Cockney: A Stepbrother Romance (29 page)

He laughs and an icy chill starts to creep up my back. 

“You think I don’t know about the two of
you
fuckin’ around like a couple of disgraceful perverts!”

“Barney!” Laura’s face looks aghast, as she darts her wine-soaked eyes back and forth between Chloe and myself. Neither of us says a word, and suddenly her whole face is falling; “
Chloe?
”

“It’s
vile
is wot it is!” Barney spits, shaking his head at the two of us.

“Watch it, dad,” I say quietly. My fists are clenching at my side, and this time, I can feel Marco’s hands just let go of my arms as he steps away. 

“Oh what, protecting your little
girlfriend
Ollie?
Standing up
are we for your sick little perverted-”

Barney goes reeling backwards as my fist connects with his jaw, but then he’s roaring as he rushes right at me. We go staggering into stacks of clean plates, smashing them to floor with a crash. I’m shoving my dad off of me, grunting as his fist connects with my gut before suddenly we’re crashing right past Laura, right past an almost screaming Ian, and
right out the fucking door into the dining room.

Barney gets one more hit in before I shove him off, and then there’s Ian and Marco, grabbing him by the arms and hauling him away from me.

The whole fucking room is
dead quiet
.

The whole dining room, I feel I should add,
including
the food critic from the
Times.

Fuck. Fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck-FUCK.

Barney wrestles out of the arms holding him back, spitting at me and straightening his collar. He glances around the dining room at the staring eyes, the cellphone cameras, and the white face of the critic sitting by himself in the corner. He turns back to me, shaking his head, “Ollie, you’re
fired
.” 

He jerks his chin at me, “G
et out.
” 

“
Gladly
,” I mutter, getting to my feet. I turn towards Chloe, who’s standing there in the kitchen doorway with tears in her eyes. And I want to go to her, I want to grab her and tell her it’s fine.

But I can’t right now.

Right now, I just need to
get the fuck out
of here.

I turn and storm silently through the dining room, dropping my apron by the host stand, and walking right out the front door into the chilly London night.

I’m running through the restaurant before I can even stop myself, ignoring my mother, and Barney, and the staring eyes of the dining room full of scandalized guests as I follow Oliver out through the front door.

There’s a brief moment of zen as I stumble into the street where I realize that it’s the first time I’ve actually passed through the doors on
this
side of the building, and the fact that I’m leaving through them almost seems darkly poetic.

Oliver jerks his head around when he hears me and shrugs, “Well, what do you think he’ll give us?”

“
Huh?!
”

He grins. “The reviewer. ‘Three stars; would come back for the mozzarella and pine nut salad appetizer and the ring-side seats again’?” 

He winks and me as I walk towards him, shaking my head, “You don’t think you’re being a
little
bit too cavalier about what just happened?”

Oliver shrugs again, and for some reason, it irks me this time. “Eh, it is what it is. What are you gonna do, right?”

“No,
Oliver
do you
not get
how big of a deal that was?” And suddenly, in my head, I’m ashamed to say that it’s not the knock-down fight Oliver’s just had with his own father in the middle of the restaurant, it’s the words his father barked at the two of us back in the kitchen before that has me reeling. 

“
You think I don’t know about the two of you fuckin’ around like a couple of fuckin’ perverts!”

It’s the words that slice through my heart, and slice away all the bullshit padding I’ve been wrapping around myself to protect me from what I’ve been trying to avoid thinking about. That what Oliver and I are doing is
wrong. So
very wrong. 

“It’s vile is wot it is!”

And now
everyone
knows it. Everyone we work with, half the strangers in that dining room;
MY MOTHER.

I shake my head, trying to stop the sting of shame and tears that threatens to run down my cheeks at any second.

“Hey,
hey!
’ Oliver’s arms go around me, and even though I
know
we shouldn’t be doing this - even though I know that it’s now
far
past
time to stop this and put an end to this whole thing, I let him bring me in.

