My Holiday Bonus Was a $5 Million IOU! I Quit and Their Company Collapsed novel · Chapter 22 of 24
Chapter 22: The Dinner
He took me to a restaurant that was closed.
It was a narrow place on King Street with eight tables and a yellow door.
The man who owned it had once worked the line beside Ansel in Chicago.
The owner let us in, handed Ansel a key, and left without a word.
"What is this?" I asked.
"Dinner," Ansel said. "I'm cooking."
He took off his coat and rolled his sleeves up past the burn scar.
Then he tied on an apron.
I sat on a stool at the pass and watched him work.
He made the roast chicken from my first Sunday Table video, the one with forty thousand views and a terrible thumbnail.
He had learned it from the screen, he said, over three winters, eight or nine times.
"Why?"
"Because it was the only way I could think of to be in the room."
The skin came out crisp and the meat came out soft, and I ate more than I meant to.
When the plates were empty he came around the pass and stood in front of me with his hands at his sides.
"I owe you something," he said. "I'd like to say it standing up."
"Ansel."
"I wrote you three letters, and then I stopped. The company told me you declined meetings, and I took it. I never once picked up a phone. I renewed every January and signed the check and didn't ask to hear it from you." His jaw worked. "I told myself a woman that cold was not for me. It was easier than finding out."
"You said that to me on the phone."
"I know. I'm saying it to your face."
He knelt on the tile, there at the end of the pass, so his eyes were level with mine.
Keep reading free with an account. Start My Holiday Bonus Was a $5 Million IOU! I Quit and Their Company Collapsed from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 21 · All chapters · Chapter 23 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend