Steamed

for crappy pay and is trying to get back at us because we’re salaried. It’s a good crew back there, though, so I can’t picture one of them tossing dead mice around. But that’s the least of my problems.”
    “Why? What else?”
    Josh sat down next to me on an empty barstool and took a drink from my glass. “I overheard Maddie talking to Brian.” He cleared his throat and looked at me. “She told him the executive chef job would eventually be his.”
    “What?” I said in disbelief. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Look around. With a full restaurant like this, she couldn’t possibly be thinking of firing you.”
    “That’s what I thought. She’d pretty much told me this job was mine as long as I wanted.” Although Josh stayed pretty calm, I could tell he was furious. And I couldn’t blame him.
    “Josh, you must’ve misunderstood her. Just wait until tomorrow and talk to Madeline then. There’s no way she’d give Brian your job. Look,” I said holding out the rave review. “She wanted me to show you this.”
    Josh scanned the paper. “Well, it doesn’t seem to matter, does it,” he said sourly.
    “Have you asked Brian about it?”
    “No, but it would explain why he’s in such a good mood. I guess all his flirting paid off. And she wouldn’t have to pay him my salary, so he’d cost her less money. Not that I make that much, but I’m making better money here than I have before. I can’t even be mad at Brian. It’s not his fault. You do what you have to to get ahead. But I’m glad he’s off tomorrow. I don’t want to see him.” Josh shrugged and took another drink of my wine. “Look, I’m beat, and I can’t wait to get out of here, but I have to finish up in the kitchen first. If Brian is going to steal my job, he might as well close up tonight. I want to go downstairs and clean up and recheck the coolers. Can you wait another hour or so?”
    “Of course. Just don’t try to talk to Madeline tonight, okay?”
    Josh nodded. “I know, I know. I’d probably kill her if I tried. Oh, crap, I didn’t mean that. Probably not something I should go around saying.” Josh ran his hands through his hair and took a deep breath. “Why don’t you come sit over by the kitchen? I’ll make you something to eat, and then you can talk to Brian while I finish up, okay? I’ve got a great mussel risotto tonight I ran as a special. Sound good?”
    I nodded a definite yes and followed him to the counter by the beautiful open kitchen.
    Brian was in the middle of plating Josh’s fabulous egg rolls. Josh had trained him well: Brian took great care in decorating the dish with sauces from squirt bottles.
    “Brian, Chloe’s going to sit up here while I finish up downstairs, okay?” Josh said flatly.
    “You bet. Good to see you again,” Brian said, smiling as he looked up from the plate. “You hungry?”
    “I’m getting her some risotto,” Josh answered for me. “You’ll love it,” Brian assured me.
    A few minutes later, I was spooning up the creamy rice dish, which was, of course, phenomenal. The dinner rush was finally dying down, and Brian moved near me as he wiped down the counters.
    “Josh is in a pissy mood tonight, huh? You’re probably the best thing for him right now.”
    “Yeah, I heard about the health inspector.”
    “You should have seen Josh earlier. After the inspector left, Josh was screaming and swearing in the back. Good thing it was before we opened, or the customers would’ve heard him. He threw a bunch of pans across the room, and he was having a fit until Maddie walked in and told him to cut it out.” Brian laughed. “She was so angry because she’d just bought a bunch of new cookware for the kitchen, and she was afraid he was going to break all of it.”
    This didn’t sound like the Josh I’d known for the past few weeks. But he was a chef dedicated to his kitchen—I knew that much.
    Brian kept on wiping the counter. “I was just glad she didn’t fire him for acting like such an ass. I mean, Josh was lucky enough to get this job. I didn’t want him to blow it.” Lucky?
    “What do you mean he was lucky to get this job?” I asked Brian.
    “Well,” Brian said as he leaned closer to me, “you probably know about Josh getting fired from the Langley Hotel? And from Spoons?”
    I had no idea what Brian was talking about. Josh had said that he’d hopped around a bit before settling down at Magellan, but he never said he’d been fired. Twice.
    Brian