if you stopped making my family out to be such awful people.”

“They
are
awful people,” Sam exclaimed.  “Do I have to remind you that your father didn’t even bother telling you that he was demolishing the restaurant?”

“As I recall, you had a chance to tell me but didn’t either.”

“Which is why I’m telling you what I know now,” Sam sighed, running his hand over his hair as he looked down at Rye.  “I want you to know you can trust me.”

“I think I feel better
not
trusting you,” Rye said.  “And I think I would feel
even
better if we stopped pretending to be friends now.  I should have known from the beginning.  I watched you manipulate all our vendors into giving you what you want.  You know your mind games, and congrats – you’re quite good at them.  But I’m not falling for this.  I’m happier than I’ve been in a very long time and I’m not going to let some egomaniac take that away from me.”

She turned on her heel, ignoring Sam as he reached for her.  He watched as she disappeared back into the restaurant.

~

“I definitely don’t like the part about him kissing you again,” Jeremy said, stripping down to his boxers before crawling into Rye’s bed.  “But he might not be lying about your dad selling the restaurant.”

“How could you say that?” Rye asked.  “Didn’t you listen to anything I just said?”

“I listened to
everything
,
” he replied.  “But as a reporter at Taste Buddies, I get a lot of exclusive leads and I did recently receive a tip about the Richmond-Gregory group being in the process of acquiring a restaurant near their new resort.”

“So?” Rye said, changing into her favorite pajama rompers before sitting down on the bed.  “It’s not like we’re the only restaurant in the area.”

“It’s something to consider,” he replied.  “Especially because it seems like too much of a coincidence.”

“My father would’ve told me if he were planning on selling,” Rye said.  “We’ve spent more time together these past few weeks than we have in ages.  I would have noticed if something was up.”

“I don’t know about that.  You’re not nearly as intuitive as you seem to think you are,” Jeremy replied, plopping down on one side of the bed.  “It took you twenty years to figure out that I was interested in you.  And it all only happened because I pretty much said it straight out.  Besides, you’ve always kind of had these blinders about your family.”

“I just told you how angry it made me when Sam was talking shit about my family so you better not start.”

“Okay,” Jeremy replied.  “But I also know your family a whole lot better than Sam does.  I was practically one of the Somervilles if you don’t recall.  And you guys were never this close happy family you always seemed to think you were.”

“I want to believe that my family has changed,” she began slowly.  “Because now that
I’ve
changed as much as I have, I know that it’s possible.”

Chapter 11

As Rye flitted around the dining room of the brand new, officially up and running Somerville Diner, she was suddenly thankful for the renovations they made.  There was no longer an open kitchen and the partition was exactly what she needed to keep a distance from Sam, even when they were working in the same building.  Without Jeremy and her family there as buffers, she was running out of excuses to ignore Sam and he remained as persistent as ever.

Luckily, the opening week was busy enough that he rarely had a chance to leave the kitchen.  Warner had flown back to Los Angeles, but he was scheduled to come back the next week.  Before he left, Rye had given him every opportunity to tell her of a sale, but he never came close to mentioning one.  All he did was talk about how excited he was for their renewed restaurant and how soon it would be before they were all living the lives they had always dreamed of.

She fell into her new routine of walking over from the house and changing from her dusty sneakers and casual wear into a more presentable suit and heels, an outfit that Gemma had gifted her on the day of the opening.  And with every day that passed, she got so used to not speaking to Sam that he no longer felt like the person he once was to her.

After her first full week at the restaurant, Rye’s new life once again felt mundane.  Jeremy was back at work and though they occasionally spoke on the phone, it didn’t quite feel like a relationship.  It was as if they had fallen into their old habit of being just friends.  Her brothers had gone back to their busy lives and her sisters and mother were once again returning her texts with only one-word responses.  The regulars at the old Somerville Diner never came back, as Rye had hoped they would.  She should’ve known that would be the case, considering the new and younger crowd that now frequented the place.

On Saturday morning, before she went into the restaurant to meet their first brunch crowd, Rye sat alone in her bedroom staring at her phone.  It was her birthday and she hadn’t gotten any midnight texts from anyone about it, not even Basil who
shared
the same birthday.  It was something her family used to do when they all lived under one roof, rushing into the birthday boy or girl’s bedroom and waking them from their sleep at the stroke of midnight.  It got to a point where they just stayed up, knowing what was coming.  It helped that there were two multiple births in the family so that it only happened three times a year, instead of six.

