Blue Plaid

Team

In which Tyson learns he has a protective side.

The restaurant was still dark when I stepped through the back door. Unsurprising, though, as I was a half hour early for my shift.

I had a ritual. I always came in early to clean the knives and set out the pots and pans. By no means was I the head chef of this restaurant, but I liked to feel as though I was in charge of something; as though something belonged to me, so I made a little work station for myself on the back stove.

I did this at home as well: sang to myself as cleaned the tools I would soon be using. And Stella could make fun of me all she wanted, but I knew she understood because one time I caught her humming along as she flipped through a magazine, waiting for me to finish cooking dinner.

We’d settled into kind of a routine, Stella, Cooper, and I. She generally had photoshoots during the days and I worked night shifts, which was actually perfect. On the rare occasion that one of had a day off, we’d take the much needed break to go see other people.

This separation worked for us because it gave us a chance to keep some semblance of normalcy in our lives. My friends knew about Cooper, but the subject didn’t come up much. They had never actually met him.

I assumed Stella was much the same. Of course, her agent knew the details in case it was ever mentioned in an interview or became a problem with her agency, but thus far, that didn’t seem to be a problem.

We’d learned to tolerate each other over the past couple months, Stella and I. This wasn’t difficult, seeing as we barely saw each other as it was. But we’d bonded over the moments we did spend together, laughing and cheering when Cooper reached the stage where we could hold him up by his arms and he’d walk tentatively across the room. We were bracing ourselves for the day he’d be able to properly walk, as we knew things would never be the same.

I smiled to myself at the thought as other assistant chefs and the wait staff began to wander into the kitchen.

“Early as usual, Kingsley.”

Looking up, my smile widened at Daniella Jaffrey, a waitress who began working at the restaurant just a few months before me. A combination of complaining about the tyrant head chef and trading humorous stories about our wild university days had made us close friends.

“Hey, Dani,” I greeted. “Late as usual.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m not late. Not everybody likes getting here while the kitchen’s still dark and creepy.”

“What can I say,” I shrugged and laughed. “I enjoy spooky places.”

She raised her eyebrows and lowered her voice. “Is that why you like my building so much?”

“Could be,” I nodded. “I don’t know if I thanked you, by the way. So thanks for telling me about that open space.”

“No problem,” she replied. “Why’d you move, anyway? You seemed to like your old place just fine.”

I hesitated. When I’d originally told Dani that I wanted to move, I hadn’t told her the reason. And she still had yet to discover that I was currently living with a supermodel and a baby. Probably because that sounded like the plot of a comedy show.

Or because my relationship with Dani was somewhat complicated. Considering we’d slept together multiple times, usually when we were both entirely too intoxicated, I couldn’t really say we were just friends. But Dani had also told me blatantly at the start of our little sessions that she had no interest in being in a relationship with me.

It certainly wasn’t an arrangement I was used to, but it actually seemed to be working out fairly well, all things considered.

I shrugged when I found her staring at me because I still hadn’t answered the question. “Just needed a change.”

She looked at me suspiciously, but didn’t say anything, because into the kitchen walked the restaurant’s head chef.

Anyone remotely interested in the culinary arts had heard of Carlo Veretta. He was already quite famous in Europe for his unique take on Italian cooking when he decided to open a restaurant in New York. Of course, I’d jumped on the opportunity to work under him and after starting as the assistant to a chef who basically just boiled things, I’d worked my way up to becoming Carlo’s fifth assistant, which meant that sometimes he gave me looks as though he vaguely recognized me.

Still, I was honored and I’d learned loads in the time I’d worked here. I planned on taking all of that knowledge with me when I eventually saved up enough money to open my own restaurant.

Carlo clapped his hands together to get our attention and the kitchen went quiet. He raised his fingers to twirl his very excellent white moustache and I instinctively rubbed my index finger over the light stubble on my upper lip that had taken a week and half to grow. I’d get there someday.

“Alright, my little minions,” Carlo spoke, his thick accent echoing off the pots and pans, “As always, I expect perfection. Get to work.”

Dani waved goodbye, slipping out to wait for customers to arrive and with that, the symphony began. The sounds of the kitchen were so soothing. Meat sizzling in pans, vegetables being chopped, pasta boiling, pots and pans clanging, whisks tinkering against bowls. These were the sounds which made me completely content.

About an hour and half after the restaurant opened for dinner, Dani skipped into the kitchen, absolutely buzzing with excitement as she dropped off the latest set of orders.

“Hey, Kingsley,” she called out, “You’ll never guess who’s seated in my section.”

I looked up from where I was stirring spaghetti as it was boiling and smiled. As one of the most well-known Italian restaurants in the New York City area, Pavarotti’s was a celebrity hot spot. Seeing as I spent the majority of my time in the kitchen, I missed out on seeing all the famous people, so Dani made it a point to tell me about all of her celebrity sightings.