“Oy,” he whispers, tilting my chin up, “It’s all going to be okay, luv.” 

And then he’s kissing me, and for one second in time, everything else drops away. For one second, as the wind whips around us on that cold, cobblestone street by the Thames, I can forget all of it and just
be there
in that moment with him.

“
Oh. My. GOD!
”

The sound of a voice in the night shatters the moment, and I jerk away from Oliver to see Delia standing outside the restaurant with her jaw dropped and her eyes wide, “Oh my
God,
it
is
true!” She squeals, wrinkling her nose at us, “That is
so
gross! You’re -
EW -
you’re his
sister!
” She sneers at me, shaking her head and making this horrified face at me.

“No, Delia-”

“Uh-uh,
ew
, stay away.” She starts to laugh, shaking her head at us, “
So gross
, Chloe;
so
gross.” She shakes her head again before turning and waltzing back into the restaurant. 

“Oh my God, Oliver-!” I turn, feeling the panic rising inside of me feeling the world start to rock a little under my feet. “She’s- she’s going to tell
everyone
what she just saw!”

Oliver rolls his eyes, “So?”

I stare at him. “
SO?!
”

“Yeah, so, Chloe,” he frowns at me. “Fuck her, and fuck ‘em all.” He takes my hand and pulls me close, “
This
is real; the rest of them can just-”

“
No, Oliver!
” I’m yelling then, shaking my head and feeling the tears start to well out of my eyes as he frowns at me. “No it’s not just
‘fuck them’
, this is MY LIFE! This is
real!
”

“Why are you so fucking upset right n-”

“
‘Fuck them’?
That’s
your answer to all this?!”

“Chloe!” His hands are on my shoulders as he leans in to my face, “I told you, it’s going to be fine, luv-”

“You
need
to stop calling me that,” I say sharply, shaking his hands off of me and stepping back.

“Chloe-”

“No,” I’m shaking my head, and I know I’m about to do something terrible; something I won’t be able to take back and something that’s going to really,
really
hurt. 

But I also know that it’s something I
have
to do.

“Chloe, let’s just-”

“I said NO OLIVER!” I scream, and this time, he shuts his mouth. “I- I can’t
do
this anymore. I can’t just
pretend
it’s all going to be fine while you just act like a tough-guy bad-ass about any
real
problems that hit your life!”

He narrows his eyes at me, “And just what the fuck is that suppose to-”

“It means
I’m done
, Oliver! It means I’m done with this
place
and this
city
, and
all of this!
” I’m crying then, because I know I’m making a mistake, even if it’s the only one I can make right now.

“And I’m done with us,” I say quietly, “Whatever
we
are.”

He’s opening his mouth, but I’m turning and running down the street before he can say a word.

Please don’t follow me, please.

And he doesn’t, and that may be the worst part.

I nod at Rajeev as he passes me another beer and tosses a quick smile my way. I’m not sure
why
of all the places in the entire city of London I come here, but here is where I am.

Familiarity maybe?

“So,” Rajeev says in his thick Indian accent as he raises an eyebrow at me, “Rough night in the kitchen?”

“You could say that.” I’m still wearing my chef’s whites, but he seems to take it in stride. I’m suddenly wondering how many times he’s seen Oliver in here in this very condition and dress before I quickly push that thought out of my mind.

Rajeev shrugs, “Life is complex sometimes.” He looks down, chopping something peppery smelling before glancing back up at me. “Okay, so take for example when I immigrated here from Bangladesh.” He shakes his head, “You know, it was a big change coming here from what I had there and setting up this curry house.”

I nod, taking a sip of my beer and giving him a sympathetic look, “Were you like a doctor or something back home?”

Rajeev frowns at me, “No, I owned a curry house,” he says sharply. He shakes his head, “Why does
everyone
always think I was a fucking doctor?”

“Sorry.”

He grins, “No worries. Anyways, it gets better.”