At 7am she got a text from Mariana, wishing her a “happy birthday to my future daughter-in-law.”  Soon after came Jeremy’s text, apologizing for Mariana before wishing her a happy birthday as well.  She waited another half an hour, only to realize that the first batch of birthday texts would probably stop there.  The post-reality Somervilles weren’t known to be morning birds, and it was still far too early in Los Angeles for her father to be awake.

So she walked to the restaurant, kicking up the dirt and dust as she made her way across the field, her actual outfit in a garment bag slung over her shoulder.

When she pushed open the back door leading to the kitchen, she was shocked to find herself face to face with Warner.  She gasped, clapping her hands together with happiness for the surprise, giddy that he had come back early enough to celebrate her birthday.

But she quickly realized that wasn’t the case.  Warner hadn’t even noticed her coming in.  Instead, he was barking orders at the kitchen staff, marching in and out of the room.  Rye looked for Sam, hoping for clues as to what was going on.

But he wasn’t there.

All she saw was a frantic kitchen staff, struggling to do the prep work for the day.

“What’s going on?” Rye asked, grabbing Martin, one of the line chefs.

“Sam quit,” Martin replied.  “No two weeks no nothing.”

“What?” Rye blinked.  “When?”

“In the middle of dinner last night,” he said.  “No one told you?”

“Rye!” her father bellowed, running at her.  “Did you know about this?”

“About Sam?” Rye stammered.  “I just found out now!”

“That piece of shit told me that he told you everything last week,” he said, the veins in his forehead bulging.  “And you’re telling me that he didn’t mention that he was planning on quitting?”

“I had no idea!” Rye insisted, panicked.

“What exactly did he tell you then, huh?” Warner asked, grabbing Rye by the arm and pulling her out to the back of the restaurant.  “Tell me exactly what he said to you.”

“He told me that you were selling the restaurant,” Rye said.  “I told him that I didn’t think it was true and he said there was only room for one of us.”

“And you let him quit for you?” Warner spat.  “What were you thinking?”

“I never let him quit!” Rye said.  “I didn’t even know… I didn’t know that this was actually happening, I didn’t believe him.”  She put her hand to her throat, trying to catch her breath.  She shook her head, suddenly realizing that it was all true.  “So you’re really selling the diner?”

“Of course I am!” he yelled.  “What good is it doing us just sitting here in the middle of nowhere?”

“Oh,” Rye said before sucking in a deep breath.

“Well I guess you’re happy then,” Warner laughed bitterly.  “Because Sam was as much of the package as the Somerville name and we were counting on the Richmond-Gregory sale to bail our asses out.  Now we’re stuck with this damn thing!”

“We’re not
stuck
with it,” Rye said.  “Look at all the changes we’ve made already, this restaurant is going to do well whether or not we have Sam or the restaurant group and it’s brought our whole family back together.”

“That just shows how naïve you really are, Rye.  If you paid attention to anything else but making this into your idealistic little dream restaurant, you’d know that we can’t sustain these numbers after our first month.  We don’t exactly have Richmond-Gregory money to play with.”

“So you had this planned from the beginning?” Rye asked.  “Since you brought Sam in and everything… you knew you were going to sell?”

“Why is that such a surprise to you,” Warner spat.  “Did you really think I would let you stay up here and play house with the diner forever?”

Rye nodded, taking in another deep breath before slowly turning away from her father and walking back towards the house.

“And don’t expect to stay
there
much longer either,” Warner called out to her.  “If the restaurant goes down, it’s all going down.”  Rye ignored him, making her walk back home.

She was in a state of shock, even though she knew she shouldn’t be.  There were warning signs everywhere, even in Rye’s subconscious that knew she shouldn’t fall for her family’s tricks anymore.  But she wanted so much to believe that she had put logic aside, even at the expense of Sam.

As she approached her front door, she realized she had no idea what she was going to do now.  She figured she’d pack up a quick overnight bag and take a train down to see Jeremy, to tell him what happened.  It was then that she noticed her mailbox slightly ajar and a pale green envelope sticking out of it.  She must have missed it on her way out before.

Rye pulled the envelope out, recognizing the handwriting on the front to be Sam’s.  She opened the envelope, pulling out a colorful card with illustrations of farm animals in birthday hats on the front.

Happy Birthday,
it read. 
I miss you already.

He didn’t sign the card, as if he were confident that Rye would assume it was from him.  She smiled.

Rye went into the house, grabbing her overnight bag and stuffing it.  She still planned on going to the city, but Jeremy would have to wait.  She had to find Sam first.  There was a much-needed apology that she had to make.