“Who?” I asked, genuinely intrigued.

“Stella St. Clare.”

I froze, my fingers tightening around the wooden spoon. That was strange, especially since Stella was meant to be watching Cooper at this very moment.

“She’s this model and I absolutely love her,” Dani gushed and I nodded along as though I wasn’t currently living with and raising a child with the woman she was talking about, “She makes me want to buy everything she’s photographed in.” Her volume lowered slightly; as though she was about to reveal some huge secret. “Did you know she has a kid?”

Well that answered the question about Cooper.

I cleared my throat and shook my head, taking the pot off the stove and draining the spaghetti in a nearby sink. “I didn’t know that. Interesting.”

“I think she adopted, though, cause the boy looks nothing like her or the dad.”

I almost sent spaghetti flying all over the kitchen floor because I whipped around so fast. “The dad?”

Dani shot me a confused look but nodded. “Yeah. Or at least I assume the guy she’s with is the father. I know I’d want him to father my children.”

I pretended I didn’t hear her last comment.

“You look a little flustered, Kingsley, are you alright?” Dani asked as she grabbed the ready entrees from the counter and turned to leave.

“Just the steam from the spaghetti,” I replied, waving her out.

As I passed the cooked pasta to the next assistant chef to prepare the next section of the chicken parmesan and refilled the pot with water, I tried not to think about who Stella could possibly be on a date with. Not that it was a date. Because if it was a date, she wouldn’t have brought Cooper along. Unless she was so far into this relationship that this guy was already spending time with Cooper.

But that couldn’t be the case. Surely, if Stella were in a serious relationship, she would have told me. We were friends after all. Or maybe I’d just deluded myself into thinking that because we’d actually been able to tone down the bickering for the past few weeks.

My internal monologue didn’t last long because Dani returned to the kitchen about ten minutes later and gave me an extremely confused look as she stuck the orders where they were meant to go.

“Tyson,” she said slowly, “Stella St. Clare is asking for you.”

Carlo, who happened to be standing nearby, shot me a look that said ‘how the hell do you know someone famous?’ before nodding to give me permission to leave the kitchen, which under normal circumstances could only be done on threat of unemployment.

I swept my hat off my head and stuck in the back pocket of my pants as I made my way out of the kitchen, acutely aware that everybody watching me leave was questioning what relationship I could possibly have with a supermodel.

Scanning the crowded main floor, I spotted Stella at a table to the side, chatting merrily to the person across from her while Cooper bounced in his high chair between them. I studied the man in question as I approached. He looked to be in his early twenties with dark brown hair, high cheekbones, a sharp jawline, and a smile that made it look like he knew something he didn’t want to tell you.

I walked around to stand between Stella and Cooper, clearing my throat when I arrived.

“Hey,” Stella smiled brightly, sitting up a little straighter.

I leaned down to kiss Cooper affectionately on the top of the head before shifting my gaze between Stella and the mystery guy. “Hey. What are you doing here?”

“We came to eat,” Stella said as though that answered the question she knew I was really asking.

I sent her a glare, but before I could respond, mystery man spoke up.

“Stella said that you worked here and I’d always wanted to try it, so we thought we’d come out.”

I blinked in response. His eyes were alarming green. I didn’t trust them. Nonetheless, I was determined not to give Stella another excuse to call me a douchebag, so I extended my hand and smiled politely. “I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Tyson.”

He smiled widely in return and shook my hand firmly. “Alex. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Laughing slightly as I dropped my hand to the side, I glanced toward Stella, who looked far too impressed that I wasn’t being rude. “If Stella’s the one telling you things, it’s more than likely that none of it is true.”

“It’s all good, I promise,” Alex chuckled. “Stella says you’re an incredible cook, so I’m excited for our food to come.”

My eyebrows shot up in surprise and I looked at Stella who scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, Kingsley. I compliment your cooking all the time.”

That was actually true. She’d practically moaned with pleasure the last time she’d eaten my blueberry pancakes.

“I know,” I smirked. “It’s just nice to know that you tell other people about it as well.”

The arrival of their food via Dani interrupted the conversation and I waited until their plates were settled in front of them to try and make my exit. Unfortunately, Dani’s excitement about Stella’s presence stopped that from happening.

“So, Tyson,” Dani called out, “How come you never told me you knew Stella St. Clare?”

Before I could respond, Stella spoke, looking up at me. “Oh, are you guys friends?”

At this point, the truth about everything seemed like the best way to go, so I nodded. “Yeah. Stella, this is my friend Dani. Dani, this is Stella.”

“Dani?” Stella’s head quickly turned to face Dani and a wide smile lit her face. “Tyson’s told me about you!”

“He has?” Dani asked warily, echoing my thoughts as I racked my brain for a time I would have ever talked to Stella about someone I sometimes had s*x with.

Stella nodded excitedly. “Yes, you’re the one who lives in the same building as us. You told Tyson about the open apartment.”

Oh s**t.

That’s right. I had mentioned Dani lived there.

Dani’s eyes widened and her gaze lifted to meet mine in a questioning glare. “You and Tyson live together?”

Another nod from Stella, this time accompanied with her reaching out and cupping Cooper’s cheek affectionately. “Yep. Me, Ty, and Cooper.”

She took a minute to process that information before nodding quickly and stretching her lips into a friendly smile. “That’s fantastic. Well, you guys enjoy your meals and let me know if there’s anything else you need.”

With that she turned and walked briskly to another table. Wincing, I shot a glare down to Stella.

“What?” she replied innocently, though in this case it might actually have been genuine. The longer she stared at my guilty expression, the quicker she realized what had just happened and her eyes widened in horror. “Oh, are you two…I’m sorry, I didn’t realize. I figured you’d tell me if you were seeing someone.”

I was about to respond with some snarky remark of how I expected the same from her, but I could practically feel Carlo becoming impatient from within the kitchen, so I waved it off, deciding we’d sort this all out when I got home.

“Hope you like the food,” I said quietly, kissing Cooper one more time before hurrying back to the kitchen.

I knew had some major explaining to do to Dani, so when the restaurant closed, I waited for her in the back alley. She stepped out with her hoodie pulled over her hair and nearly jumped when I got in her way.

“For f**k’s sake, Ty,” she gasped for air, “Warn a girl next time.”

“Sorry,” I replied, shoving my hands in the pockets of my jeans. “I feel like we need to talk.”

“About what?” she raised an eyebrow.

I furrowed my brow, not sure if she was serious or being sarcastic. “About Stella. And Cooper.”

She laughed, but it didn’t sound joyful in the slightest. “Please, Ty. It’s not like I’m all broken hearted to find out that I was your side piece. We were hardly having some great love affair. I told you I had no interest in being your girlfriend. You could have at least told me you had a son, though.”

“It’s not like that, though,” I insisted. “I wasn’t cheating on anybody. Stella and I aren’t together. And Cooper…well, that’s a complicated story, but the shortened version is that I’m looking after him.”

“And Stella?”

“She looks after him, too,” I replied. “We’re raising him together.”

Dani let out a low whistle. “s**t, Ty. Your life is all kinds of complicated.”

“I know,” I laughed bitterly. “Why do you think I didn’t tell you? Like you said, things between us were never serious. I felt like it was simpler for everyone if I didn’t get you involved.”

“I get that,” she admitted. “But we’re still friends. You can still tell me things.”

I smiled ruefully as we walked side by side out of the alley and began to five block trek back to our building. “Good to know.”

We walked in silence for a couple minutes before Dani spoke again.

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to,” she said slowly, “But how did all of this happen? How did you end up looking after a child?”

Eventually, I would have to tell her anyway. I supposed now was a good a time as any, but I went for the condensed version.

“Basically, Cooper was the son of my best friend and Stella’s best friend. They passed away in a car accident a couple of months ago and they wanted Stella and I to raise him if anything ever happened to them.”

There was silence and when I looked over, I could tell she was struggling for words. I spoke again to save her from having to say the right thing.

“It’s alright,” I sighed. “I don’t really want to talk about it anyway.”

Nodding, we walked a few more minutes in silence and then she smiled at me cheekily. “Stella St. Clare, though. You could definitely do worse.”

“You’re only saying that because you don’t know her,” I chuckled.

Dani rolled her eyes. “She can’t be that bad. You’re probably just being difficult.”

“Wow,” I said, jokingly offended. “You two would get along so well.” She shot me a pointed glare and I shrugged. “Don’t get me wrong, Stella’s amazing with Cooper. It’s just that in terms of personality, we’re so completely different.”

“I’m sure you two will learn to play nice.”

“We’re working on it,” I smiled wryly, holding open the door of our building when we arrived.

We decided to use the stairs and when we came to her floor, which was two below mine and Stella’s, I reached out a hand and squeezed her palm gratefully. “Thanks for being so understanding, Dani. I know all of this was kind of sprung on you.”

She shrugged and waved off my gratitude as she dug her key from her bag. “That’s what friends are for. But this doesn’t mean I’m offering to babysit.”

“Noted,” I laughed. “Goodnight, Dani.”

She waved goodbye and I turned to climb the next two flights of stairs. When I pushed open the door to my flat, I found it dark, save for the light from the television. Stella was lying on the couch, fast asleep beneath the soft green blanket she normally kept at the end of her bed.

I knew better than to let her sleep the whole night there because she would wake up grumpy and sore and that wouldn’t end well for anybody. Placing my bag on the kitchen counter, I padded towards the couch, leaning over her to gently shake her awake.

Her eyes fluttered open slowly and she rubbed her cheeks with her palms as she sat up, her voice groggy as she spoke. “Hey. How was the rest of your shift?”

She rose slowly and crossed her legs beneath the blanket, so I sunk down onto the edge of the table in front of her and watched as she shook the blanket so it lay smoothly across her lap.

I studied her for a moment. Stella was always beautiful. Whether she was wearing high fashion clothes or jeans and a t-shirt, she managed to look damn good without trying. It was irritating as hell that even now, wearing an oversized hoodie with her hair pulled back into a messy ponytail, she still looked stunning.

I hadn’t been lying when I told her that her modeling was magical. Watching her from the side of that photoshoot had been amazing. Despite the fact that there were other models in the pictures, she owned that room. It was hard not to pay attention to only her.

Still, there was something almost vulnerable about her now. Not that I doubted her ability to hold her own if we were to break out into a battle of wits. Designer stilettos or not, Stella knew how to stand her ground.

I rested my forearms on my thighs and leaned forward as I answered her question. “It was alright. Busy. How was the rest of your date?”

The corners of her lips quirked upwards into a slight smirk. “Fine…” She paused, her questioning gaze flicking over me. “Just say whatever it is you want to say.”

Right down to business. Alright then. “Stella, don’t you think you should have run this Alex guy by me?”

“Excuse me?” she scoffed.

“Come on, Stel,” I continued. “You’re at the point in your relationship with this guy that he’s alright with you bringing Cooper on dates with you, yet I haven’t even met him. Don’t you find that strange?”

She blinked, looking at me as though I was speaking an entirely different language. “I’m confused as to what’s going on here? Why does my relationship with Alex bother you so much? Are you jealous?”

I nearly laughed at the thought, but managed to reign it in. “No, just protective. There’s a difference. For all I know, this guy is some sociopathic serial killer.”

She rolled her eyes. “Can’t you just trust that I’m a good judge of character?”

“Are you, though?” I shot back. “Because I distinctly remember the date you brought to Eric and Georgia’s wedding sneaking the silver cutlery into his coat pocket.”

“So you have one example,” she replied, crossing her arms over her chest.

“I can think of a few more, if you’d like,” I offered, mentally scanning through the list of Stella’s exes.

She glowered at me. “This entire conversation is so hypocritical because you didn’t tell me about Dani either.”

“But Dani hadn’t even met Cooper,” I protested. “Besides, we’re not in a relationship.”

That stopped Stella on her tracks. The tension in the room slowly dissipated. We lowered the volume of our voices and relaxed our postures as the conversation continued.

“You’re not?” Stella asked quietly. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she almost sounded relieved.

I shook my head. “We’re just friends…who occasionally have sex.”

Her eyes widened and then she burst out laughing. “Well, look at you. I’m impressed, Kingsley.”

“What does that mean?” I asked, though I couldn’t help but laugh as well.

She shrugged. “I guess I never imagined you as the casual friends with benefits kind of guy. Maybe the love em and leave em and definitely the long term commitment type, but never the in between.”

 “As much as I’m enjoying this analysis of my s*x life, can we talk about something else?” I begged.

Her laughter subsided and she grinned at me for a moment before biting her bottom lip and glancing at me awkwardly from beneath her eyelashes. “As long as we’re coming clean, I guess I should tell you that I’m not dating Alex. We’re just friends as well. He’s actually been in a relationship for the past three years.”

I blinked. “Why didn’t you just say that from the start?”

She shot me a small smile. “Because I’m stubborn. And because it’s us.”

Oddly, despite the vagueness of that answer, it made sense.

“You are right, though,” she continued, leaning forward and touching my knee lightly. “Although my love life is none of your business, who Cooper spends his time with is. In the future, I’ll make sure you meet anybody that I decide to introduce to him first.”

I nodded in agreement. “And I’ll do the same.”

There was a short period of silence and then Stella smiled brightly, shaking her head in disbelief. “Look at us. We just had an adult conversation that led to an adult compromise.”

“And it only took a minimal amount of lying and shouting to get us there,” I added wryly.

She laughed quietly. “Nobody’s perfect.”

“I’m sorry if I was a bit irrational about Alex,” I said, looking at her directly. “But we’re a team, Stella.”

“We are?” she quirked an eyebrow.

I nodded swiftly. “Yes. And we may have relationships and maybe someday one or both of us will end up married. Who knows? The future is so uncertain. All I know is that you and I are in this together and we’re in it forever. Other people may come and go, but we always need to be on the same team.”

Sitting up a little straighter, she held out a hand and looked me square in the eye. “Deal.”

Lifting one side of my mouth into a smile, I slipped my palm against hers and shook her hand firmly, feeling as though this was the beginning of something good.  “Deal.”