Ruined By My Stepbrother novel · Chapter 5 of 32

Chapter 5: The Apology Scallops

"Let her send someone," I said.

I did it that night.

Frankie found a gold frame at the thrift shop on Washington Street for six dollars.

I printed the review on the office printer, all of it, every line.

"Low Tide Goes Out."

I hung it by the front door, right where people wait for their table.

Under it, Frankie stuck a little card in her neatest handwriting.

"We read it too. Come taste the apology."

Barrett watched me level the frame with my thumb.

"You're really doing this," he said.

"You wrote it. I'm just decorating with it."

On Tuesday I hired a dishwasher, a college kid home for the summer, skinny and polite, who said "yes, Chef" like he meant it.

On Wednesday a Cape May food account with forty thousand followers walked in for lunch.

The woman who ran it took one look at the frame and laughed out loud.

She ordered the apology scallops.

She took eleven photos of them and posted the frame and the plate side by side.

"The chef who got one star from Cold Plate just put his insult on her menu at full price. And they're the best scallops I've had this year."

By Wednesday night the phone wouldn't stop ringing.

By Thursday morning Saturday was booked solid, both turns, with a waitlist.

Frankie read the bookings off the screen.

"Seventy-two covers and twenty on the list. The Apology is the most-ordered thing on the book."

"Don't call it the Apology."

"Everybody's calling it the Apology."

Barrett was at the stove behind us, browning butter.

"It's a good name," he said.

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