Chapter 1

The night my fiancé won Chef of the Year, he stood in front of every reporter in the room and announced he was closing the restaurant we'd run together for ten years.

A journalist asked whether he'd discussed the decision with me first.

Joseph James just smiled.

"She only handles operations. She's an employee. The professional calls are the owner's to make."

After it broke up, he handed me his phone with an irate investor already on the line.

"I only handle my own field. You deal with the rest."

I didn't take it.

Ten years ago, we made a promise: when he won Chef of the Year, we'd open that bottle in the wine cellar together.

And start our new life, the two of us.

Tonight, the ten-year promise had come due.

Except now I was an employee.

Some bad jobs, you should have quit long ago.

...

When the ceremony ended, Joseph was still backstage giving interviews.

I sat in the lounge waiting for him, the wine-cellar key clenched in my hand the whole time.

It was an old key.

Ten years ago, when the first place had just opened, we'd worked until two in the morning and cleared barely seven hundred dollars.

He took the day's earnings and insisted on buying a very expensive bottle of wine.

I told him he was out of his mind.

He wouldn't let go of the box.

"When I win Chef of the Year someday, we'll drink it."

The restaurant moved three times after that.

The bottle moved three times with it.

Before I left tonight, I made a point of going to look at it.

Still there.

At eleven-twenty, Joseph finally came back, Jade Fox at his side.

Three years ago, Jade was still an apprentice.

She had a little talent, and she had a real gift for telling Joseph what he wanted to hear.

Joseph was always praising her instincts, and so she became the assistant who never left his side.

Every time I came to Joseph with a cost sheet, she'd stand there and laugh.

"Let big sis handle all that. A man like Joseph shouldn't be chained to a ledger."

Jade had her arm looped through Joseph's, and let go the moment she saw me.

"Oh, you're still here?"

Joseph pulled off his suit jacket and handed it to her.

"Did Steve and the others get hold of you? Call them back."

He scrolled through a few messages to show me.

All of them investors, asking what happens now that we're closing.

I didn't take the phone.

"Why the sudden closure?"

Joseph finally looked up.

"It's not sudden. I've thought about it for a long time."

I tightened my grip on the key.

"Then why is it that I, the fiancée, knew nothing about it?"

He frowned.

"Jade brought it up a while ago. I thought she had a point."

"Watching costs, table turnover, bad reviews all day. What's the point of any of that?"

Jade rushed to explain.

"Don't get the wrong idea. I only mentioned it to Joseph a few times, in passing."

"I just felt he should be making something he actually loves."

Joseph nodded.

"The new place will only take a dozen-odd guests a day. No chasing ratings. No bending to what customers want to taste."

I asked, "And the members we have now? The investors? The suppliers?"

"That's exactly why I'm asking you."

He said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"That's your job."

I looked down at the key.

"And the new place?"

"I handle the menu, Jade handles the creative side. You still do operations."

Then he added one more thing.

"It's better this way. You don't understand kitchens. Forcing yourself into the craft only wears you out."

As if worried I'd mind, Jade said with a smile, "I could never take your spot."

Joseph checked the time.

"All right, everyone's waiting."

I looked up.

"Waiting for what?"

Jade blinked.

"To drink, of course."

She pointed toward the room.

"Joseph opened that old bottle from the cellar."

That seemed to jog something in Joseph.

"Oh. That was the one we said we'd drink when I won an award, wasn't it?"

He gave a small laugh.

"Well, isn't that perfect. I won tonight, so everyone celebrates together."

I couldn't let it go.

"Who opened it?"

He said, "Jade saw it was a good year and wanted a taste."

The corner of Jade's mouth curved, and she gave the glass in her hand a little swirl.

"There's still a bit left inside. I saved some for you."

Joseph was already losing patience.

"It's just a bottle of wine. Who are you throwing that face at?"

I set the key on the table and turned to leave.

Joseph frowned. "Where are you going?"

"Home."

"What about the investors?"

"Deal with them yourself."

Before the door closed, I heard Jade ask under her breath, "Joseph, is she mad?"

Joseph answered fast.

"It's fine. She'll handle it."

On the way home, the seafood supplier messaged to confirm the order.

I replied: "Talk to Joseph. He's the boss."